UPDATE: The Nuns On The Bus Go ‘Round And ‘Round

I know you are eager for updates about the Nuns On The Bus, who are going ’round and ’round, ’round and ’round.

An alert alerter in Columbus, OhiO, alerted me that The Nuns On The Bus rock tour has finally arrived!

There is a story in the Columbus Dispatch.  Some highlights:

A group of about 100 people greeted Roman Catholic nuns [Wow!  TENS of people came!] with cheers and applause yesterday as they made a stop on the North Side as part of a national “Nuns on the Bus” tour promoting social-service funding.  [Some might call it another thing.]

The tour comes despite a recent Vatican crackdown that said a nuns’ leadership group has focused too much on social-justice issues.  [Did you get that great non sequitur?]

The tour by Network, a Catholic social-justice lobbying group, seeks changes to a U.S. House-passed budget that it says favors tax cuts for the rich, to the detriment of the neediest Americans. The visit yesterday at the office of U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, is one of about a dozen congressional-office stops Network has on a schedule that started June?17 in Des Moines, Iowa, and ends on Monday in Washington.

[NB] Sister Simone Campbell, Network’s executive director, said Tiberi’s staff members offered the “ first substantive conversation of our visits,” [So, they have been polluting the atmosphere all this time… and for what?] and that they agreed that more revenue is needed but disagreed on income criteria for food stamps.

“The conversation we just had … was a gift because it indicated to me for the first time that there was some giveback, that there was some conversation,” Campbell told the crowd yesterday. “We could say we both agree revenue needs to be raised — I have a hunch we probably have a disagreement where, but at least we’ve got a starting point.”

Tiberi spokeswoman Breann Gonzalez said [follow the strand, now…] the congressman’s staff has a different view of the conversation but was receptive to the nuns’ concerns and did discuss the need for programs to help the most-vulnerable. [So, maybe the conversation didn’t go quite as well as Sr. Simone thought.]

[Now watch this!] “However, as a Catholic, Congressman Tiberi [Let’s see the Congressman on the issues HERE.] finds it ironic that during the heart of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ campaign against President Obama’s attack on religious freedom, this group did not once mention the importance of preserving religious freedom,” she said. [WHAT is this you say?!?  The Nuns On The Bus go ’round and ’round, but they don’t talk about the true burning issue for the Church as a whole?] “ Instead, they chose to discuss a bill that has already passed the House and is virtually dead in the Senate since the Senate hasn’t passed a budget in three years.” [BUT WAIT!  They… they… they… they have a whole BUS!  They are rotating!  Their bus gig was a gift of the Spirit!]

[…]

Network also had planned a “Friendraiser for Economic Justice” last night at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Clintonville.  [Niiiiice.]

I hope this tour never ends!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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22 Comments

  1. Frank H says:

    I almost went to check this out, but my backyard hammock convinced me I had better things to do. I wonder why they had to meet at a UU location? Were there no sympathetic Catholic parishes in all of Columbus?

  2. TNCath says:

    Perhaps this crusade’s name should be changed to “Nuns on the Run”? I could go even farther, but charity and decorum would not permit that.

    I can only imagine what riding on that bus would be like, with cassette tapes of the music of the St. Louis Jesuits, Joe “Bathe Me in Your Love” Wise, Carey “Only a Shadow” Landry, and Ray “Allelu, Allelu” Repp blaring whilst the Sisters croon along.

  3. majuscule says:

    Wow, NARAL gave gave Representative Tiberi a 0% rating, while my “Catholic” female Representative got 100%.

    Maybe I should move.

  4. Angie Mcs says:

    TN Cath, don’t forget “Kumbaya” on their play list.

  5. jessicahoff says:

    So, even with biased reporting, hardly anyone cares?

  6. Indulgentiam says:

    TNCath—hysterical!! Sitting in my doctors office so snorting laughter will probably have them drawing a blood alcohol level. The nuns on the bus are of the Res., on the run and headed for ruin. Heaven help them!

  7. Gail F says:

    Here is a piece I wrote on their stop in Cincinnati. I counted numerous times to be sure I was accurate — there were about 30 people there to meet them, and by the time Sr. Simone began her talk, there were 100 total, including the other media (local television, a reporter of some type, Bill Moyers people, and one or more other documentary filmmakers), invited guests on the bus (only two sisters actually ride it all the way), and people who came off the square to see what was going on. So maybe 60 supporters:
    http://thecatholicbeat.sacredheartradio.com/2012/06/25/nun-bus-stops-at-fountain-square/

  8. kap says:

    Two items of interest to add to the conversation….ACORN’s Wade Rathke ‘gets on the bus and throws the Church under the bus’….http://chieforganizer.org/2012/06/19/time-to-leave-the-church-and-follow-the-nuns/
    And Mary Ann Kreitzer drove the point home in her post….http://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/2012/06/nuns-on-bus-go-wa-wa-waas-they-shill.html
    I had a Sr. of Mercy tell me that “the train has left the station”….I always wondered what she meant…then I found some of their goddess worshipping prayers. Prayers for conversion continue!

