Text: “Okay so, I went to an all-girls Catholic school that was apparently extremely haunted. I went to middle school there as well, and the middle school was on the third floor of this Catholic school and it used to be the old boarding school and the dorms used to be upstairs. The third floor is right next to the belltower. So, there’s this story that there was this nun in the 1900s who got pregnant, and because obviously when you’re a nun you’re not allowed to be pregnant, she jumped off the belltower. People would say they could see her shadow in the belltower at night and there were several girls who also saw another ghost who used to go to the school, and several people reported seeing penny loafers that just disappeared underneath the stall in the girl’s third floor bathroom.”

Context: A school in El Paso, Texas, but both her parents are Mexican and she grew up spending time in both El Paso and Mexico. She was raised Catholic and speaks both Spanish and English.

Analysis: A’s ghost story might be meant to serve as a cautionary tale for the young and impressionable girls that attended A’s school. Catholicism often preaches very strict views on homosexuality and female sexuality, specifically celebrating women who choose to wait until marriage to have sex. Catholic nuns and priests are thought to be in a covenant with God and when they take their vows become celibate. A’s school ghost did not follow her vows and faced the consequences. Moreover, those who commit suicide cannot technically be buried in a Catholic graveyard with their family where the land has been blessed by a priest. Therefore the nun in becoming pregnant set her fate, and in her suicide permanently separated herself from God, so she suffers in the form of a ghost. Ghosts are primarily outside of the canon of Catholicism, although it is common in many churches to light a candle for your ancestors or in the earlier days of the Catholic church to tithe or donate money in order to reduce your ancestors time in purgatory for your sins.