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A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community
In the summer of 2012, Sister Simone Campbell and a group of fellow Roman Catholic nuns toured parts of the country to rally support against Congressman Paul Ryan's budget, a plan that cut vital social programs for the hurting poor and the struggling middle class. Prayer groups turned into rallies, and small town meetings became national media events. Sister Simone became a galvanizing force for progressives of all stripes and remains a driving force for programs and policies that support faith, family, and fairness.Rooted in a deep spirituality of compassion and service, Sister Simone gives voice to the hunger, isolation, and fear that so many people in America are feeling right now and shows us how we can create real transformation in our communities and in our own hearts through the contemplative life of prayer. Powerful, inspiring stories from the Nuns on the Bus tour and from Sister Simone's own life offer readers a fresh vision for a lived spirituality that is at the heart of today's progressive Christian movements working for change.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2014
55 people are currently reading
666 people want to read
About the author
Simone Campbell
6 books14 followersSister Simone Campbell has served as Executive Director of NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Lobby, since 2004. She is a religious leader, attorney and poet with extensive experience in public policy and advocacy for systemic change. Among her accomplishments while at NETWORK was the writing of the famous “Nuns’ Letter,” considered by many as critically important in convincing Congress to support the Affordable Care Act, and organizing and leading NETWORK’s “Nuns on the Bus” trips across the country to support economic justice and immigration reform.
Sister Campbell has received numerous awards and has been the keynote or featured speaker at many large gatherings, including the 2012 Democratic National Convention. She has often appeared in the national and international media, including recent appearances on 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She is also the author of “A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community,” which will be published in April 2014 by HarperCollins.
Sister Campbell has received numerous awards and has been the keynote or featured speaker at many large gatherings, including the 2012 Democratic National Convention. She has often appeared in the national and international media, including recent appearances on 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She is also the author of “A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community,” which will be published in April 2014 by HarperCollins.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
June 1, 2015
I became interested in Catholic social activist Dorothy Day because of David Brooks’ The Road to Character, so when one of my Goodreads friends told me that Sister Simone is the Dorothy Day of our times, I had to find out more about her. I like that she ranks solving poverty as the Number 1 moral issue of our times, but unlike Dorothy Day, who founded shelters and communal farms where poor people could live, Sister Simone is much more engaged with the political process. She’s an attorney who publicizes her message to politicians and journalists. Her bus tour –interacting with families across America between media interviews - sounds very much like a political campaign. Perhaps that’s the most effective method of change in this day and age, but I prefer Dorothy Day’s hands-on approach to social service.
Though I am not a Christian, my main interest in both these women is their melding of liberal economic politics with their religious lifestyles. I’m a religious woman, too, and I’ve been looking for a way to apply my political liberalism as a religious duty. I don’t know that this book helped with that, but it’s nice to know someone is out there doing it, even if she’s not of my religion.
I must admit that I skipped the Catholic teachings interspersed throughout the book, but I was 100% there for some of her points. The political right has hijacked religion as though they own it, and it’s high time some deeply religious people took it back. Poverty affects many more people than abortion and gay marriage. If we want to live in a truly moral society, let’s feed the hungry and house the homeless before we start looking into people’s bedrooms.
Though I am not a Christian, my main interest in both these women is their melding of liberal economic politics with their religious lifestyles. I’m a religious woman, too, and I’ve been looking for a way to apply my political liberalism as a religious duty. I don’t know that this book helped with that, but it’s nice to know someone is out there doing it, even if she’s not of my religion.
I must admit that I skipped the Catholic teachings interspersed throughout the book, but I was 100% there for some of her points. The political right has hijacked religion as though they own it, and it’s high time some deeply religious people took it back. Poverty affects many more people than abortion and gay marriage. If we want to live in a truly moral society, let’s feed the hungry and house the homeless before we start looking into people’s bedrooms.
