Code,750011
Subject,Sheila Marie Tobbe
Date,8/9/2016
Interviewer,Christopher Morris
Abstract,"Sister Sheila Marie Tobbe is an Ursuline Sister and served as a member of the Cleveland Latin American Mission team during the 1990s. In this interview, she shares her experiences in El Salvador, working and living with the Salvadoran people during the civil war and the nature of the work performed there. She discusses an earlier visit to El Salvador during Christmas 1979 and New Year's 1980 when she stayed with Sister Dorothy Kazel and the impact that trip had on her desire to serve as part of the mission team there. Sheila also details the founding of the InterReligious Task Force and the issues of gang violence and drugs in El Salvador in 2016. The interview culminates with her discussing the legacy of martyrdom, not only of the four churchwomen murdered in 1980, but also of every catechist who was killed during the Salvadoran Civil War."
Special Notes,"Cleveland Latin American Mission team, InterReligious Task Force, El Salvador, Sister Dorothy Kazel, Archbishop Romero"
Minutes:,
0,"Born in Cleveland Heights, at St. Anne's Hospital. December 8, 1944. Grew up in Cleveland Heights. Five siblings. Childhood. ""Very close to the Church."" Mother, teacher. Father, Boy Scout leader."
1,"Childhood experience. Mother taught kindergarten, first grade, and later fifth grade at St. Anne's, across the street from childhood home. Entered the Ursuline community directly out of high school. Ursuline Sisters taught at St. Anne's and Beaumont High School."
2,"Mother drove Sisters around. Early experience with nuns. ""Knew the convent as well as I knew my own house."" Grew up surrounded by Ursuline congregation. Graduated high school 1963. Fairmount Boulevard."
3,"Parents reaction to entering community. Mother, enthusiastic. Father, reluctant initially, ""he was very religious"" but questioned her about it. Gave his permission. Both were supportive. Experience in convent living ""was difficult"" being enclosed."
4,"Second Vatican Council. Wanted to see changes happen quicker, was ""On the leading edge of pushing for change"" Challenges. Wanted the Ursuline community to be ""less enclosed, less conformist"" to the old Church. Described herself as ""a child of Vatican II"""
5,"Desire to serve as part of El Salvador mission. Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland committed to El Salvador mission in 1968. ""Immediately volunteered"" for mission work and was turned down for being ""too young and too inexperienced"" Needed permanent teaching certificate before mission work assignment."
6,"""Eventually got"" to El Salvador. Certified to teach mathematics and physical science, also taught religion. ""Didn't have a choice"" as to what she taught. ""The superiors said you will and you did"" Attended Ursuline College."
7,Experience at Ursuline College. Changes were occurring at Ursuline College as well. Worked as secretary to Sociology professor Sister Miriam Lynch. Open experience. 
8,"Ursuline College ""was a great opening up to the world that I was drawn to"" Sister Miriam Lynch ""a real change agent in Cleveland."" Pushback towards religious women, from different places both inside and outside Ursuline community."
9,"""Tremendous circle of support"" for students and professors at Ursuline College. Heightened awareness as a women's college. ""Church in the world"" a part of the changes going on at the time."
10,"Experiences being challenged, as a result of changes in the Catholic church and for women in society. Taught at Beaumont High School after college. Replaced a Sister (Janet Kearns) who was serving in El Salvador. Spoke with her ""incessantly"" at every opportunity about experience in El Salvador."
11,"Curious about mission work. Talked about the people and the conditions they lived in in El Salvador. Focus of early mission teams on literacy and catechesis. agricultural training center. ""Sadness of some of the lives of the people"" Joyfulness despite the poverty they lived in."
12,"Stories did not deter desire to go to El Salvador and be a part of that kind of ""mission ministry."" Janet Kearns, left community and got married. Served on mission team in 1990. First trip to El Salvador 1979. ""A discernment trip"""
13,"Sister Dorothy Kazel, home on vacation summer of 1979. ""In dialogue quite a bit"" about El Salvador. Things were unsettled. Dorothy provided encouragement, ""start learning Spanish"" so that she could be on the next mission team. Suggested a trip to El Salvador."
