Umber (51.4 — The Statues of the Saints)

“I wonder how Vera is,” Saint Cecilia murmured.

“As a matter of fact, Laramie was one of my stops,” Sebastian replied.  “Vera finally worked up the gumption to toss Leroy out on his ear–he had it coming–and now she’s trying to support herself, her little girl, and a deranged old Irish lady.  You know, the one who tells stories about the leprechauns being out to get everybody.  Now that Leroy is out of the picture, Vera finally brought out the little statue of me that Father Hoolihan gave her years ago when she became a Catholic.  I couldn’t communicate with her until she brought that statue out, because there isn’t one of me at the church in Laramie.

“So at last I was able to converse with her.  She is in the midst of a crisis, poor girl.  Her child is quite ill and may not survive.  Vera is afraid that she will be alone for the rest of her life, never to remarry, because those are the rules.”

“Can her daughter talk to statues?” Agnes asked him.

“No she has a different gift, but a potentially dangerous one, even though the girl has only good intentions.  That’s one of the reasons I needed to speak with Vera.  But I’m afraid I’ve upset her.”

“Well, why am I not surprised,” Theresa interjected.

“I told her that rules often serve a purpose, but that sometimes they are wrong.  ‘Vera,” I said, ‘ What if I told you that, in a few decades, it will be perfectly alright to eat meat on Fridays.  And if you want to go to Mass on Saturday instead of Sunday, that will be fine as well.  And some day the Pope himself will condone birth control.  And I have traveled far enough into the future to know that someday the Church will not condemn remarriage.’

“Vera was taken aback, and wanted to know how I could get to the future.”

Teresa and Catherine gasped in unison.  “You told her?!  You told her about—about—“

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