If heaven does exist and if President Donald Trump somehow manages to cross its border, he will likely encounter two nuns who prayed outside the Broadview ICE detention center in suburban Chicago every week for 19 years.

JoAnn Persch and Pat Murphy of the Sisters of Mercy became known as “Rabble” and “Rouser,” respectively, in the course of their mission. Murphy was 96 when she died on July 17. Persch, her holy sidekick, kept it up each Friday—in person if she was able, on Zoom if not. She also planned to make a brief trip to New York in early December to cheer a priest who was walking 800 miles from Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home to Ellis Island in support of immigrants.

“I will be in New York late afternoon on Dec. 1st and leave midday on Dec. 3rd,” she texted me on Nov. 10. “When I am

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