MAPLE MOUNT, Ky. - Two representatives of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph traveled to Fort Benning, Georgia, this weekend to participate in the annual protest calling for the closing of the School of the Americas, now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

On Nov. 16 Sister Rose Marita O’Bryan, superior of the community, commissioned Sister Suzanne Sims, Assistant Superior, and the Rev. Bill Moore, a community friend, to represent the Ursulines at the protests on Nov. 17 and 18. They joined a group from Louisville sponsored by the Kentucky Interfaith Taskforce on Latin America and the Caribbean.

The November protest commemorates the murder of six Jesuit priests and two women in El Salvador in November 1989. The SOA has been the training site for the alleged military perpetrators of this and thousands of other human rights violations in Latin America, including the killing of Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and three companions in El Salvador in December 1990. At the SOA, 60,000 Latin American soldiers have received extensive training in civilian-targeted warfare.

Because of heightened security following the events of Sept. 11, the risk of arrest at Fort Benning is greater than in earlier years.

"Our community of Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph is grateful for the selfless generosity of those among us who ‘keep on walking forward’ in our name and for those countless others intent on closing the School of the Americas," Sister Rose Marita stated during the commissioning ceremony. She and all present blessed Sister Suzanne and Rev. Moore and prayed together for their safety.