14,"Visited Sister Dorothy Kazel for Christmas 1979. Tourism groups traveling to El Salvador. ""Got on a charter plane,"" Coup d'etat October 1979, ""everything was on hold."" "
15,"Experience of traveling to El Salvador. Sister Dorothy Kazel: coup d'etat was ""peaceful,"" told superior to let Sheila Marie travel to visit. Flew out on Christmas Eve 1979 on commercial plane. Jean Donovan and her parents met her at the airport. Luggage was lost. ""Why did I think this was a good idea for Christmas?"" Zaragoza, La Libertad, El Salvador."
16,"Mass at Zaragoza, midnight mass at Port of La Libertad. Met Sister Dorothy Kazel in the market. Slid through and fell into garbage in the streets. Military presence. ""this is not the idyllic village picture that I had at all."" ""Culture Shock."" When plane landed: surrounded by men with machine guns."
17,"""Those were their bodyguards, not the military."" Two week trip. Continuous culture shock, ""overwhelmed by the level of militarization"" Visited Guatemala during trip. Chirilagua for Christmas dinner."
18,"""Very disconcerting"" driving through countryside and witnessing the level of poverty. ""It's like everybody is camping out."" Guatemala City. "
19,"Spent night in mountain village, local priest suggested they leave early next morning to avoid any military trouble. Guerillas had moved out of the area the previous day. ""I didn't sleep a wink that night"" Tourist stop. Heard that the border was closed between Guatemala and El Salvador."
20,"Sister Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan went to Maryknoll House to find out if border was opened. Jean Donovan's parents supposed to leave from San Salvador the next day. ""Took us forever to get across the border."" Engaged in ministry with Dorothy for a week. ""That was transformative"" Mass with Archbishop Oscar Romero."
21,"Meeting with Archbishop Oscar Romero, introduced by Dorothy Kazel. People cheered as he walked out. Dorothy said, ""That man is going to get killed someday, and no one is going to know if it's the right or the left that did it because he speaks against violence on all sides."" Romero threatened all the time."
22,"Three months later, March 1980, Archbishop Romero assassinated, year later Sister Dorothy Kazel murdered. ""My life changed dramatically through all of that."" Last day in El Salvador, picnic on the beach with Cleveland Latin American Mission team. Sick man needed transport to hospital, helped Dorothy with that instead of going to picnic."
23,"Anecdote of transporting sick man to hospital. Mountain village. Van got stuck in a rut. Small village, small houses. Man was ""very, very sick. He wa delirious."" Men of village got van unstuck."
24,"Transported man to hospital. Good Samaritan story. ""So transformative"" to see that story from the Gospel's played out in front of her."
25,"Flight back to the United States through Miami airport. Crowded airport. ""I don't want to go back to this."" By end of the trip, ""I knew something had to come through for me from all of this."" News from BBC that nonviolent generals resigned from military junta."
26,"""They could see that war was coming"" Planning of refugee camps, traveled to Nicaragua. Beginnings of COAR House in January 1980 (to 2000, as Sheila Marie said). Trip was ""the transformative thing in my life"""
27,"COAR stands for Comunidad Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Currently on the Board of Directors for COAR Children's Village. Started as orphanage. Archbishop Romero asked missionaries to ""attend to the people's needs"" in the refugee camps."
28,"History of COAR Children's Village. Father Ken Meyers created the initial orphanage. ""We don't know where their parents are,"" whether they were killed, missing, separated, etc. "
29,"Father Ken Meyers started taking children in. ""So many, so fast"" started building. Land bought from Belgian family to build on. Turned over control in 1990 to Incarnate Word Sisters. Full clinic, school, 200-300 children at any given time."
