Nuns Find Common Ground With Women on Death Row

The New Yorker has a remarkable, deeply reported story about an unexpected bond between women on death row in Texas and a small order of nuns outside Waco. The story by Lawrence Wright explains that a Catholic deacon ministering to six inmates awaiting death at a prison in Gatesville, Texas, struck upon the idea of connecting them with a "convent of contemplative nuns" called the Sisters of Mary Morning Star. The nuns initially rebuffed the request, then prayed on it, and decided to try. Wright describes the scene:

• "'We didn't know what to expect,' Sister Lydia Maria recalled of the initial prison visit. The nuns, in their gray habits, found the women dressed all in white. Deacon Ronnie said words of introduction. 'Then something supernatural happened,' (inmate Brittany Holberg) recalled. 'It was just instant. There wasn't a moment of discomfort. There wasn't a moment of unease. We opened our arms and they opened their arms, and we embraced one another.'"

The two groups found common ground: The nuns, in a sense, live lives of isolation much as the inmates, only by choice. They even call their rooms "cells." Sister Lydia Maria, who is the convent's prioress, adds this: "We are not what the world would call beautiful women. We always wear the same clothes. The prisoners cannot be afraid of us. They cannot feel lower than us. There's nothing in our appearance to make them feel not beautiful or not elegant." (Read the full story.)