Dorothy Hennessey

Who was Dorothy Hennessey?

Sister Dorothy Marie Hennessey O.S.F. was a Roman Catholic Franciscan Sister and activist. Hennessey was born in Manchester, Iowa. The 13 Hennessey siblings — Dorothy Marie Hennessey was the eldest — grew up on an Iowa farm. She was 19 years older than her younger, natural sister, Sister Gwen Hennessey, who is also a religious Sister.

Hennessey was drawn to the Peace and Justice movement and the School of the Americas Watch by her brother, the Rev. Ron Hennessey, M.M., a missionary in Latin America from 1964 until his death in 1999. Her brother wrote letters to his family describing his life in Guatemala and El Salvador. In the 1980s, his letters recounted how Mayan Indians in his parish were being terrorized and killed by Guatemalan military squads. Father Ron later befriended Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador, and when the Archbishop was assassinated, Father Ron wrote of his funeral in the Cathedral when the Salvadoran military fired on the mourners.

Sister Dorothy Marie's views began to shift to a view more critical of her government's policies in Latin America.