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Ursuline Sister Dianna Ortiz was teaching indigenous children as a missionary in Guatemala in 1989 when her ministry was torn apart in the midst of the country’s brutal civil war.
Guatemalan soldiers abducted her from a garden Nov. 2, detaining her for 30 hours. She reported being gang raped and tortured repeatedly until she escaped.
Returning to the United States, she became a human rights advocate and peacemaker, starting an organization for torture survivors and becoming a visible presence of nonviolence at vigils and marches in the nation’s capital.
Sister Dianna died while in hospice care in Washington, D.C., Feb. 19 after a return of cancer. She was 62.
The native of Grants, N.M., was an Ursuline Sister for 43 years.
Friends reported that she had tested positive for the coronavirus in the fall while in New Mexico. Although she had mild symptoms and was able to return to Washington, D.C., she continued to feel ill for weeks afterward. Medical tests Feb. 12 discovered inoperable cancer.
Funeral arrangements were pending Feb. 19.
Friends and colleagues recalled Sister Dianna, who for the last year was deputy director of Pax Christi USA, for having a gentle spirit that guided a steely determination to work for justice and peace for three decades.
She wrote an award-winning book, “The Blindfold’s Eyes: My Journey From Torture to Truth,” which recounted her harrowing experience in Guatemala and journey toward advocacy rooted in faith.
In 1990, she filed a case with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, which determined after seven years that the Guatemalan government had violated the American Convention on Human Rights in regard to her abduction.
She later filed a lawsuit under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1992 and was awarded a $5 million judgment, which was never paid because the Guatemalan general named in the case claimed he had no money.
She joined Pax Christi USA as deputy director the first time from 2010 to 2012. She served with the Washington, D.C.-based Center of Concern on its Education for Justice Project, 2012-2018.—CNS