October 2, 2014
Sister Simone Campbell is “a voice crying out in the wilderness” making way for the Lord in the streets of our States, in the halls of government. She puts action into the saying What Would Jesus Do. She and her fellow nuns, The Sisters of Social Justice, make up the organization called the Network. They address the issues of the poor, the working poor and immigration. She has had her share of bashers, including Pope Benedict’s Vatican and some Catholic Priests especially when she took on Paul Ryan’s budget which taxed the working poor while giving tax breaks to the richest top percent—but she didn’t back down, give up or remain quiet. Of course she is perfectly suited for her mission, because she is also an attorney who has served the legal needs of the poor.
In her memoir, which is centered on the Nuns on the Bus tour in 2012-2013, she takes the reader through her own spiritual walk, showing how each step she took, and each yes to God, brought her to the place where she could speak to; and influence public policy. She shares stories of real people hurting in our society—which has had for too long an “only the survival of the fittest” mentality which has created many of our social ills. Our way of government should not be a “me” mentality it must be a “we the people” to keep us strong. What would our nation be like if Pro Life didn’t equate a certain political party, and instead meant life is sacred not only from conception but through out the days of natural life until the final breath? That each human being was treated as if they were valuable and we all did what we could to assist of fellow human beings in reaching their full potential. Would there still be people living in their cars, and children on the streets? Would the mentally ill be warehoused in our prisons? Would the education of our children be lagging behind so many other countries? There is so much more, and Sister Simone’s book will have you asking yourself if there is something you can do too. 5 stars.
In her memoir, which is centered on the Nuns on the Bus tour in 2012-2013, she takes the reader through her own spiritual walk, showing how each step she took, and each yes to God, brought her to the place where she could speak to; and influence public policy. She shares stories of real people hurting in our society—which has had for too long an “only the survival of the fittest” mentality which has created many of our social ills. Our way of government should not be a “me” mentality it must be a “we the people” to keep us strong. What would our nation be like if Pro Life didn’t equate a certain political party, and instead meant life is sacred not only from conception but through out the days of natural life until the final breath? That each human being was treated as if they were valuable and we all did what we could to assist of fellow human beings in reaching their full potential. Would there still be people living in their cars, and children on the streets? Would the mentally ill be warehoused in our prisons? Would the education of our children be lagging behind so many other countries? There is so much more, and Sister Simone’s book will have you asking yourself if there is something you can do too. 5 stars.
July 13, 2017
I loved this book! If every religious resembled Sister Simone Campbell the world would truly be a better place. She is a true Christian dedicated to helping the most vulnerable in our country and she uses her bus trips to expose and work against the self serving politics of Paul Ryan and others like him; people who are unfortunately still at work applying their social darwinistic beliefs and punishing the poor for the sin of not being wealthy. Although I don't share all of Sister Simone's beliefs, I can not help but admire her whole heartedly as a honest human being fully committed to being her brothers' and sisters' keeper. She almost makes me wish I had joined her order!
November 28, 2020
This was a great read about some of the particulars about the passing of the Affordable Care Act as well as Sister Simone’s travels across the country. It was, at times, gut wrenching, too. I shed more than a few tears reading about suffering families.
December 30, 2016
Hooray for Sister Simone! I'm so glad that people like her exist in the world; brave, thoughtful, and just a little bit stubborn.
She writes very clearly about how she allows the Holy Spirit to move in her life, yet she's not at all proselytizing. She doesn't even mention g-d very often, if at all. As a Unitarian Universalist, this allows me to enter into her story in a way that I can't with some books that are all about the Big Man in the Sky. One of my favorite quotes from the book, in fact, is about her need to feel g-d in her life. She's a lawyer, among other things, and writes, "For months I hadn't had a client to represent or a court case to prepare and I needed to find other places to meet God." Her legal work with low-income clients had been meeting her need for g-d in her life, and it was moving to hear how much she needed that connection.
