Sister Simone Campbell, SSS: Democratic National Convention

The responses to Sister Simone's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte have been generally quite favorable. (Actually, the words I have heard are "Terrific", "Magnificent", and "Rocked the convention"! Among Sisters the opinion was, "She did us proud!") I would agree with those assessments. Sister Simone speaks her position clearly, with a passion and compassion that are palpable; she prudently limited her speech to the Ryan budget and the effect it will have on the poorest of our nation, especially without appropriate implementation of the Health Care bill. Clearly she sees this budget making of the US a country which betrays its own nature and charter rather than a country where we are truly "our sisters' and our brothers' keepers".

Very striking and effective were the people she brought into the convention simply by telling their stories. She did not exploit them. She gave them a voice and a place to stand on the podium. Who, when time comes to vote, could easily ignore the story of Matt and Mark, the 10 year old sole caregivers of a mom with MS and diabetes? Or that of Margaret who died of cancer because her lack of health care insurance didn't allow for proper or timely diagnosis? Nor did Sister Simone allow herself to simply be used by the Democratic party for its political ends. Some, for instance, have condemned Sister Simone's comments because she does not speak out against abortion and they criticize her as being fully aligned with all parts of the Democratic platform. But this is simply mistaken. When the Democratic "handlers" edited her speech and she felt the result was "too political", Sister Simone calmly noted that if these revisions were required they were free to find someone to fill her speaking slot. The Democratic handlers quickly agreed to "revise the revisions."

While Sister Simone did not mention abortion specifically in this speech, she did say that the Nuns on the Bus tour dealt with "a piece of my pro-life stance," thus implying a more extensive stance which she has addressed explicitly at other times. She also recalled the Nuns on the Bus motto: "Faith, Family, Fairness" and spoke often of "our shared faith" as well as referring to the Sisters' agreement with the Bishops on the immorality of the Ryan Budget.

Given the constraints of her situation I am even more impressed than I was earlier by Simone's capacity to hold a genuinely Catholic position, to speak for policy which supports Gospel values, and to eschew simplistically or blindly supporting a particular candidate or party platform. (She is very good at getting people to embrace her position instead!!) This is especially true in the face of movements to excise God and faith from the discussion. Way to go, Sister Simone!

Faithful Citizenship

Unfortunately,the high visibility given by the media to disagreements between LCWR with its partner in social justice efforts, Network, and the Vatican tended to obscure the significant agreement between the Nuns on the Bus and the USCCB on issues pertaining to the poor, the Ryan budget, and the nature of faithful citizenship. The situation was worsened by the failure of any Bishop to join in supporting the Nuns on the Bus project against Ryan's budget (an entirely separate issue from the affordable care act and the questions remaining to be resolved there) --- something I personally found to be very disappointing. But as I look back on the past two weeks, and especially the celebration of the birth of this nation on the 4th, the following reflection taken from the US Bishops' "Faithful Citizenship" is especially poignant and credible. For those Catholics who wish to divide faith from political action it will offer some significant challenges.

[[Our nation has been blessed with freedom, democracy, abundant resources, and generous religious people. However, our prosperity does not reach far enough. Our culture sometimes does not lift us up but brings us down in moral terms. Our world is wounded by terror, torn apart by conflict, and haunted by hunger. We renew our call for a new kind of politics --- focused on moral principles not on the latest polls, on the needs of the poor and vulnerable, not the contributions of the rich and powerful, and on the pursuit of the common good not the demands of special interests. Faithful citizenship calls Catholics to see civic and political responsibilities through the eyes of faith and to bring our moral convictions to public life.]] USCCB, Faithful Citizenship (2004)

Freedom for the Catholic is the power to be the person God calls us to be. It is the power to embrace and lead others to the abundant life proclaimed in the Gospel. It involves the capacity to love in ways which honor the covenant nature of human life and therefore, it involves a love which does justice. While accepting and transcending limitations are part and parcel of genuine freedom, significant economic poverty (NOT religious poverty) can prevent a person from being able to become the persons God calls them to be. Let us join together to work for the end of poverty and a nation marked by solidarity with one another which issues in genuine freedom. Our faith as well as our citizenship demands it.