RNS continues its coverage of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday with a story by Adelle M. Banks and James Varney on people finding God-or not-in New Orleans: In the garden behind St. Louis Cathedral on Royal Street lies an incredible tangle of zig-zagging broken tree trunks and branches, mixed with smashed wrought iron fences. But right in the middle, a statue of Jesus is still standing, unscathed by the storm, save for the left thumb and index finger, which are missing. The missing digits immediately set off speculation of divine intervention, that in an answer to prayer the hurricane moved a bit east and didn’t directly hit the city.

Catherine O’Donnell’s story on the Sisters of Mary points out how this order of Catholic nuns founded in 1997 by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan is growing at a time when other Catholic religious orders are disappearing: The order is different from many others today in that members wear the traditional, floor-length habit, place strong emphasis on community life, and spend at least three hours each day in traditional communal prayer, some in Latin. Is something countercultural going on?