There was a new problem on the horizon. Word had gotten out past the quiet local Brazilian jungle diocese in the amazon that very good things were happening in the tiny backwater mission. Church attendance was way up. Donations were way up. Converts were way up. Volunteers were way up. They had just taken on another new assistant pastor to handle the increases. New applications for nuns were way up. They had expanded all of their service and outreach ministries by ten-fold and they weren't incessantly complaining about the total lack of medical supplies. What was happening? People wanted to know!
And while the answer was simple - it was one that no one would dare say aloud. Nobody at the mission was going to tell anyone that an American medical doctor witch visiting Peru on vacation had tracked off into the jungle alone because she wanted to die. Two years later that doctor got herself kidnapped and was almost burned alive as a witch because she was *actually* a witch. Nobody was going to say that somehow the witch turned up at their mission in a coma 600 miles away from where she had gone missing. Nobody was going to say that once this doctor witch showed up she went straight into practicing ancient witch medicine there and was still doing it there in the mission six years later without a visa, passport, licensing, or any other documentation what so ever. She had been making ancient witch potions and using her witch powers because they had not gotten any actual medicine or medical equipment in the better part of twenty years... And this Doctor witch was helping to recruit and train witch nuns and Wesen nuns to do the same...
Neither the old Friar nor the Diocese officials were going to risk losing the only real doctor the mission had seen in over 50 years. They especially weren't going to risk losing a doctor who knew how to get by with nothing -no medical supplies- and who would sleep on a dirt floor, didn't want any recognition, or any pay. They were going to put every single resource of the world's largest church and charity organization into getting this all sorted out.
The old Bludbad knew exactly what to say and it was the truth. She was in fact an actual real life "medical doctor doing medical work." She was training nuns "in medical work" supporting the official purpose of their mission the best they were able to with what they had available. He simply left all the witch parts and the wanting to die parts out.
Luckily The Roman Catholic Church is an extremely large and well connected organization with a LOT of swing, very good lawyers, and plenty of resources dedicated to grinding through administrative headaches. Dr. Catherine Mendoza (formerly Rubel formerly Burkhart) had impeccable medical credentials in France where she was still licensed and had graduated President's list at her medical school in the USA. The old friar had ensured people very high up became determined that she wasn't going to be forced to sit on any park benches crying all night long or simply leave.
Fr. Antonio had documented that she had in fact donned the robes of their order and served faithfully in her widowhood. Dr. Rubel taken the name sister Caterina and had refused any personal recognition. She had given up her own bed to sick patients. She had taken to sleeping on the dirt floor the entire time she was here until he had married her to a faithful widowed parishioner. The Friar noted that she had not pursued marriage - he himself had insisted on her "Marriage" to prevent her from being murdered after being beaten and left for dead multiple times while serving the destitute in the jungle. And she had never let her many beatings prevent her from going back out into the jungle doing medical work for the destitute, again supporting the purpose of the mission. She continued to serve to this day. And he had documented all her reports of visions and instructions from "the man with the scars" who looked like the statue.
Literally many thousands of people had come here and had been healed by the good doctor and the nuns she had trained under the auspices of the order. Many more came out of the jungle to the mission because a nun from that mission had healed them out in the jungle. "We had to take her out of the robe because she is married, but if we made an exception for a married woman she would happily do all her medical work in the robe again solely for the glory of God." The old Friar told his superiors.
So the wheels of the church started grinding and soon she had all the official credentials she needed. They even agreed to give her an exception and allow her to once again wear the dark robe whenever she was there at the mission doing medical work with the nuns which made her happy.
She was married and things were wonderful with her husband. Things were different than they had been with Jess - that was an inferno of violence and passion kept afloat solely by her constant witching. This was a deep river of love, caring, friendship, and companionship that didn't need any witching.
For the first time in years she was able to accept gratitude from people without breaking down in tears or being constantly wracked by endless soul crushing guilt.