Sister Monica lives alone in a small house at the edge of a Roman Catholic college run by a community of nuns. She doesn’t want to reveal the name of the town where she lives, the name of her Catholic order, or her real name. Sister Monica lives in hiding, so that others may live in plain sight.

Now in her early 70s and semiretired because of health problems, she remains committed to her singular calling for the past 16 years: ministering to transgender people and helping them come out of the shadows. “Many transgender people have been told there’s something wrong with them,” she said. “They have come to believe that they cannot be true to themselves and be true to God. There is no way we can pray, or be in communion with God, except in the truth of who we are.” Read More