"Nuns on the Bus" Tour Wraps Up

The nine-state bus tour by Catholic nuns to protest Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan's "immoral" (their word) Rethuglican budget has now wrapped up with a rally on Capitol Hill. Ryan had used the false cover of "Catholic social teaching" to justify his draconian cuts in programs for the poor and vulnerable. As one of the tour leaders, Sister Simone Campbell said:

“Faced with long-term debt problems, they say we must immediately slash protections for the poor, even as they fight tooth and nail for trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy and explode the debt at the same time. And then they line the pockets of the wealthiest one percent in our nation. This is wrong. And they’re doing it under the guise of fiscal austerity.”

Nuns like Sister Simone are the true heart and soul of the Catholic Church. Would that they were running things rather than the Der Popenfuhrer and his right-wing pedophile priest protectors.

(Photo: "Nuns on the Bus" in Cleveland, Ohio, June 26)

Nuns Take The Fight To The Rethuglicans

A group of Catholic nuns have launched a bus tour to highlight the disastrous budget cuts proposed by right-wing Rethuglican Representatives that would shred the social safety net. Calling the tour "Nuns On The Bus," they're visiting ten Rethug Congressional offices representing the worst offenders, such as Iowa's Steve "Idiot" King and Wisconsin's Paul "Lyin'" Ryan, to publicize the Social Darwinist / Ayn Rand-style approach that the Rethug House has taken toward the budget. It's also fitting that the tour visits these two nominal Catholic Rethugs, whose philosophy is more akin to Ayn Rand's than to Jesus Christ's.

In a day when the Catholic Church seems more focused on limiting women's reproductive rights and protecting their pedophile priests, it's uplifting to see Catholic nuns practicing what their religion actually teaches concerning the poor and sick.

Sunday Cartoons

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(Top - Mike Luckovich; lower - Pat Oliphant; via gocomics.com)

Catholic Nuns Fight Back

It seems the Vatican's recent attempt to intimidate and silence American Catholic nuns (accusing them of "radical feminism" for not being in lockstep with a few Rethuglican bishops) isn't working so well. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, representing over 80 percent of the 57,000 American nuns, has issued a statement saying the Vatican crackdown attempt "...caused scandal and pain throughout the church community and caused greater polarization."

As E.J. Dionne notes:

"Progressive Catholics are alarmed by a lot of things these days, but I don’t think anything galvanized them like the move against the sisters. I hope the bishops are aware of how much discontent they are creating across a broad front among faithful Mass-attending Catholics who see the institution’s leadership lurching sharply to the right. Ever since I wrote a column in which I explained why I am not quitting the Church, I have heard from a lot of Catholics who are thinking of doing just that, or already have. Surely the bishops don’t want to shrink a great institution into a modest-sized sect. I’d like to hope that the Holy Spirit is operating through the nuns."

We'd like to hope Dionne is right, and the courage of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious gives us reason to be somewhat optimistic. But the history of the church since the death of Pope John XXIII has been one of an inexorable march to the right and, in the U.S., a disturbing trend of some high-profile, morally-compromised bishops working hand-in-glove with Rethuglicans and their talibangelist base.

BONUS: Let's hope E.J. doesn't read this.