Religion

xchrom

(108,903 posts) Sat Sep 29, 2012, 08:21 AM Sep 2012

Sister Act-ivists

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/28-6

***SNIP

Sister Simone Campbell, SSS is no habit-wearing slump. In fact, she told Stephen Colbert that she and other habit-eschewers were going back to their roots in wearing simple dress in order to be approachable and able to walk with the people. Dressed simply but with flair — a white blazer rolled up from the wrists and long blue patterned skirt — the head of NETWORK (A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby) stood before the Democratic National Convention on September 5 and spoke truth to power. NETWORK organized the Nuns on the Bus, a nine-state road trip that Sister Simone described as an opportunity to “stand with struggling families and to lift up our Catholic sisters who serve them.” Again and again, they found sad stories, great need and good work, and as Sister Simone told the Democratic party faithful, this “work to alleviate suffering would be seriously harmed by the Romney-Ryan budget, and that is wrong.”

To say that Sister Megan Rice would rather wear handcuffs than a wimple is an exaggeration (no one wants to wear handcuffs, but those headdresses were not that comfy either), but maybe not a large one. The 82-year-old Society of the Holy Child Jesus sister walked on to the “reservation” of the Y-12 Oakridge National Laboratory and into the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility in July with two friends. They passed signs that warned they were entering a deadly force zone to pour their own blood in the new $500 million building, marking the site as a place of suffering and blood-letting. Outside, they painted slogans, hung banners and waited for several hours to be arrested. It is, according to nuclear experts, the “biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex.” Y-12 spent $150 million on security personnel, equipment and procedures in 2012.

This is not Sister Megan’s first action, but it is the first to land her on the front page of the New York Times. In the article she decries the nuclear industry, pointing out that “We spend more on nuclear arms than on the departments of education, health, transportation, disaster relief and a number of other government agencies that I can’t remember.” Being a nun, she said, allows her to follow her conscience. “We’re free as larks,” Sister Rice said of herself and her older religious friends. “We have no responsibilities — no children, no grandchildren, no jobs … So the lot fell on us … We can do it. But we all do share the responsibility equally.”

That is a sentiment that many sisters share: not having a family means they have the freedom and responsibility to take risks. Sister Anne Montgomery certainly believed that. The Society of the Sacred Heart nun died at the age of 86 in August, leaving a long and rich legacy of peace making and risk taking. Waging Nonviolence contributor Kathy Kelly eulogized her beautifully here. The peripatetic peacemaker traveled to Iraq, Guantanamo, Jordan, the Occupied Territories and all over the United States. Liz McAlister, plowshares activist and cofounder of Jonah House (and my mom) wrote that Anne’s work:

'was the fruit of years of reflecting on the social teachings of the Catholic Church. Anne lived that prophetic, educational mission with courage and grace, whatever side of the prison walls she inhabited for more than 30 years. She was not just about abolishing weapons; she graced each space with a spirit of compassion. She again and again said: “Who’s going to do this if we don’t? If anyone should take risks, it should be [women] religious.”