Summary

At the beginning of Chapter 4, Evelyn returns to Mercy house while Maria is practicing Reiki on a resident. Josephine enters and tells the other sisters that Bishop Hawkins is coming. Bishop Hawkins is a part of the “nun-quisition,” (50) a Vatican led inquiry into the work of American nuns, in order to root out more progressive sects. The narrator describes the spectrum of nuns, from the conservative to the progressive. Evelyn concludes that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Mercy are in the middle, but lean more towards the progressive end. Pope Benedict XVI in specific allows this rooting through nuns in America in specific because they “spent too much time focusing on social justice…and not enough time advancing church doctrine” (51). Evelyn sees a wide gap between the work she does on the poor streets of Brooklyn and the lavishness of Pope...