30,"COAR ""a rather major endeavor"" by the 1990s. Fundraising for COAR. Currently roughly 50 children. Father Ken Meyer's did not allow children to be adopted out of COAR. "
31,"Transitioned from being house for poor children to more like foster care. Recent government laws about child protection, ""similar to laws in the United States,"" children assigned by Salvadoran courts to COAR House. ""Children from the streets,"""
32,"""emotionally abandoned because parents are drug addicted,"" violence and drugs in El Salvador. Staff regularly robbed. Story of young house mother murdered while traveling to her home."
33,"Gang violence. She ""was a model, all the kids loved her."" ""A very tragic situation,"" children have similar stories. Need is ""still very intense."" Development of children's homes."
34,"Government regulation of children's homes. ""far fewer residential facilities"" like COAR. Poor implementation of the new child protection laws. Children sent home to their families, ""many of them got murdered"" "
35,"Anecdote of three girls sent back home, one was sick, family could not afford medication and she died. Laws ""a real challenge to running"" a house like COAR. Reasons for children fleeing to the United States."
36,"El Salvador, went ""from war to the unsettlement after war"" and now drugs and gangs are the issue. Guatemala, Honduras share similar issues. ""we did very little to help them"" United Nation's work in El Salvador after the civil war."
37,"United Nation's trained government officials and civil servants, School of the Americas ""trained military"" ""Military are not the basis of democracy, it's civilian police, it's mayors, it's judges that are the basis of democracy"" UN stayed for three years, ""not long enough"" ""Quite involved with the UN"" because of presence of refugee camps in Zaragoza, La Libertad parish. UN ""was very inspiring"""
38,"UN workers ""very dedicated to the people,"" anecdote about working with the United Nations. UN was there ""to hear the problems"""
39,"""Listening force"" for the people of El Salvador after the civil war. El Salvador ""one of the best places I ever worked,"" faith and church ""the only thing that gives meaning"" to the lives of Salvadoran people."
40,"Story of being in charge of confirmation. Made changes to confirmation process, inject morality into it. Threat of jail time for possessing church materials during civil war."
41,"Salvadorans studied materials for confirmation in the church. Silvestre ""I'm taking my books with me"" ""The Church is the only thing that gives any kind of meaning and direction to my life. I don't care what they do to me."" ""If they come and get me, they come and get me."""
42,Intense faith was inspiring. Not a lot of fears for personal safety. Jesuit massacre. Almost didn't make it into El Salvador.
43,"Problems with visas. ""More of a joy"" that she could get into the country. Not worried about the military ""they weren't going to take on another international incident with us"" Issue was ""you could always be at the wrong place and the wrong time."" Experience in inner city prepared her for that. PTSD issues related to constant military presence in El Salvador."
44,"""Constantly running into"" military personnel. Forcible recruitment of young boys into the military. Called US military to get some boys out of the military. ""Successful several times"" in getting boys out of the military."
45,"Anecdote of ""certifiably mentally ill"" boy recruited several times into the military. Tanks and soldiers in Zaragoza."
46,"Experience in Zaragoza. Story of Sister Gerry and boy she taught at COAR, recruited into military. Standing guard with submachine gun. ""Do you know how to use that?"" ""No, go get my mother."""
47,"Experience living in a warzone. Added pressure. Child soldiers started drinking. ""Drunk soldiers"" shooting machine guns at night. Artillery in the mountains. ""How safe are we?"""
48,"Bombing close to the village, afraid catechist wouldn't be able to get to church. Catechist arrived with no problem. Asked her, ""Aren't you used to this yet?"" ""No one should have to get used to this."" Current gang violence. ""It's the poor people in the country being victimized"" Children and families at the southern US border, ""have legitimate cause to be here"""
49,"Efforts to educate people about current situation in El Salvador. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, working on the border. Cleveland, Ohio has ""only immigration court"" in the state. Sister Rita Mary Harwood."
50,"Sister Rita Mary Harwood, Father Robert Reidy, work with immigrants. ""Take in once a month at immigration court"" Stay at La Sagrada Familia for the day. Number of groups and NGOs working on immigration issues."
51,"Immigration issues in 2016 presidential campaign. ""Nonviolent youth"" needed. ""Sad to see the response"" the United States is giving to immigrants and migrants fleeing Latin America."