I also appreciated how she differentiated between being pro-life and pro-birth. I'm pro-choice, yet I respect the need to be in dialogue with people who are pro-life. Sister Simone makes it seem easy. At one point she writes, "In recent decades - even during the Obama administration - the abortion rate for everybody above the lowest 20 percent in income has gone down. For women in poverty, it has gone up. The numbers are clear: It's about economics!"
Her focus is more on the economics and needs of the lowest 20 percent than on Catholic teaching; I found it easy to relate to her without having to understand much of anything about Catholicism.
A welcome read.
She writes very clearly about how she allows the Holy Spirit to move in her life, yet she's not at all proselytizing. She doesn't even mention g-d very often, if at all. As a Unitarian Universalist, this allows me to enter into her story in a way that I can't with some books that are all about the Big Man in the Sky. One of my favorite quotes from the book, in fact, is about her need to feel g-d in her life. She's a lawyer, among other things, and writes, "For months I hadn't had a client to represent or a court case to prepare and I needed to find other places to meet God." Her legal work with low-income clients had been meeting her need for g-d in her life, and it was moving to hear how much she needed that connection.
I also appreciated how she differentiated between being pro-life and pro-birth. I'm pro-choice, yet I respect the need to be in dialogue with people who are pro-life. Sister Simone makes it seem easy. At one point she writes, "In recent decades - even during the Obama administration - the abortion rate for everybody above the lowest 20 percent in income has gone down. For women in poverty, it has gone up. The numbers are clear: It's about economics!"
Her focus is more on the economics and needs of the lowest 20 percent than on Catholic teaching; I found it easy to relate to her without having to understand much of anything about Catholicism.
A welcome read.
August 18, 2015
I’m a big fan of Simone Campbell. Her commitment to social justice issues and her outspoken advocacy for the poor makes her one of the most authentically religious people in America today. Her nonjudgmental approach to helping people combined with her targeted criticism of those who cloak regressive laws and opinions in faux religious garb gives me hope that religion’s better angels will eventually carry the day. That the Vatican attempted to censure her and other women religious for being too committed to working with the poor only underlined the importance of her work.
But I didn’t love A Nun on the Bus. It’s not bad. I just expected more. It’s a sweet memoir without specific calls to action, and while I enjoyed it, I was hoping it would be one of those books I could recommend to friends and colleagues. Instead I'd recommend one of her many interviews (I particularly like when she sits down with Bill Moyers, given his religious background).
Campbell continually refers to the religious teachings that underline her work, yet she never spells them out. Having heard her interviewed, most of the information in this book was already known to me. I even felt like she took a more circumspect approach in these pages than she does in interviews, which is a shame. Quasi-recommended.
But I didn’t love A Nun on the Bus. It’s not bad. I just expected more. It’s a sweet memoir without specific calls to action, and while I enjoyed it, I was hoping it would be one of those books I could recommend to friends and colleagues. Instead I'd recommend one of her many interviews (I particularly like when she sits down with Bill Moyers, given his religious background).
Campbell continually refers to the religious teachings that underline her work, yet she never spells them out. Having heard her interviewed, most of the information in this book was already known to me. I even felt like she took a more circumspect approach in these pages than she does in interviews, which is a shame. Quasi-recommended.
November 16, 2022
An interesting read to see a different perspective on the issue of social justice and the part each one of us needs to play to make a difference - it truly takes a village.
November 2, 2014
I reviewed "A Nun on the Bus" for America magazine (in the issue dated Nov. 10, 2014). My rating is 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for her message and her resilience. Here's a link to my review:
http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/...
http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/...
July 27, 2020
This was a light read about the activism life of Sister Simone Campbell, a woman religious in the Sisters of Social Service. For a nun, she was very political and outspoken. I chucked at how she skirted around the pro-life issue (she claims to be pro-life but her stance is decidedly for making abortion accessible). I was more interested going into the book in getting a peek at the life of a nun and what that's like - what are her thoughts, feelings, concerns about the Catholic church? What is it like to be a NUN?!
