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Today’s missionary hero is Sr. Irene McCormack of the 20thCentury.
Irene was born in Kununoppin, a small rural community in Western Australia, on August 21, 1938.
In 1957, Irene joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart (RSJ) and spent the next 30 years as a teacher and principal. Although she was popular as both a teacher and principal, she was also known as demanding and feisty. She was also an accomplished golfer and tennis player and, from an early age, she was an avid fan of Australian football.
After 30 years of teaching, Sr. Irene decided God wanted her to become a missionary in Peru, South America. Her first assignment was serving the poor near Lima, but on June 26, 1989, Sr. Irene left to serve in Huasahuasi, a community high in the Andes Mountains about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Lima. With Sr. Dorothy Stevenson, she supervised the distribution of emergency goods by Caritas Peru.
Sr. Irene also provided poor children with library facilities to help them in their schoolwork, taught extraordinary Eucharistic ministers of Holy Communion, and visited parishioners who lived in distant villages.
While serving in Peru, a Maoist guerilla organization called the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) was operating in Peru.
On December 17, 1989, people warned the Catholic priests in Huasahuasi that they were in danger from the Shining Path, so the priests and the two Sisters left for Lima. But Sisters Irene and Dorothy were not comfortable leaving the church unattended, so on January 14, 1990, they returned to Huasahuasi. For the next year, the Sisters were the only official Catholic leadership in the village. They conducted services since there were no priests, and they did what they could to help the parishioners.
On May 21, 1991, Sr. Irene found herself alone in the convent. The Shining Path captured her and four men of the village. Sr. Irene and the four villagers were tried in a “kangaroo court” and sentenced to die. The villagers tried to explain that Sr. Irene was not a “Yankee” (American), but rather, she was an Australian. That made no difference to the Shining Path. Sr. Irene and the four men were each shot in the back of their head and killed. Sr. Irene was 52-years old.
Anne Henderson has written about the life and death of Sr. Irene called, The Killing of Sister McCormack.
