Ursuline Sr. Dianna Ortiz (Courtesy of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount St. Joseph)
Sr. Dianna Ortiz, who not only survived kidnapping and torture but used the experience to become a voice for torture victims everywhere, died of cancer Feb. 19. She was 62.
An Ursuline Sister of Mount St. Joseph, Kentucky, Ortiz was working as a missionary in Guatemala in 1989 when she was kidnapped by Guatemalan security forces because of her work with Indigenous people. She was taken to a secret detention center in the capital and tortured for 24 hours until she was able to escape.
She returned to her family in the United States but was so traumatized, she had no memory of her life before the abduction and was unable to recall family members or her Ursuline sisters. She spent years pursuing justice, but no one was ever charged, and her memory never fully returned.
Nancy Bick Clark, an associate with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio, plays the harp during a Zoom commitment ceremony in March 2020 for new associate Jean Simpson. (Courtesy of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati)
Associates used to visiting the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio, found something unexpected in March 2020: They were locked out.
Chanin Wilson, director of associates for the congregation, said the lockdown like those imposed at convents around the world because of the coronavirus pandemic had to be done to protect the sisters inside. But it was still difficult for the associates.