Bending the Arc

On October 7, 2025, St. Mary Springs Academy theology teacher, Mary Gentile, invited CSA Sisters and Associates to her classroom to attend any one of the presentations made to her four groups of students throughout the day on Sr. Dorothy Stang, SSNDdeN.

Sister Dorothy was an American-born Brazilian Catholic Religious Sister and missionary. She spent nearly four decades defending the rights of poor settlers as well as working to save the rainforest from powerful ranchers bent on destroying it for profit. She also developed over 30 schools in the Amazon with an education model that allowed graduates to go on teaching new students. Sister Dorothy was murdered in Anapu, Para in the Amazon Basin in 2005. You can read more about Dorothy here: https://www.sndohio.org/sister-dorothy 

The presentation was extra special as it was led by two men. One being David Stang, one of Dorothy’s younger brothers. His pride in his sister was undeniable. He spoke often about the value and power of women that often gets ignored in today’s culture. The other presenter was Jim McGarry, an educator currently in San Francisco, who served as the Director of the Sister Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement at Notre Dame de Namur University. Mr. McGarry has decades of experience teaching ethics, social justice, and Holocaust studies at Catholic high schools in the San Francisco Bay area.

Sister Patricia “Trish” Weidman, CSA attended a morning presentation with me. She also reflected on the passion of the presenters in the telling of Dorothy’s work for justice, the little food and shelter S. Dorothy and the indigenous peoples got by with, and a memory that has stuck with her - recalling that Sister Dorothy was holding her bible before being shot six times.

Sister Trish added to the conversation that her friend and classmate, Sister Maureen Courtney, CSA, was also shot and killed in 1990 during the Nicaraguan Sandinista-Contra war. She did not die a martyr as Sr. Dorothy did, but it does show the extent Catholic Sisters go to fulfill their gospel call and pursuit of justice. The students were attentive and reflective during the presentation.

Sister Josephine Goebel, CSA, also attended the morning presentation because she knew of S. Dorothy’s ministry and her death defending the people of the Amazon and their sufferings to preserve their life and the life of the diverse Amazon ecosystem. Hearing from Dorothy’s brother and viewing the film made S. Dorothy’s commitment and sacrifice more real for S. Josephine. She is glad the students are engaging in this learning and understanding the importance of preserving the delicate balance of Earth’s resources. Students were challenged to live simpler and to ask themselves what they need, not want.

CSA Associate, Renee Waters, attended an afternoon presentation and found it "informative and enlightening.” Renee was impressed with how much one woman with determination could accomplish at 70 years old besides!!
For me, a question that Dorothy often asked has settled in my head and heart. The question is: “Why is it that only humans have a right to live?” This of course refers to the massive loss of species in the rainforests due to a handful of global giants extracting billions of dollars of raw materials (trees and habitat) from it every year. I learned one mature mahogany tree has a value of about $100,000. I posed a question for the students to get them thinking how this massive deforestation affects them here in Fond du Lac, WI. Many could connect the magnitude of the amount of oxygen the Amazon rainforest releases and the carbon dioxide its trees store for our benefit, as well as the water they give to our universe. I hope it also planted the seeds for some environmental activists. I will be praying for them! It is a dangerous job.

The presentation included watching a film, created by students Sam Clements and James Newton (as videographer), both from England. This is the only footage of Dorothy ever captured, but it has been used in the making of several documentaries since. The film, in four parts, can be accessed from here: https://www.sndohio.org/sister-dorothy/the-student-the-nun-and-the-amazon-film