The enormous graphically decorated “rock star” type bus pulled up in front of the office of Tim Murphy, (R) in Mt. Lebanon and stops before a cheering crowd. A couple of men in suits start a chant to welcome them. “The nuns on the bus say fairness now,“ fairness now,” to the tune of a children’s folk song. Looking around at the crowd, I’m guessing many of them learned fairness principles from the nuns while they were in grade school. It’s one of the principles they taught and one of the principles they live, as they operate social services agencies and hospitals around the country, serving the poor and disenfranchised.
Sr. Simone Campbell disembarks waving, along with several other sisters from Network, a social justice lobby in Washington DC. They’re on a two-week tour of the Midwest to highlight the need for economic justice in our country’s budget. They visit the representative’s staff and then talk with the crowd of mostly seasoned activists, holding signs that attest to the sisters’ moral authority –
“Do Corporate Prophets help all people? Nuns do!”
The nuns have been in trouble lately, some say for their support of the health care bill. While the American bishops were worried about contraceptives in health care plans, the nuns worked to help the bill that would insure 40 million people will have health care.
The Vatican assigned a male representative to oversea these “radical feminist,” whose message is about economic justice. Their tour is to highlight the disaster to the poor and middle class of the Ryan budget.
Sr. Simone taught us their chant. “Reasonable Revenue for Responsible Programs, Reasonable Revenue for Responsible Programs.” Sister urged us to chant this message at the state and local levels as well.
