Source: 9NEWS.com
PALMER LAKE - David Stang has spread out pictures, books, magazines, and documentaries about his big sister on his coffee table. He is eager to share these things."Dorothy told me the day before she died to tell her story. So here I am," Stang said.
It is one of the reasons shortly after her murder, he allowed documentary producers to follow him to Brazil as he sought to understand her death and as he sought justice at trial after trial for several years.
Dorothy Stang was a Catholic nun who lived among the poor in the Amazon for almost 40 years. The largest rainforest in the world, which produces oxygen for everyone on Earth, is being rapidly destroyed. Sister Dorothy was working on a government-approved plan to preserve the land and protect the locals from being forced out. Wealthy ranchers and loggers in the area had other ideas.
"It was organized crime. This group of five organized thieves planned, premeditated and murdered my sister execution-style," David Stang said.
Sister Dorothy knew her life was in danger because her work challenged the interests of powerful people in the largely lawless Amazon. In February 2005, she was leaving to help people whose villages had been burned down by thieves who wanted the land. First, she called her brother and told him she was nervous.
"That's the first time she ever said that to me, and then the next day she was murdered," Stang said. "They pulled out a gun and when they did that, she pulled out her bible. And she went right to Matthew and she said blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. And they shot her."
Stang says his sister lived and died courageously in the land she loved.
"We were raised to know that the Earth is our mother, and when she fell to the ground, she fell into the arms of her mother," Stang said.
Since her death, two gunmen, a go-between, and one of the ranchers who paid for her death have been convicted. Another rancher, the man prosecutors call the kingpin, was finally convicted on May 1st. Stang has sat through every trial and re-trial. He recently returned from Brazil for the 13th time since his sister's death.
"I will not let it go," Stang said.
He says the pursuit of justice for his sister will continue for as long as the Amazon is under attack.
"Dorothy has given me the chance to stand up, and I will," Stang said.
Another nun has taken over Dorothy Stang's work in Brazil. The government has approved more projects for sustainable development like the one Sister Dorothy championed, but implementing them remains a challenge.
The producers of an award-winning documentary about Sister Dorothy's life and death live here in Denver. You can find out more about the film by Just Media at Theykilledsisterdorothy.com. You can order a copy of the DVD online at amazon.com.