Apparently the Nuns On The Bus are still going ’round and ’round with their blatantly partisan political agenda.
From a reader:
The “Nuns on the Bus” tour has C-Bus for its next stop. This is the group that has been touring the country promoting the Democratic agenda. Spokesperson and media darling Sister Simone Campbell, you will recall, gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention. Sister Campbell has been an outspoken supporter of the new health care law, [think “tax-payer funding of abortion”, “HHS mandate”….] failing to get behind the bishop’s clear opposition and repeatedly calling the law “pro-life.” She has refused to speak out against the HHS mandate and, when confronted with her views on abortion, responded, “It is above my pay grade.” Really? I thought one of the primary missions in religious life is the evangelization of culture and the promotion of Catholic truth. It seems that abortion is well-within the pay grade of consecrated religious. And we wonder why the Vatican sees fit to reform the LCWR. [I don’t.]
Well, the plot thickens for the Nuns on the C-Bus. It seems that their main media stop is at none other than Ohio Dominican University: a Catholic college. [In the Diocese of Columbus.] This is not the first time that ODU has invited questionable speakers. In 2007 they invited dissident Sister Joan Chittister to give the commencement address.
In this political environment, and given the current investigation of the LCWR, it seems at the very least an act of grave imprudence to permit this event. It will cause inestimable confusion among the Catholic students of ODU, which I believe is the definition of scandal. This is reason #43264 for Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
P.S. I love the irony that the liberal wing of the Church so desperate want to minimize her “intrusion” into politics when it comes to issues of life and religious freedom, but they see absolutely nothing wrong with a representative of the Catholic Church coming to a Catholic university for the sole purpose of advocating a political position just weeks from a major national election, still less with the same representative giving a ringing endorsement of the Democratic platform by speaking at their national convention.
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The continuing failure of the USCCB to rein in these “Catholic” universities is deeply disturbing. That such schools continue in the apparent good graces of the Church supports the notion that they are teaching in accord with Catholic doctrine, which is all too often not the case. And moreover, they continue to spew out Pelosi-style
Catholicscatholics, which is a disservice to the Church and to our society.I happen to know that the Sisters who founded that university used to be 900 some strong. Their Mother in the 60s lost her arm rescuing children from a fire. The disintegration began after Vatican II.
Was invited by a friend/Dominican but did not attend due to:
A) not wanting to be perceived as partisan,
B) too long of a drive,
C) could not justify the time off work
Did not attend any Obama rallys for the same reason.
I appreciate the good sisters wanting to put the lie to Ryan’s uber orthodoxy but must admit I find them a little flaky.
“uber orthodoxy”
Isn’t that like being “very pregnant”? You either are or you aren’t.
ODU is a sad case. Around Columbus its nickname is Tower of Wicca.
I think this person is referring to Ohio Nuns on the Bus, which is sponsored by NETWORK but run by Cincinnati sisters. They left on a five-day bus tour today. Sr. Monica McGloin, who organized the trip, is an assistant state rep for Catholics for Obama and appeared prominently in an ad for Obama’s reelection.
More here:
http://thecatholicbeat.sacredheartradio.com/2012/10/09/new-nun-bus-sets-out-from-cincinnati/
I wrote the story, I am aware of the disconnect between some of their claims and their actions. As far as I know, I’m the only reporter who has asked (or at least printed) anything about their politics. The stories I’ve seen about them today are all the same old “wacky but good-hearted sisters speak truth to power” stuff.
As far as Ohio Dominican goes, we looked at it last year for our daughter. I found the campus kind of strange — there are photos of Dominicans and Dominican saint art EVERYWHERE, in every hallway, but there was no mention at all made of the Dominicans by anyone. Our affable guide asked if we were Catholic before showing us the chapel and said he was afraid of offending people by asking. “It seems like a reasonable question at a Catholic college,” I told him. When I asked the admissions person a Catholic question she had a theology professor call me. He was very genial. I told him that I was looking at some Catholic colleges and some of them were more Catholic than others, and how Catholic were they? He got flustered by my question, which was just a general one, and said that a couple of years ago there had been a problem with a commencement speaker (that must have been Joan Chittister mentioned above) but that there was a new president and nothing like that would never happen as long as he was there. Odd. Anyway, we chose a different college, but not primarily because of that.
Gail, the Dominican sisters are around the back of the college, separated by a parking lot. The older ones live in the Mohen Center and the others in the Motherhouse. They used to be the Dominican Sisters of St Mary’s of the Springs, but several years ago they combined with 6 other branches to be the Sisters of Hope. Few habits, no young women, just pooling resources. The Sisters used to run the college, but now it is run by a board of lay people. No idea whether that is strengthening its orthodoxy or not.
Correction, that would be Sisters of Peace.