Sister Simone does touch on her feelings about the Catholic church to the degree that it allows her to address why she and her fellow Sisters went on the bus tour. I thought she was decidedly muted in this, though. For being a progressive, she doesn't say much about how the structure of the church is inherently patriarchal.
But I was impressed and admiring of her other activism work and her background as a lawyer; she uses these skills in concert with her religious connections to make waves in both California and in Washington, DC.
Sister Simone does touch on her feelings about the Catholic church to the degree that it allows her to address why she and her fellow Sisters went on the bus tour. I thought she was decidedly muted in this, though. For being a progressive, she doesn't say much about how the structure of the church is inherently patriarchal.
But I was impressed and admiring of her other activism work and her background as a lawyer; she uses these skills in concert with her religious connections to make waves in both California and in Washington, DC.
July 29, 2023
an inspiration for all of us who would follow Jesus
Sister Simone appeared last Sunday at our church, in our adult Sunday School class and then in the service telling the children about serving others. I went home inspired and ordered A Nun on the Bus. It’s been wonderful to read about her journey, both bus tours and how she and other nuns have inspired so many to speak out about poverty and our treatment of immigrants. She lives her faith as we all are called to do!
Sister Simone appeared last Sunday at our church, in our adult Sunday School class and then in the service telling the children about serving others. I went home inspired and ordered A Nun on the Bus. It’s been wonderful to read about her journey, both bus tours and how she and other nuns have inspired so many to speak out about poverty and our treatment of immigrants. She lives her faith as we all are called to do!
October 17, 2024
This book beautifully explains what Catholic social justice truly is, and how this religious sister and her fellow sisters and nuns are fighting the battle each day to help regular Americans maintain their dignity and get them the help they deserve and need. The stories that Sister Simone shared of the families she worked with, and who met with her on the bus tour were very touching.
March 2, 2019
I don't know if I can finish this book. Loved the prologue!!! Now a quarter of the way through, I am so tired of "I did this, I started this, I was asked to do this, I created this, I lead this, I solved every problem presented, I, I, I" . Just read the prologue and you'll be inspired.
January 19, 2025
Our book club read for January was inspiring. “The places where the sisters work are places that create relationships, beauty, a sense of community, solidarity, mission and connection.” I couldn’t agree more.
April 11, 2018
Hoorah for the nuns on the bus! I could be that kind of nun.
December 3, 2018
Loved Sister Simone’s book. Her life is inspirational - living the gospel with no hesitation.
July 27, 2019
Started slow, but overall it has an interesting message that may be more relevant now than when it came out.
Read
May 25, 2020Pretty good life stories of helping others. It showed me how nuns really do make a difference in this world.
May 29, 2023
This was full of good ideas applicable to my faith! Just a little hard to keep up with at times, sometimes going too fast during interesting parts and too detailed in other parts. Overall good.
July 1, 2024
I loved this book. Sister Simone is brave and kind and honest. It was so wonderful to read of her journey.
March 18, 2025
I believe I first heard about Sister Simone when I was in college and we were talking about social activism. I really r spect her life story and her work on behalf of marginalized people.
March 13, 2017
A Nun on the Bus is a book for “We the People,” meaning everyone.
Throughout the book, Sister Simone emphasizes the importance of including everyone in the conversation and building community for the 100%, not just the 99%. She is about inclusion and working on problems together.
This is a good philosophy for confronting social justice issues as well as global warming. After all, we are all living on the same planet.
I recommend A Nun on the Bus because it is a good story and we could probably learn a thing or two from Sister Simone about political action strategy.
Read the whole review at http://greengroundswell.com/a-nun-on-...
Throughout the book, Sister Simone emphasizes the importance of including everyone in the conversation and building community for the 100%, not just the 99%. She is about inclusion and working on problems together.
