Death Comes for the Archbishop Book 1, Chapter 3 Summary

The Bishop Chez Lui

  • It's Christmas Day, and we find the newly minted Bishop Latour writing letters in Santa Fe. It sounds like he was able to sort things out in Mexico because some special papers arrived for him straight from the Vatican (where the Pope hangs out). 
  • In his letters home to France, Latour talks about little things like the house he's living in and his buddy Joseph's sadness over the fact that he can't get proper salad oil in New Mexico. 
  • Father Joseph is an extremely good cook, so he makes the entire Christmas dinner himself. The two of them sit down to it and talk about growing vegetables in the U.S. versus growing them in France. It's actually pretty boring stuff.
  • Father Joseph asks just how large their Catholic diocese (or district) truly is. Latour tells him that they don't need to worry about this for the moment. The important thing is to establish themselves in Santa Fe before they start pushing outward and visiting more towns. Father Joseph, on the other hand, isn't interested in pushing much farther west than they already have. He looks forward to the end of his work in North America because he hopes to return to France and live in a peaceful monastery some day. 
  • Outside, they hear gunshots and people yelling. But Father Joseph reassures Latour by saying that it's nothing important. It's just a bunch of drunken cowboys out partying.