Wednesday’s RNS report features a two-part story about Dorothy Kazel, an American nun who was slain in El Salvador 25 years ago and whose influence continues today. David Briggs writes in part one: Forty-one-year-old Dorothy Kazel’s body was discovered in an unmarked grave in El Salvador after she and three other women missionaries were murdered there on Dec. 2, 1980. Twenty-five years later, her legacy continues to be felt by Catholics and advocates of the poor in Central America. Through tape recordings she sent home, letters, journals and interviews, a story with new details emerges of a vibrant nun who grew up in Cleveland, broke off her engagement to take a religious vocation, rode motorcycles as she worked among the poor and now is on a path to possible sainthood.

In part two, Briggs looks at her legacy: Bishop Anthony Pilla’s first official act as spiritual leader of the Diocese of Cleveland was to meet the body of slain missionary Dorothy Kazel at the Cleveland airport on Dec. 6, 1980. The brutal rape and murder of Kazel and three other missionaries evoked international outrage. But Pilla and Mother Bartholomew, the general superior of the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, stood alone at the end of the tarmac as a simple wooden coffin with Kazel’s name written on the side was wheeled toward them. It was a moment of meditation for Pilla: “Commitment to Jesus Christ is going to cost you.” It certainly cost Kazel, who 25 years after her death continues to influence Catholics and advocates of the poor. Some are pushing her candidacy for sainthood.