The Salesian Sisters Question God
The Salesian Sisters of St. Bosco have attended Spurs games since 1999 — five championships, three decades of devotion. Sunday morning they entered the chapel with a question for God.
SAN ANTONIO, TX — Sister Immaculata Ferrusquía, 74, entered the chapel at 6:47 a.m. She had not slept.
The Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco have attended Spurs games since 1999. All five championships. Tim Duncan. Ginóbili. Popovich looking at a referee the way a man looks at something he has decided not to dignify. Habits. Seats. Decades.
Saturday night, the Knicks won.
She lit a candle. She had already lit several.
The Salesian order is not given to crisis. Their charism is patience. They have brought it to the San Antonio Spurs for nearly thirty years. Sunday morning they brought a question instead.
“Not a complaint,” said Sister Josefina Villanueva, 68. “A sincere inquiry. With all due respect.”
The inquiry: Why the Knicks?
God’s plan is not always legible; they have taught this to children for decades, in rooms that smelled of chalk and candle wax. But New York won the championship last night — fifty-three years — and the Sisters have submitted, as of 7:15 a.m., that it is at least worth asking why.
Sister Immaculata stared at the candle.
“He knows we’ve been here,” she said. “He knows.”
