At Democratic convention, ‘Nuns on the Bus’ sister rips Ryan budget, says USCCB backs her views
CWN – September 06, 2012
Hours after telling a reporter that she does not know whether abortion should be illegal, the executive director of the social justice lobby Network addressed the Democratic National Convention and blasted the budget proposed by vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
“Paul Ryan claims his budget reflects the principles of our shared Catholic faith,” Sister Simone Campbell told the delegates. “But the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that the Ryan budget failed a basic moral test, because it would harm families living in poverty.”
“We agree with our bishops, and that’s why we went on the road: to stand with struggling families and to lift up our Catholic sisters who serve them,” she added. “Their work to alleviate suffering would be seriously harmed by the Romney-Ryan budget, and that is wrong.”
Sister Campbell, who revealed in a June talk that she is uncomfortable calling herself pro-life, also said that her support of President Barack Obama’s healthcare program is part of her “pro-life stance.”
“We all share responsibility to ensure that this vital health care reform law is properly implemented and that all governors expand Medicaid coverage,” she said. “This is part of my pro-life stance and the right thing to do.”
Sister Campbell attracted national media attention early this summer when she organized a “Nuns on the Bus” tour to protest the Ryan budget plan. She and the Network lobby have been prominent in their support of liberal social programs, including the Obama administration’s health-care reform. In June, a Charlotte newspaper reported that in an appearance there Sister Campbell had “scorned the US bishops for their continued opposition to the health insurance law.”
In April, a Vatican critique of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious cited the group’s ties with Network as a source of concern, noting the failure of the group to take a public stand in defense of human life.
Sister Campbell’s statement about the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ criticism of the Ryan budget is a reference to a May letter by Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, the chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
“The Catholic bishops of the United States recognize the serious deficits our country faces, and we acknowledge that Congress must make difficult decisions about how to allocate burdens and sacrifices and balance resources and needs,” Bishop Blaire said in his letter to all members of the House of Representatives. “However, deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility efforts must protect and not undermine the needs of poor and vulnerable people. The proposed cuts to programs in the budget reconciliation fail this basic moral test.”
During the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ June meeting, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing criticized the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for its opposition to the budget plan put forward by Ryan.
“There have been some concerns raised by lay Catholics, especially some Catholic economists, about what was perceived as a partisan action against Congressman Ryan and the budget he had proposed,” Bishop Boyea said. “We need to be articulate only in principles, and let the laity make these applications … It was perceived as partisan, and thus didn’t really further dialogue in our deeply divided country.”
“I’m not sure that we have the humility yet not to stray into areas where we lack competence, and where we need to let the laity take the lead,” he added. “We need to learn far more than we need to teach in this area. We need to listen more than we need to speak. We already have an excellent, fine Compendium [on the Social Doctrine of the Church].”
Echoing Bishop Boyea’s comments, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City said at the June bishops’ meeting that the committee is “at times perceived as partisan” and needs to consider the principle of subsidiarity, which has been “neglected in past documents.”
In August, Ryan’s own bishop came to his defense.
Making clear that he was endorsing no candidate, Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison praised Ryan as a Catholic who “is very careful to fashion and form his conclusions in accord with the principles” of Catholic social doctrine.
“It is not for the bishop or priests to endorse particular candidates or political parties,” he said before distinguishing between intrinsic evils and policy decisions on which Catholics of good will may legitimately disagree.
“Making decisions as to the best political strategies, the best policy means, to achieve a goal, is the mission of lay people, not bishops or priests,” Bishop Morlino added. “Thus, it is not up to me or any bishop or priest to approve of Congressman Ryan’s specific budget prescription to address the best means we spoke of … Vice Presidential Candidate Ryan is aware of Catholic Social Teaching and is very careful to fashion and form his conclusions in accord with the principles mentioned above.”
Additional sources for this story: See www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15495
Questionable credentials
Dissident nun to offer election tips for Catholics at Holy Names University
September 5, 20121
cal-catholic.com/wordpress/2012/09/05/questionable-credentials/
Fresh off a speaking gig at the Democratic National Convention, dissident nun Sr. Simone Campbell is slated to lead a workshop for Catholic voters on Sept. 16 at Holy Names University in Oakland.
The workshop, co-sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Justice Organizers, Leaders, Treasurers (JOLT), has been promoted for some time on the homepage of the Diocese of San Jose: “Election Workshop Presented by Sister Simone Campbell SSS of NETWORK,” with a link to a flyer promoting the event — but with no reference of any kind to sister’s questionable credentials.
Sr. Campbell is executive director of the “social justice” group of women religious known as NETWORK, perhaps most famous for urging passage of Obamacare in 2010 in open defiance of U.S. Catholic bishops. NETWORK’s defiance — along with the Catholic Health Association — prompted this response from Madison, Wis., Bishop Robert C. Morlino: “The Lord Jesus Christ, unworthy though the bishops are, called the bishops to lead the people in faith; He did not call anybody in the Catholic Health Association and he did not call any of the Sisters in Network.”
This year, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its April 18 “Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious,” it specifically mentioned the LCWR’s ties to NETWORK as one of the issues of concern.
Sr. Campbell dismissed those concerns. “Speaking at a Jesuit parish in Charlotte, the executive director of the social justice lobby Network disparaged Vatican officials and US bishops as ‘inexperienced’ in pastoral work and revealed that she is uncomfortable describing herself as pro-life ‘because of my pride,’” reported Catholic World News on June 13. “After speaking on the importance of civility in political discourse, Sister Simone Campbell dismissed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s efforts to reform the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) as a ‘Vatican kerfuffle’ and, in the words of the Charlotte diocesan newspaper, ‘scorned the US bishops for their continued opposition to the health insurance law.’”