This is a good philosophy for confronting social justice issues as well as global warming. After all, we are all living on the same planet.
I recommend A Nun on the Bus because it is a good story and we could probably learn a thing or two from Sister Simone about political action strategy.
Read the whole review at http://greengroundswell.com/a-nun-on-...
February 9, 2015
Great writer, great person.
I am my sister’s keeper!
Come, Holy Spirit!
A contemplative life -- a life lived in awareness of the divine. The challenge of maintaining this awareness is to sit openhanded to receive all that comes. It is not possible to hold on to one thought, memory, or idea and continue the contemplative journey. It requires a willingness to live this moment as keenly as possible, always aware of the many dimensions of now. Staying openhanded, treasuring but not grasping, is critical to the contemplative stance.
The Holy Spirit upsets us because it moves us, it makes us walk, it pushes the Church forward. We want to calm down the Holy Spirit. We want to tame it and this is wrong.
- Pope Francis
Rich and famous are some of the most spiritually impoverished people
Two things that shut down the contemplative life are fear and grasping
I keep expecting the Church to be Christian
The problem is that the existing culture of the institutional Catholic Church is monarchical, and monarchs are threatened when the people speak up, when people take the initiative. Traditionally, monarchs never voluntarily give up power.
Sisters have historically been committed to serving the poor and marginalized as well as to pushing boundaries within the church.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio decried the ecclesiastical narcissism of a ‘self-referential’ Church. That 4-min address probably got him elected Pope Francis.
"Only someone who has encountered mercy, who has been caressed by the tenderness of mercy, is happy and comfortable with the Lord," Bergoglio said in 2001.
"We have to avoid the spiritual sickness of a self-referential church," Bergoglio said recently. "It's true that when you get out into the street, as happens to every man and woman, there can be accidents. However, if the church remains closed in on itself, self-referential, it gets old. Between a church that suffers accidents in the street, and a church that's sick because it's self-referential, I have no doubts about preferring the former."
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/...
“What are we among so many?”
The consistent 2000-year-old
ever-new response is:
“Blessed and broken, you are
enough.” I savor the blessed,
cower at the broken and
pray to be enough.
“Just own the house. Just own the house. It’s yours.”
“Just smile, enjoy it.”
Take some deep breaths.
“Just center.”
Oh my glory, I thought.
Nothing is certain in politics, that’s the one thing we know for sure. I also know that my spirituality calls me to walk willing with a broken heart - a brokenness that in the process of opening up releases hope for the many so that eventually justice for all our sisters and brothers may be realized. But until that day, we will stay in the struggle, walking in the dark and trusting that all things do work toward good.
No one event will ever be the single solution. We must continue to open ourselves to new experiences, to understanding new cultures and developments. No one way is the “right” way forward. The key to living my faith is to know that listening deeply, in a contemplative stance, leads to trusting that we will find the next step, that it will be made visible, and that it will be important in some way that is much bigger than myself, my own journey.
I am my sister’s keeper!
Come, Holy Spirit!
A contemplative life -- a life lived in awareness of the divine. The challenge of maintaining this awareness is to sit openhanded to receive all that comes. It is not possible to hold on to one thought, memory, or idea and continue the contemplative journey. It requires a willingness to live this moment as keenly as possible, always aware of the many dimensions of now. Staying openhanded, treasuring but not grasping, is critical to the contemplative stance.
The Holy Spirit upsets us because it moves us, it makes us walk, it pushes the Church forward. We want to calm down the Holy Spirit. We want to tame it and this is wrong.
- Pope Francis
Rich and famous are some of the most spiritually impoverished people
Two things that shut down the contemplative life are fear and grasping
I keep expecting the Church to be Christian
The problem is that the existing culture of the institutional Catholic Church is monarchical, and monarchs are threatened when the people speak up, when people take the initiative. Traditionally, monarchs never voluntarily give up power.
