Matthew 25:

Chaput, who goes by Sister Ann in Lowndes County, was a teacher and principal in Chicago when she decided, several years ago, to become a nun. She moved to the rural Alabama county and started operating the Good Shepherd Catholic Mission in the otherwise all-Protestant and almost all-black community of Mosses.

Now she lives in a house in Mosses with retired 74-year-old Sister Frances Schaeffer. Her work is part of the ministry of The Edmundite Missions in Selma, which has been operating outreach missions in Alabama’s Black Belt, a mostly poor region named for its rich soil, since 1937. Chaput, who is of the Sisters of Charity, BVM, of Dubuque, Iowa, said she was struck by the vast needs the first time she visited Mosses, which is only about 35 miles southwest of Montgomery on the map but a world away when it comes to the lifestyle.

The 2000 Census listed Lowndes County as one of the 100 poorest counties in America.

"There are hungry people here. There are people here who are cold. There are people here who don’t have running water," Chaput said, taking a short break from supervising a food pantry operation that gives food to rural Lowndes County churches, which distribute the supplies to needy members. "There are warm and loving and needy people here. How can you not be touched by that?"