ROME (CNS) — “It’s quite an honor for her to be here with the likes of St. Oscar Romero,” Tom Stang said after a relic of his sister was placed on an altar in Rome alongside a relic of the martyred archbishop from El Salvador.
A cross containing dirt stained with the blood of Sister Dorothy Stang, a U.S. member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur shot down in the Amazon 20 years ago, and one of her sweaters were placed Jan. 10 on the altar of the “new martyrs of the Americas” in Rome’s Basilica of St. Bartholomew.
Sister Stang was sent on mission to the Brazilian Amazon in 1966 and worked closely with the Brazilian bishops’ Pastoral Land Commission in favor of land rights for the poor and for sustainable development in the region. The work she did angered many large landowners, and she had received death threats. A rancher and three others were convicted of plotting her death and killing her in 2005. https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/us-sister-killed-amazon-honored-rome-new-martyrs-shrine