IFTTT Autopost 
Today, we look at the life of a heroic woman who gave her life so that her friend could live. Her name was Carla Piette.
When she was 19-years old and a student at Marquette University, Carla decided to become a Maryknoll Missionary Sister. Her superiors described her as “…friendly, outgoing, jovial, big-hearted and generous, but rather naïve and tactless.”
Carla was also very anti-clerical. She didn’t care if a person was a priest or a bishop; she treated him as anyone else. But, as we will see, she did admire people who preached a Gospel of love, especially those who were champions of the poor.
Carla served as a missionary in Chile from 1964 to 1979. During her time there, she worked with the poorest of the poor. Though she suffered from depression from time to time, she had a very strong inner core that allowed her to serve God by serving others day after day. One of her biographers, Jacqueline Hansen Maggiore, described Carla as a “…teacher, parish leader, prophet, clown, poet and scripture scholar.”
In 1973, Carla made friends with another Maryknoll Sister named Ita Ford. During these years, Chile experienced great turmoil. President Allende was killed and soldiers filled the streets. A dictator named Pinochet and government death squads killed tens of thousands of people. Over 300 Catholic missionaries and priests were ordered out of the country, and at least three were killed.
After serving in Chile, both Carla and Ita took a break. Both, however, were not happy being back in the United States, for they knew the great needs of the people in Central and South American nations.
In 1980, both Carla and Ita heard the call of an amazing man named Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador. He called on Church workers from other nations to please come and help the Church in El Salvador, which was experiencing incredible persecution.
Astonishingly, Sr. Carla arrived in El Salvador on the day Archbishop was martyred, and Sr. Ita arrived in El Salvador on the day of his funeral. Little did they know, that their time on earth would also soon end.
Carla and Ita were so close as friends and coworkers that people began calling them “Carla y Ita” – Carla and Ita – which in Spanish sounds like one word – “Carlita” or “Little Carla.”
In El Salvador, they found themselves in the middle of a war, a war against the poor. They did their best to bury the dead, help priests escape, feed the poor, console those in sorrow, and serve refugees. Every day, both Sisters knew that they might be the next to lose their lives.
On August 22, 1980, Sr. Carla wrote to a friend, “We dolly along in this crazy circus of life where so often the Divine Circus Master doesn’t clue us into the act for tomorrow yet always gives us the strength to perform.” “I leave the future in the Circus Master’s hands.”
One day later, on August 23, 1980, Sisters Carla and Ita were escorting a man who had just been released from prison to his town. After delivering him, they were on their way back home when a flash flood submerged them in water. Carla, who was big and strong, lifted the petite Ita and pushed her out of the window. Miraculously, Sr. Ita was saved, but Sr. Carla drowned. She gave her life for her friend.
Though Sr. Ita lived, we know that it was not for long. In early December of 1980, Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, along with two missionaries from Cleveland, Ohio, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and Lay Missionary Jean Donovan, were killed by government death squads.
Great story. The more I read about the work of these Sisters the world over I am moved to really consider them among the truest Christians on the planet.