Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The “Nuns on the Bus” are revving up their engines for another national campaign, only this time the Catholic sisters are taking their mobile platform for social justice along the country’s Southern border to push Congress to pass immigration reform. Nuns on the Bus - Religion News Service:
“The ‘Nuns on the Bus’ is going on the road again!”
“This time we’re going out for common-sense immigration reform,” Sister Simone Campbell said to rousing applause.
Details of the latest tour are still to be announced, but the bus trip is expected to start at the end of the month, beginning in New York and winding up in California by way of Florida and the U.S. border with Mexico.
Campbell believes the right moment and the right issue are coinciding again, and like many longtime immigration reform advocates she is willing to back the current bill despite reservations.
“We want to amend it, yes, but we want to pass it. We don’t want to nitpick it to death. That’s what we did in 2007,” she said, referring to the previous attempt to overhaul immigration, which ended in failure.
The new “Nuns on the Bus” tour could also provide an opportunity for a breakthrough in church politics, since the nation’s Catholic bishops have also thrown their weight behind immigration reform, pushing for changes but putting a priority on getting the bill passed.
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Campbell said Wednesday that she and the American bishops are on the same page on immigration reform, and she has invited them to join her group at stops along the way later this month and in June. “They don’t have to ride on the bus,” she said. “They can come stand with us at the events.”
The Arizona Republic reports today the ‘Nuns on the Bus’ will stop in Arizona:
Nuns on the Bus will be in Arizona June 11-12 promoting immigration reform.
The tour, involving Sister Simone Campbell and 26 other Catholic sisters, is about to begin its second year of traveling the country on behalf of social justice. The nuns drew plenty of publicity and support last year.
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This tour will cover 14 states and Washington, D.C., and 6,500 miles.
The Arizona stops are at:
6 p.m. June 11 with Rep. Raúl Grijalva in Tucson.
9:30 a.m. June 12 with the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales. The organization, made up of Catholic groups on both sides of the border, provides humanitarian relief to migrants, social and pastoral support, and participation in immigration reform.
3 p.m. June 12 at the Phoenix offices of Flake and McCain.
6 p.m. June 12 at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, in the Sonntag Pavilion, for a “friendraiser.”
Malcolm Martindale of Phoenix says he plans to attend.
“The sisters need all the support they can get,” he said. “They are the true face of the Catholic Church right now.”
You got that right!
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