52,"Immigration Issues. Groups visiting El Salvador. Board of COAR. Taken as many as ""two or three groups a year"" to El Salvador."
53,Other groups working in El Salvador. Eye care mission work. School and parish groups visit through COAR Peace Mission. 
54,"Violence and zika, stopped taking groups. Concentration on fundraising and helping the 50 children at COAR Children's Village. Outbreak of Zika in January/February 2016."
55,"Zika virus in El Salvador. Groups that would visit El Salvador taken on ""Pilgrimage to the sights of the martyrs"" Jesuit University, Cathedral, museum to Archbishop Romero, sight where four church women were killed. ""Chapel and memorial stone marker"" near Zacatecoluca."
56,"Chapel and memorial on road between San Juan Nonualco and Santiago Nonualco. Zacatecoluca, nearest big city to the sight of the killings. "
57,"Location of Chapel and memorial ""Find the airport and it's a little to right on the map"" Judge who came out to identify bodies came from Zacatecoluca. Challenge finding the chapel and memorial without a guide."
58,Building of the chapel and memorial. Sister Diane Therese Pinchot built the altar. Things of Sister Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan buried under altar. Built in 1995. 
59,Sick with hepatitis at time of building. November 1995. Chapel and memorial ready in time for ten year anniversary December 2 1990.
60,"Building altar, Sister Diane Therese Pinchot ""wanted bricks,"" local craftsman found to help with building. ""There's hardly any place in this country that isn't soaked in the blood of the martyrs"" ""hundreds and thousands of catechists"" murdered throughout El Salvador."
61,"Sister Dorothy Kazel's legacy. ""reality of the situation"" in El Salvador. Members of the mission team were ""circumspect"" about what they would say regarding the situation in El Salvador. ""Far more aware of what was going on, then what they were telling people in Cleveland"""
62,"Partly to protect their families, partly because others would not understand. Deaths ""raised questions"" in Christian church, Jewish people, InterReligious Task Force (IRTF) in Central America. First anniversary celebration. Old Stone Church. "
63,"Interfaith community. IRTF still active and concerned with issues in Central America and Colombia. Religious women ""across the world"" celebrate anniversary of their murders. ""Legacy goes way beyond Cleveland, even way beyond the United States"" Solidarity among religious workers."
64,"Language school, ""processed living with fear,"" ""very conscious"" of reality in El Salvador. US politics influenced by deaths of four church women, ""more deeper awareness"" of Central American issues. ""Spiritual legacy of martyrdom"" "
65,"""more martyrs than ever in the church around the world"" in the last century. Religious legacy through martyrdom. Legacy on many levels, ""importance of their lives"" "
66,"Bill Ford, Ita Ford's brother. Lifting of amnesty in El Salvador, unknown what kind of effect that will have. United Nations Commission of Truth Report. Amnesty claimed a week later, ""people were outraged. This isn't amnesty, this is amnesia."" "
67,"Legacy of the four church women in Cleveland. Thirty-one parishes with ""regular connections"" with El Salvador, twelve high schools ""translate letters from sponsors"" of children and also travel to Central America. Mission trips. Active political group out of Cleveland State University CASK(?)"
68,"Founding of the InterReligious Task Force (IRTF) wanted a more ""Religious thrust"" out of the deaths of Archbishop Romero and four church women. IRTF formed in basement of Erieview High School. Sisters of Justice group and Clergy and Laity Concerned merged to form the IRTF. Offices at St. Patrick Parish, Bridge Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio."
69,"IRTF ""still very, very vital group"" lobbies politicians in Washington, D.C. Fair trade issues around the world, social justice issues related to Latin America. Expansive work. ""a very good group of young people involved"" "
70,"Work at Case Western Reserve University with ""Spiritual Direction"" Tony Vento, director of Spiritual Direction and IRTF. ""The legacy goes on in the network of relationships, nationally, internationally, but especially within the city"" Annual teach-in at CWRU every spring. John Carroll. Catholic Worker Community."
71,*End of the interview.*