SAO PAULO, Brazil — In a small community on the outskirts of the Amazon jungle, the death threats against U.S. Sister Dorothy Stang came true. The 73-year-old member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur was shot several times in the chest and head Feb. 12 in the Brazilian state of Para as she headed to meet officials from the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform to discuss the demarcation of land for peasants.

Her religious order contacted the U.S. State Department and requested that it press Brazil for a full investigation. The Brazilian bishops' Pastoral Land Commission criticized the murder and said the killing recalled past eras — thought ended — when activists antagonizing powerful economic groups were shot dead by hired gunmen.

Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy, wrote the Brazilian ambassador to the United States, Roberto Abdenur, to express the bishops' "deep concern and revulsion" at the murder.

Sister Dorothy, as she was known, was a native of Dayton, Ohio, but had lived in the Amazon region for nearly four decades, working closely with the bishops' land commission. The nun had also become a Brazilian citizen.

Sister Dorothy defended land rights for rural peasants and warned against the ecological dangers of deforestation in the Amazon region. Her work often put her at odds with large landowners and logging interests.

According to the Brazilian bishops' land commission, Sister Dorothy had been receiving death threats for nearly four years due to her activities in favor of rural workers. The nun had informed authorities numerous times of these threats, but never received police protection, said a statement by the bishops' commission. The last time she went to authorities was Feb. 9.

"If the life of a defenseless religious is taken in this manner, how will the peasants be treated?" asked the bishops' land commission. It said the killing could have been ordered by powerful landowners with whom Sister Dorothy had been at odds.

Reuters, the British news agency, reported a Brazilian government official as saying Feb. 14 that police had identified the gunmen and suspect a local rancher ordered the killing.

The congregational leadership team of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur issued a Feb. 13 statement expressing hope that the assassination would draw the attention of the Brazilian government "to the violent oppression" in the Amazon region where Sister Dorothy worked.

It noted that her death had finally caused the government to send federal officials and police investigators into the area.

"Sister Dorothy has tried for a long time to persuade these officials to come and settle the dispute over logging. Her death has brought them to the scene," said the statement, issued in Lima, Peru, where the leadership team was meeting.

Members of the leadership team traveled to Brazil to attend Sister Dorothy's funeral, scheduled for Feb. 14 in Anapu, the town where she worked.

Hours after the assassination, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent his Cabinet ministers in charge of human rights and the environment to the region and asked the Justice Ministry to send federal investigators to oversee the case.

Sister Dorothy's murder came shortly after the Brazilian government restored logging licenses for parts of the Amazon. The licenses had been suspended a year ago as part of an effort to stem deforestation. Supporters of restoring the licenses had blocked Amazon transportation routes and threatened further violence if logging was not restored.

In the United States, people in her home Archdiocese of Cincinnati who supported Sister Dorothy's work told The Catholic Telegraph, archdiocesan newspaper, that the murder reaffirms their commitment to the nun's efforts.

"She was willing to do anything for her people," said Sister Elizabeth Bowyer, head of the Cincinnati-based Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

"The best tribute we can give her is to learn more about the cutting down of the rain forests" and the impact on the environment and the people who live in the area, she said.

Sister Dorothy helped farmers organize and survive despite gunmen who tried to evict them from land claimed by wealthy ranchers, said Sister Elizabeth.

Other members of her community said they had talked to Sister Dorothy many times about returning to the United States because of the death threats, but she insisted on staying.

"If you are going to befriend the poor and stand for social justice, very likely you will face the same fate as Jesus, Martin Luther King, (Archbishop) Oscar Romero," said Mike Gable, director of the archdiocesan mission office.

"I met with Dorothy several times the past few years and had lunch with her a few months back. She spoke calmly of the attacks she was suffering from certain Brazilian newspapers and other powerful groups. She was the model of patience, humility and real devotion to the oppressed peasants of Brazil," he said.

Sister Dorothy’s sister, Marguerite Hohm, is a member of St. Philip Parish in Falls Church.