The Nuns on the Bus Roll into Town

Sister Simone of the Nuns on the Bus

Yesterday around noon, a big blue bus pulled up across the street from the Capitol building. “Eye of the Tiger” played as the doors opened and the cheering crowd shifted to make a path to the stage. The celebrities of the day weren’t movie stars. They weren’t politicians. They were nuns. On a mission.

The “Nuns on the Bus” wrapped up a 9 state, 15 day tour with a press conference in Washington, DC. Led by Sister Simone Campbell, the nuns are on a mission to shed light on the disastrous effect the Ryan Budget would have on many Americans, particularly the communities nuns serve.

By highlighting the benefits of programs like job training and soup kitchens, the nuns hoped to show how the Ryan Budget would hurt those who rely on such assistance.  

The press conference included a combination of rock and roll played over speakers and group singing of traditional songs like “Down by the Riverside.” A mix of old and new, faith and modernity, much like the nuns’ appeal to morals and faith applied to issues of today.

The nuns oppose the Ryan Budget on the grounds that the cuts conflict with their faith-based social justice beliefs. The programs which stand to lose funding include Head Start, child care, Pell Grants, food stamps, Medicaid and TANF while the budget would increase already lavish tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.

NWLC staffers welcome the Nuns on the Bus

The cuts often would disproportionately hurt women, who are the majority recipients of many of the programs. Sister Simone (above) declared that these “crucial services for the most vulnerable must not be cut.”

Speaking to the crowd of supporters in the sweltering heat, Sister Simone called the program cuts a “guise of fiscal responsibility” that prioritize the wants of the rich over the needs of the poor.

The sisters proposed an alternative budget summed up, they said, as “reasonable revenue for responsible programs,” a “faithful budget.”

Sister Simone said she and others are “parched for an alternative to the partisan gridlock.”

The nuns shared stories of individuals they encountered on their tour, families with disabled children or struggling with unemployment that rely on these crucial programs the Ryan Budget would defund.

Fueled by social teachings of their faith on human dignity and working for those marginalized by society, the Nuns on the Bus are committed to “turn up the heat on Congress,” and find an alternative to the “immoral” Ryan Budget.