St. Rita Church - Sister Dorothy's Childhood Parish

Reflection Site #4: The Mustard Seed - Her Faith Started Here (Though not the original little white church Dorothy attended, the grey stone holy water font is one she would have used.)

Reflection: Sister Jo Anne announced, “We're not going to bury Dorothy; we're going to plant her. Dorothe (Doro-chee) vive!”  In that spirit, the faith foundation started by Dorothy’s parents was reinforced at St. Rita Parish school, like a mustard seed that started in a small child. As the parable in Matthew 13:32, states, “It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.” From Dot’s early days at St. Rita’s to her final days in Anapu, Brazil, and now 20 years after her martyrdom, her legacy as a warrior for the disadvantaged and for the planet, is known around the world.

Dorothy’s sister Barb told this story, “There was a saying for children in Shiloh: If you don't behave, the rag pickers will steal you away. Most people were afraid of them." Rag picker was a name — a slur — for people experiencing poverty, who roamed the farmland roads selling used pots and pans, remnants of fabric, and any second hand thing they could glean to sell. Whole families, with children, traveled, even lived, in horse-drawn carts. The Depression was especially hard on the economically poor and unhoused.  One Saturday morning, Edna found Dorothy slicing freshly baked bread and making piles of sandwiches for the rag pickers.  Dorothy told her mother that the children always looked thin and hungry and that it wasn't right not to feed them. She wasn't afraid of them either. In fact, she told her mother that next week, she planned to make them apple pies. As Barb recalls, "All our mother could say was, 'That's very good of you, Dot.’"

St. Rita’s records show that Dorothy was baptized at St. Anthony Catholic Church. According to Dorothy's grade school record listing all her grades from first through eighth grade, she was a very good student. She entered first grade at St. Rita School on September 7, 1937 and graduated 8th grade in June,1945. Dorothy Mae Stang was confirmed at St. Rita's original, little white framed church on November 9, 1941, possibly by the Right Reverend Joseph H. Albers. Her confirmation name was "Anna," and her sponsor was Mrs. Anna McCloskey.

Matt Ruttle recalls how Sister Dorothy occasionally returned to St. Rita's from her mission in Brazil. He said, “I remember being in the audience when she spoke in St. Rita Church in 1998. I met her briefly to thank her. I felt she was a "true prophet" in the genuine religious sense --- she was fiery in her defense of "her people" in Brazil and castigated our American culture for being so materialistic and wasteful of the world's natural resources.” 

Call to Prayer: In January 2025, two relics of Sister Dorothy were placed into the Sanctuary of New Martyrs at the Basilica of San Bartolomeo (St. Bartholomew) in Rome. A portion of the blood-soaked soil from where she was killed will reside on a side altar in the main worship space. The museum under the church will hold Dorothy’s blue sweater which Sister Rebecca Spires, SNDdeN, wore to every trial of the men responsible for her murder.  

Take some time in a quiet place to pray in silence and reflect.  Be grateful for the witness of the holy ones and martyrs gone before us. You might have a conversation with Sister Dorothy and Mother Mary about your life at this time, and ask for the graces you need to have their faith, hope and courage at this time in your life.   

End the silence with a Hail Mary prayed aloud together.  

Beatitude: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Pope Francis: We need to feel outrage, as Moses did (Ex 11:8), as Jesus did (Mk3:5) as God does in the face of injustice.  It is not good for us to become inured to evil; it is not good when our social consciousness is dulled before “an exploitation that is leaving destruction and even death throughout our region…jeopardizing the lives of millions of people and especially the habitat of peasants and indigenous peoples (QA #15)

Sister Dorothy: We are only here on the land for a few decades. Use every day to bring joy and not greed to our tired land so full of anguish.

Together we pray:   
Sister Dorothy and all martyrs, pray for our courage to respond to the needs of our day and time. May we plant seeds of hope and care for all our brother and sister creatures in our beautiful earth home.