Sisters have historically been committed to serving the poor and marginalized as well as to pushing boundaries within the church.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio decried the ecclesiastical narcissism of a ‘self-referential’ Church. That 4-min address probably got him elected Pope Francis.
"Only someone who has encountered mercy, who has been caressed by the tenderness of mercy, is happy and comfortable with the Lord," Bergoglio said in 2001.
"We have to avoid the spiritual sickness of a self-referential church," Bergoglio said recently. "It's true that when you get out into the street, as happens to every man and woman, there can be accidents. However, if the church remains closed in on itself, self-referential, it gets old. Between a church that suffers accidents in the street, and a church that's sick because it's self-referential, I have no doubts about preferring the former."
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/...
“What are we among so many?”
The consistent 2000-year-old
ever-new response is:
“Blessed and broken, you are
enough.” I savor the blessed,
cower at the broken and
pray to be enough.
“Just own the house. Just own the house. It’s yours.”
“Just smile, enjoy it.”
Take some deep breaths.
“Just center.”
Oh my glory, I thought.
Nothing is certain in politics, that’s the one thing we know for sure. I also know that my spirituality calls me to walk willing with a broken heart - a brokenness that in the process of opening up releases hope for the many so that eventually justice for all our sisters and brothers may be realized. But until that day, we will stay in the struggle, walking in the dark and trusting that all things do work toward good.
No one event will ever be the single solution. We must continue to open ourselves to new experiences, to understanding new cultures and developments. No one way is the “right” way forward. The key to living my faith is to know that listening deeply, in a contemplative stance, leads to trusting that we will find the next step, that it will be made visible, and that it will be important in some way that is much bigger than myself, my own journey.
August 6, 2016
I received A Nun on the Bus as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
Sister Simone Campbell, as director of NETWORK, an organization of religious sisters devoted to economic justice issues, tells the story of her calling to the religious life, her increasing involvement in politics--eventually becoming a lawyer, Congressional lobbyist, and activist--and her experiences liaising with those in the highest echelons of power advocating for economic justice.
As someone who was raised Catholic and turned agnostic during young adulthood and remains so today, as well as a staunch liberal, this was a story I'd been wanting to hear for years. Having been raised in a church I found repressive and overly focused on a single issue (abortion, and perhaps gay marriage in more recent years), it was refreshing to read about a devout Catholic genuinely concerned with the quality of life after birth.
I won't lie--Campbell pulls no punches with those who disagree with her. It presents an unflattering view of the tea party and of much of the traditional power structures of the Catholic Church. If you're sensitive to criticism of either (or both) of these groups, this won't be a fun read. But for those who have perhaps felt marginalized by certain political, social, and/or religious movements in this country, it's an incredibly refreshing point of view, and I look forward to seeing what Sr. Simone and NETWORK achieve in the future.
Sister Simone Campbell, as director of NETWORK, an organization of religious sisters devoted to economic justice issues, tells the story of her calling to the religious life, her increasing involvement in politics--eventually becoming a lawyer, Congressional lobbyist, and activist--and her experiences liaising with those in the highest echelons of power advocating for economic justice.
As someone who was raised Catholic and turned agnostic during young adulthood and remains so today, as well as a staunch liberal, this was a story I'd been wanting to hear for years. Having been raised in a church I found repressive and overly focused on a single issue (abortion, and perhaps gay marriage in more recent years), it was refreshing to read about a devout Catholic genuinely concerned with the quality of life after birth.
I won't lie--Campbell pulls no punches with those who disagree with her. It presents an unflattering view of the tea party and of much of the traditional power structures of the Catholic Church. If you're sensitive to criticism of either (or both) of these groups, this won't be a fun read. But for those who have perhaps felt marginalized by certain political, social, and/or religious movements in this country, it's an incredibly refreshing point of view, and I look forward to seeing what Sr. Simone and NETWORK achieve in the future.
