Precious Blood Women Attend SOA March 

Precious Blood women representing all three US communities were among the about 25,000 people who marched November 19 at the School of the Americas to call on the US government to close it. Participants came from all over the world including busloads of college students and a contingent of 1,000 grandmothers.. Among the events was a litany of the names of 800 men, women, children and infants who were slaughtered in their Nicaraguan village by soldiers trained at the SOA. S. Therese Anne Kiefer, ASC (third from right) described it as utter stillness among thousands of people; the only sound coming as each name was spoken and the person holding the cross bearing that name held it skyward. An Ignatian mass was said in honor and memory of the Jesuit martyrs; all were welcome and some 3,500 attended. S. Therese Anne said that many people came up to the Precious Blood group and thanked them for the message of reconciliation they brought to the march. One woman who has been to every protest since 1989 noted that in the beginning there were 25 to 30 protesters, but that that all changed when the Leadership Conference of Women Religious took its stand on closing the SOA. S. Therese Anne felt that it was one of the most spiritually powerful experiences of her life because these 25,000 people were so “other centered” and focused on one agenda — closing the SOA. Also participating from ASC were Srs. Cecilia Leiker and Hang Pham (fourth and sixth from left, respectively).