Pacifist nuns ordered to pay for silo damage

Associated Press; Air Force Times October 25, 2006

DENVER — Three pacifist nuns who were jailed for their 2002 protest at a Colorado missile silo could face additional prison time if they refuse to pay the Air Force $3,082 in restitution.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn has rejected community-service plans he requested 10 months ago from Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson. They are members of the Dominican Sisters order in Grand Rapids, Mich.

During a protest rally four years ago, the sisters cut through a chain-link fence at the silo containing a Minuteman III missile. They then used baby bottles to dispense their own blood in the shape of a cross on the silo.

They were convicted in 2003 of obstructing national defense and damaging government property when they protested U.S. nuclear policies at the silo northeast of Greeley. Platte received a prison sentence of 41 months, Hudson received 30 months and Gilbert 33 months. All have since been released.

The sisters submitted the proposed community service plans in a bid to avoid paying restitution for site damage. They have refused to pay restitution, asking the judge whether instead they could continue work they began while in prison to help the poor and promote peace. That work has included raising $600,000, which they donated to charities, the sisters said.

But in his Oct. 18 order, Blackburn declined the plans without explanation.

“Our lives are full-time community service,” Gilbert said. “We need some time to pray and think what this all means for us.”'

Attorneys for the nuns did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors have insisted that the nuns make amends directly to the Air Force.

“We are surprised. I'm trying to make sense of it,” Platte, 70, said from a mission in Baltimore. “There's no way we could pay the military. It would be impossible for us to give money to the military because of what they would do with it. And the judge knows that. He knows our conscience.”

Information from The Denver Post