Even the New York Times calls NETWORK “a liberal Catholic lobbying group.” The Catholic Thing blog recently observed that Sr. Campbell’s “views of Catholic social teaching line up neatly with the Democratic Party platform” and that she serves as an “‘alternative hierarchy’ for those seeking Catholic endorsement of a progressive agenda.”
In June, Sr. Campbell led 14 like-minded sisters on the notorious “nuns on the bus” tour of nine states to protest U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget. “The tour was organized by Network, a Washington-based Catholic social justice group criticized in a recent Vatican report that said some organizations led by nuns have focused too much on economic injustice while failing to promote the church’s teachings on abortion and same-sex marriage,” The Associated Press reported. “The Vatican asked U.S. bishops to look at Network’s ties to another group of nuns it is reorganizing because of what the church calls ‘serious doctrinal problems.’”
“Sister Simone Campbell, Network’s executive director, said while the tour may appear to have been organized to counter recent criticism of social activist nuns by the Vatican and American bishops, it was not,” The Associated Press report continued. “The timing was in response to consideration of the federal budget in Congress, she said.”
As for Sr. Campbell’s speaking engagement at the Democratic National Convention last night, NETWORK issued a news release saying it was “pleased to confirm that Sister Simone Campbell has accepted an invitation to speak at the Democratic National Convention on the evening of Wednesday, September 5. This will provide an important opportunity to talk about what she has learned after decades of work for social and economic justice.”
“We also regret that no similar invitation was extended by the Republican National Convention and that, despite our efforts, NETWORK was unable to find a venue there for sharing information about economic justice rooted in Catholic Social Teaching,” the news release stated.
The Sept. 16 “Election Workshop” by Sr. Campbell being promoted on the San Jose diocesan website is scheduled from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Boulevard, in Oakland. A logo accompanying a flyer announcing the event bears the slogan, “Catholics Vote for the Common Good.”
In her speech last night, Sr. Campbell told the Democratic convention that the Ryan budget plan was immoral, and she reiterated her support for Obamacare.
Catholic Nun & DNC Speaker Simone Campbell on Abortion: ‘That’s Beyond My Pay Grade’
Sep 5, 2012 • By JOHN MCCORMACK
www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/catholic-nun-dnc-speaker-simone-campbell-abortion-s-beyond-my-pay-grade_651775.html
Sister Simone Campbell is a Catholic nun and liberal activist who has earned a lot of media coverage this year for criticizing the Paul Ryan budget while riding around the country on a bus. Tonight at the Democratic National Convention, Campbell will be speaking from the podium against the Ryan budget.
But how does Campbell, a Catholic who says she believes abortion is the taking of an innocent life, weigh her budget concerns against her opposition to abortion? It turns out there’s not a dilemma because, as Campbell told me this afternoon at the Charlotte Convention Center, she doesn’t know if she supports laws protecting the lives of unborn children.
TWS: On the legal question, do you think there should be penalties against abortion doctors? I mean, should it be illegal to perform abortions?
CAMPBELL: That’s beyond my pay grade. I don’t know.
“The fact is my vast preference is that all women would have the support to carry their babies to term,” Campbell continued. “One of the things I find so horrifying in the Romney-Ryan budget is that they want to take those supports away. And then they claim they’re pro-life. That just drives me nuts!”
So Campbell knows that the Romney-Ryan budget is “horrifying” because it spends less on social welfare programs than Obama, but she’s agnostic about passing laws to stop abortions. According to one study, striking down Roe v. Wade would lead to 180,000 fewer abortions per year in the United States.
Sr. Simone Campbell: ‘I was comfortable with God not being named’ platform
By Jo Piazza
9/6/12
current.com/groups/news-blog/93894538_sr-simone-campbell-i-was-comfortable-with-god-not-being-named-platform.htm
Democrats broke into a platform fight on Wednesday over the need to restore God to the party’s official platform. After much infighting, they eventually made a change that restored language that was in the 2008 platform.
It now reads: “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”
Republicans had a field day with the godless platform. But was the change actually necessary?
We asked Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the Catholic social justice lobbying group NETWORK and organizer of the Nuns on the Bus tour, if a Democratic platform needs to explicitly acknowledge any deity.
“I was comfortable with God not being named. If you choose God, do you use Allah, Yahweh and all the various names?” Campbell, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, asked Current. “I think that is the challenge in such a diverse society.”
Campbell added, “Some people think that is the only way you can be a faithful person. For me, it is much more about shared values. In a society where we have many names for the divine, I think it will be hard to pick one.”
Campbell and her Nuns on the Bus gathered several hundred people in the basement of St. Peter’s Church in Charlotte Thursday morning to brainstorm what the Nuns on the Bus can do next. She tells us that the movement, which began as a fight against Paul Ryan’s social services–cutting budget, has taken on a life of its own.
Later this month a group of religious women in New York City will do a Nuns on the Ferry rally.
A group in Missouri has also taken up the mantle, and the NETWORK website provides the tools for pretty much anyone to become a nun on the bus.
“This has become open source. There is a kit for what you need. You can get these magnets and get a caravan together and you can be the nuns on the bus,” Campbell said.