These words of Catherine McAuley are able to instil confidence in us as Mercy Sisters, but are lived out by many others, too.

On Friday 25th August this year, we in South Africa commemorated the death of Amy Biehl who was murdered in 1993.

Born on April 26th, 1967, Amy graduated from Stanford University, California, and was awarded a Fulbrite Scholarship. She came to South Africa in 1993 and studied at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town.

She soon came face-to-face with the injustices of the apartheid regime and became an anti-apartheid activist. Her Catholic upbringing helped her to care about the rights of all those she encountered and she spent much of her time working with underprivileged young people around Cape Town. This was an exciting year and a dangerous year. Mandela had been released from prison and all in South Africa held their breaths, waiting to see what the future held. Amy was actively engaged in voter education, helping people who had never been allowed to cast their votes in a general election, to bravely let their voices be heard.

The irony of Amy’s death is that she was murdered by those she was fighting for.

On 25th of August, 1993, a group of her black friends needed a lift to their homes in Gugulethu, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town. Amy offered to drive them home. As they travelled along the N 1 Highway, a mob of misinformed black youth, saw the white driver as their enemy and started to pelt the car with stones, forcing her to stop. She was pulled from the car and was stabbed and stoned to death.

It had taken courage to drive her friends home that evening, but to the end she acted in the manner that she believed was right.

Amy is remembered and loved by South Africans and Americans alike. A memorial to her was erected in Gugulethu and two schools in the USA are named in her honour – the Amy Biehl High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Amy Biehl Community School at Rancho Viejo in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Amy’s legacy does not stop here. Her parents, Linda and Peter, also “stated their opinions and acted with courage”.  They forgave those who were responsible for Amy’s death.

In 1994, the year after her death, Amy’s parents founded the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust to develop and empower youth in the townships. They still work tirelessly to discourage further violence. Two of the men who had been convicted of her murder worked for the foundation as part of its programme.

In 1998, all of those involved in the incident were pardoned by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, because ‘their actions had been politically motivated’.

Amy’s family supported the release of the men and now work with the parents of those men.

Courage in forgiveness.

Colleen Wilkinson
South African Province