  9. Springkeeper says:

    I finally looked at the Nuns on the Bus website and followed their link to the budget they support, the so-called “Faithful Budget”. <>
    It is completely socialist and supports more money for sex and HIV education and prevention in schools among many many other things. Some of what it calls for: severe cuts in military spending, spending a lot more on “climate change” and “green” energy, increases in the number of people on food stamps and welfare, steep tax increases, more money to illegals, etc. etc. Their whole trip is to protest a Republican budget. Double sigh.

  10. Kerry says:

    Transubstantiation out ranks “first substantive conversation”, every time.

  11. Elizabeth D says:

    “this group did not once mention the importance of preserving religious freedom” Ha! HIGHFIVE to Congressman Tibieri’s staff. Sr Simone made it clear enough when we went to see her in Janesville, WI, and brought this up with her, that this is not among her concerns.

    Gail F’s interesting article linked in her comment has a special guest appearance at a bus nun event of “womynpryst” Janice Sevré-Duszynska who is PRECISELY the one who famously “shook her ordination tambourine” as featured in this classic WDTPRS post https://wdtprs.com/2011/11/fishwrap-promotes-a-sermon-by-a-wywymprystess/ I would post a link to Fr Z singing (quite well) that song that was subsequently created “Hey lady tambourine priest, liturgize for me…” but if I have two links my comment will go into moderation.

  12. Gail F says:

    kap: Thanks for that link to the ACORN guy’s blog. VERY interesting… If you know a vine by it’s fruit, it’s interesting to see who is rallying to the nuns: ACORN, Roman Catholic Womanpriests, people who know nothing about Christianity, media looking for a novelty story on a slow news day.

  13. Elizabeth D says:

    Yes Gail about who is rallying around them… in Janesville the supporters included fallen away Catholics that go to a former monastery that “went non canonical” where there is a lay led so called “eucharist” on Sundays, members of the pro-homosexual group “Dignity”, “recall Gov Walker” union protesters from the capitol, atheists, etc.

  14. AnnAsher says:

    So the “Catholic” Nuns are hanging out in a “church” that denies the Holy Trinity? And they don’t know why the Vatican wants to discipline them?!
    Those Unitarian Universalists are a scary bunch. Spiritually scary. Years ago I had to give a presentation at one of their meeting places. I didn’t know what they were. As I realized, I felt icky and spiritually oppressed – couldn’t leave fast enough!

  15. magnificatlady says:

    Oh my goodness, I hope this tour never ends! I have not laughed this much inquite some time! Just when I thought my stomach couldn’t take anymore of my giggling, I clicked over to the Sister Tamborine song. Classic! Comedy Gold!!
    God Love You!

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  17. Bryan Boyle says:

    Boy, this story, like the gift certificate for a year’s worth of jam and jellies in “Christmas Vacation”, as cousin Eddie said, is ‘the gift that keeps on giving, all year long’.

    What’s sad is they actually take themselves seriously. Remember the scene from the first “Police Squad” movie…when Drebbin and his Sergeant are walking on the dock to the scene of the crime and there’s a cop standing there, yelling into his PA system to ‘Please Stand Back’ in front of 2 bystanders who were just staring ahead?

    Just so much rich material for stand-up here. Maybe even reprising cousin Eddie’s Winnebago (‘ain’t she a beauty, Clark?”) as a symbol for the clapped-out, broken-down, out-of-touch purveyors of this traveling circus.

    Sad.

  18. PostCatholic says:

    Network also had planned a “Friendraiser for Economic Justice” last night at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Clintonville.

    Well, we are open to all.

    So the “Catholic” Nuns are hanging out in a “church” that denies the Holy Trinity?

    Historically, that may have been true of Unitarians. Today, there is no creed in our church. I have Unitarian Universalist friends who believe in the Trinity, and there a few congregations actually organized around that belief.

    Those Unitarian Universalists are a scary bunch. Spiritually scary.

    Boo!

  19. The Cobbler says:

    “Historically, that may have been true of Unitarians. Today, there is no creed in our church.”
    Okay, I’ll bite… What is the lack of a creed based on, why is whatever it’s based on not considered a creed, and can one be a Unitarian Universalist and dissent from the stance (and/or whatever it is based upon) that the church has or should have no creed?

  20. acardnal says:

    So PostCatholic says “there is no creed in our church. I have Unitarian Universalist friends who believe in the Trinity, and there a few congregations actually organized around that belief.”

    Sound like a perfect “belief community” for the LCWR leadership. No creed and they can believe in whatever so called truth appeals to you personally .

  21. PostCatholic says:

    They’d be welcome, acardnal. A congregation (not each individual within one, though) has to affirm our principles. Not too long ago, the UU congregation in Tulsa merged into a church that had been declared “heretical” by its Pentecostal governing board .

    Some of those might be difficult for a Catholic organization, though. And if those nuns believe in the necessity of priests to confect the Eucharist as a central tenet of their faith (I suspect, even if they may not be exemplary Catholics to you, most of those sister do believe in sacraments), they’d probably have a lot of difficulty joining up with our faith where we have no priests. But the welcome mat is out.

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