from Moyers and Company
Weeks before Republican Paul Ryan was selected to run for vice president, Sister Simone Campbell — who heads NETWORK, a Catholic policy and lobbying group — hit the road to protest the so-called “Ryan budget” recently passed by the House of Representatives. She and some of her sister nuns rolled across the heartland on a bus trip designed to arouse public concern over what the Ryan plan would mean for social services in America, especially its slashing of programs for the poor. Sister Simone says his budget is inconsistent with Catholic social teaching. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops agrees.
But other Catholics say Sister Simone and the nuns have crossed a line. Robert Royal, editor in chief of The Catholic Thing and founder of the Faith & Reason Institute, believes that issues of economic inequality are being oversimplified and that the focus should be on creating a more dynamic economy for all.
It’s one of the hottest issues of this overheated summer and it’s on Moyers & Company this week (check local listings http://billmoyers.com/schedule/). Watch our field report from producers who rode along on the “Nuns on the Bus” tour, then join a passionate, candid discussion with Sister Simone and Royal.
Here’s an excerpt from this week’s show:
I hope that they keep on with their comments so that people will be able to learn what Ryan really has done in the past and so that people will find out about all the lies that he is telling the American people. I also hope that his mother will find out about his plan to cut Medicare and Social Security (if she doesn’t know yet), and will set him in a better course for the American people. I sure would like to know if Ryan receives holy communion being that he is catholic, if he does then he is commiting grave sins and he should repent before it gets worse for him.