This Vatican News article commemorates Sr. Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN, who was assassinated in Brazil on February 12, 2005, after decades of fighting for smallholder farmers' rights and against deforestation in the Amazon. The American-born missionary distributed seeds, taught sustainable farming, and helped secure land rights for people experiencing poverty, which brought her into fatal conflict with powerful landowners.
Twenty years after her death at age 73, Sr. Dorothy's legacy thrives in the communities she served. As her colleagues noted in the article, local people say, "We are not burying Dorothy. We are planting her." This metaphor has proven true as sustainable settlements continue to grow, though justice remains elusive with her killers released shortly after arrest and land-related violence continuing in the region.