Nun who leads Network disparages bishops, hesitant to call herself pro-life

June 13, 2012

Speaking at a Jesuit parish in Charlotte, the executive director of the social justice lobby Network disparaged Vatican officials and US bishops as “inexperienced” in pastoral work and revealed that she is uncomfortable describing herself as pro-life “because of my pride.”

After speaking on the importance of civility in political discourse, Sister Simone Campbell dismissed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s efforts to reform the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) as a “Vatican kerfuffle” and, in the words of the Charlotte diocesan newspaper, “scorned the US bishops for their continued opposition to the health insurance law.”

In February, Network issued a statement “applaud[ing] the administration’s accommodation of religious conscience objections to the provision of insurance coverage for contraceptives to women at no cost to them.”

The Charlotte diocesan newspaper also reported that

Sister Campbell questioned many Catholics’ focus on that one issue [abortion], criticizing the pro-life movement as not considering the entire spectrum of Catholic social teaching, but then she acknowledged that "progressive" Catholics like herself have contributed to the discord between pro-life and pro-social justice Catholics.

"I have allowed a very narrow perspective on what is life, because I actually feel like I'm going to develop a rash or something if I use 'life' in that broader sense," she said.

She has avoided framing social justice concerns as "pro-life" issues, she said, "because I don't want to be thought of as in (the pro-life) camp. Because of my pride, as opposed to my faith."

We need "to reclaim the fullness of our faith," she said. We need to go beyond left vs. right, socialist vs. capitalist, she said: We are Catholic.

In its doctrinal assessment of the LCWR, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had expressed concern about Network, stating that

Bishop Blair presented further documentation on the content of the LCWR’s Mentoring Leadership Manual and also on the organizations associated with the LCWR, namely Network and The Resource Center for Religious Institutes. The documentation reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States. Further, issues of crucial importance to the life of Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching.

St. Peter’s Catholic Church, the Jesuit parish at which Sister Campbell’s talk took place, had planned to hold a Qur’an reading during Mass in June 2011 until the reading was abruptly canceled.

 

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Further information:

• Social justice advocate calls for 'meaningful conversation' (Charlotte Catholic News Herald)
• Catholic Charities honors organization that broke with bishops over mandate (CWN, 4/17)
• Jesuit parish cancels Qur’an reading (CWN, 6/10/11)