True Believers(76)

“Father,” she said.

“I didn’t mean to bother you,” he said.

“You didn’t bother me. I didn’t even know you were there.” They were both whispering. Mary looked out over the church. “It’s awful, isn’t it. The way they treat this place as if it were a movie theater. And you know what’s going to happen. After the scandal and all that. Have they been bothering you?”

“Not so far, no. I was thinking that if some of them stayed for Mass, we might be able to convert them.”

“I’ll bet half of them are fallen-away Catholics,” Mary said. “Except for Edith. Did you know she was here?”

“Edith who?”

“Edith Lawton.” Mary gestured into the church. “She lives down the block. You know who she is. She’s some kind of professional atheist or something and she writes for that strange little newsletter, all about how awful the Catholic Church is, except she always gets it wrong.”

“Free Thinking,” Father Healy said, suddenly remembering.

“That’s it. I don’t know if you read it, but it’s around here all the time. She comes and puts big stacks of it in the foyer every time it comes out.”

“And we leave them there, for people to pick up?”

“Sure, sometimes. Why not? We’ve got something called the Campus Freethought Alliance at St. Joe’s, and they’re always throwing their newsletter all over everything. People think it’s funny. Besides, it’s good for the Church.”

“Good for the Church? Why?”

“Well,” Mary McAllister said, “you know, secularism is so big today, and there are all the problems in the world, and the scandals in the Church, that people might think there’s something to it. But it doesn’t take more than two paragraphs to realize they don’t know what they’re talking about. They get everything wrong. Trust me. Read this stuff for yourself.”

“Maybe I’ll pick up a copy the next time there’s one in the foyer,” Father Healy said. “Which one is she, Edith Lawton?”

“The one in the turquoise sweater standing in the front pew on the left. Don’t you hate turquoise?”

“I’ve never really thought of it.” Edith Lawton seemed to be a pleasant-looking woman on the cusp of middle age, or maybe just into it, but with good luck in genes. Father Healy shrugged. “She doesn’t look at all impressive.”

“She isn’t impressive. And I can’t believe she came here today. Like some kind of vulture. Except, of course, Sister Harriet had to suck up to her—excuse me, Father.”

“What do you mean, Sister Harriet had to suck up to her?”

Mary McAllister winced. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a priest use that term before. Anyway, I don’t really know. They were standing with their heads together in the foyer when I came in today. I’m not sure what they were talking about, except that it had something to do with the ‘legitimate aspirations of women.’ That’s the phrase they used.”

“Which you accidentally overheard.”

“Well, Father, I tried to overhear more, but I couldn’t do it without being obvious. And Sister Harriet doesn’t trust me as far as she can throw me. She says I’m a male-identified woman. Whatever that means.”

“It means your aspirations are actually legitimate.”

Mary McAllister laughed, loud enough so that some people turned their heads to look at her. Father Healy had a short feeling of panic, sure that he would be found out and inundated by people wanting to know what he thought had happened to Bernadette Kelly, but he must have been in a shadow. Nobody noticed he was there.

“Anyway, Father,” Mary McAllister said, “I couldn’t just stand there, because Father Burdock was waiting with some things he needed doing for the Joint Charities fund drive. And Sister Harriet seems to have disappeared, so we’re both safe at the moment. Did you need something, or were you just coming in to look at the sightseers before you had to face them at Mass?”

“I was looking for Sister Scholastica,” Father Healy said.

“She’s gone off to do some errands. She’s not expected back until Mass. I think she’s even having dinner out Is it important for you to get in touch with her?”

“No, not really. I just wanted a shoulder to lean on, so to speak.”

“Because if it’s important, I think Sister Peter Rose knows how to get in touch with her. She’s got a cell phone.”

“Nuns with cell phones,” Father Healy said. “Nuns in full habit with cell phones.”