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The writer, a sister of Mercy, is president and chief executive of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

It took time, but I came to the conclusion I stick by today: being a Sister of Mercy was a gift from God, and so, too, was Frank appearing.

Sister of mercy: Sister Helen Prejean is best known for “Dead Man Walking,” her 1993 book that was turned into a movie with Susan Sarandon, who won a lead actress Oscar, in 1995.

“I heard the Agnus Dei / Oh, sister of mercy / I’ve been gone too long to say / and all around this place, I was a sad disgrace.”

She was credited by one contemporary as “a missionary, a teacher, a preacher, a Sister of Mercy, all in one”—but she deserves also to be remembered for her fearlessness, in uncovering a vicious and corrupt system, and her tirelessness in fighting to save vulnerable girls from the men who controlled it.