January 15, 2016
this book had a lot of potential. I got to pg 48 before saying I can't do this and stopped reading. the author uses a lot of political and catholic jargon and talks about things like I should know what she's talking about. for instance I have no idea how the governing body of the Catholic Church and convents work but she would talk about events like I should understand. she also sounded very full of herself and that she knew everything. I thought the book was boring and going nowhere. I also did not need to read about her grandparents and great grand parents, the fact her great grandpa (or maybe just grandpa, I can't remember or care to remember) went to church more after his wife died... what does that have to do with nuns on a bus?? I even spent my own money on his book and bought it randomly cuz it looked good. Maybe sister Simone Campbell has a good story but I guess I won't know cuz she delivers it in such a boring an dry way...
May 6, 2016
I saw Sister Simone Campbell when she was a guest on "Real Time with Bill Maher" and she was very impressive. This book seals the deal for me. This tells of Sister Simone's early life and commitment to a religious life and her commitment to social justice issues. A lawyer by education, she has worked in several areas to help people in poverty. Later, she headed up NETWORK, a D.C. based Catholic lobby group that focused on passing Obama care and immigration reform. Part of their strategy includes the "Nun on the bus" road trips to bring attention to the good works of charitable groups and point out the additional work that needs to be done and how the government can support this work. Very interesting lady who has done a ton of good work.
May 7, 2016
One of the best books I've read. Both a memoir of Sister Simone's religious life and a historical account of the activist and social work done by religious women around the country. I most appreciated the discussions on how important acting on behalf of the marginalized is essential to living a Christian life.
"A Nun on the Bus" highlights the innovative response that Sister Simone and her fellow religious women took after being condemned by the Vatican for focusing too much on social justice. This story shows how tension within the Catholic church exists and the outcomes can be influenced by the actions and responses of the people.
"A Nun on the Bus" highlights the innovative response that Sister Simone and her fellow religious women took after being condemned by the Vatican for focusing too much on social justice. This story shows how tension within the Catholic church exists and the outcomes can be influenced by the actions and responses of the people.
May 16, 2014
Straightforward story of Simone Campbell's life from her childhood in California to her work as a lawyer on behalf of poor families, as a lobbyist in Washington, and as a publicist for progressive policies---most recently immigration reform.
I have met her several times, followed her TV appearances, and have been a member of Network for many years, so her work was not news to me.
She is a passionate advocate, a voice for many who would not otherwise be heard. Five stars for her life and work.
I have met her several times, followed her TV appearances, and have been a member of Network for many years, so her work was not news to me.
She is a passionate advocate, a voice for many who would not otherwise be heard. Five stars for her life and work.
October 6, 2014
A nice read; it helped me to become more familiar with the "Nuns on the Bus" tour that I had occasionally followed in the news some years ago. I appreciated the tone with which Sr. Simone drew connections between the stories of people she met along the road and the more abstract policy debates occurring in Washington. Her writing highlights the value of personal relationships and meaningful conversations– especially in the realm of the civic responsibility she advocates in the final chapter– at a time when these are more necessary than ever.
November 1, 2015
I've heard Sr. Simone speak a few times. The last time I saw her, she reminded the audience that hope is found in community, not on our own. While there are a fair share of discouraging moments highlighted in this book, Sr. Simone's stories of the sisters' work before, during, and after the famous "bus" are a bright light. This little memoir will open your eyes to a different side of the faith community - the side that isn't constantly grabbing negative headlines, but instead is truly living the mission of Christian/Catholic social teaching.
March 3, 2015
I have heard Sister Simone talk in person and seen her on Bill Moyers. She never disappoints. Full of energy and humor, she tells it like it is. This is a story of her journey from childhood. Short and easy to read. As a non-Catholic, I found some of the most interesting parts are her encounters with the Catholic bishops. Now that "Frank" (she said that's what she calls him) is the Pope, I think things will be very different. She is an inspiration!
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