Sister Dorothy Stang

Catholic News Service reports that it took less than one day for five men and two women to convict Amair Feijoli da Cunha of hiring two gunmen to murder U.S.-born Sister Dorothy Stang on a deserted dirt road in Brazil's Amazon region.

Sister Dorothy was a native of Dayton, Ohio, but had lived in the Amazon region for nearly four decades and was a naturalized Brazilian. She worked closely with the Brazilian bishops' Pastoral Land Commission in favor of land rights for the poor and for sustainable development in the region. Because of her work, she had been receiving death threats for nearly four years.