Catholic nuns and Franciscan friars call Romney out on his views about the poor

On August 8, Catholic nuns, NETWORK, who did the “Nuns on the Bus” campaign, called Romney out on his views, in a recent campaign ad, concerning the poor and challenge him to spend a day with them to see how much damage his proposed cuts would do to the poor.  They want to show him the plight of the poor, stating that the poor are not lazy, but work hard just to survive.

The campaign ad Romney aired upset and disturbed the two Catholic groups, of which Sister Simone Campbell, NETWORK’s executive director said “demonizes families in poverty” and shows Romney’s “ignorance about the challenges” the poor face in America, as they struggle to meet their needs.

“He thinks they’re lazy,” Campbell said, in reference to Romney’s misleading welfare reform ad. “It is hard work to keep things together when you’re poor. He doesn’t have a clue. Let him talk to them, and maybe they’ll touch his heart. And his mind too.”

“Recent advertisements and statements from the campaign of Governor Romney demonize families in poverty and reflect woeful ignorance about the challenges faced by tens of millions of American families in these tough economic times,” stated Sister Simone Campbell. “We are all God’s children and equal in God’s eyes. Efforts to divide us by class or score political points at the expense of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters reveal the worst side of our country’s politics.”

The next day, a group of Franciscan friars, called the Franciscan Action Network (FAN), who work with the poor concerning hunger relief and mental health, called on him on his comments and asked him to spend a day with them in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to spend a day with the poor.  The group called Romney’s ad hypocritical, because it stated that Romney’s plan would ensure low-income people work, even though the GOP endorsed budget cuts to job-training programs.

[Rhett Engelking, OFS, a lay Franciscan in Milwaukee] said, “Wisconsin is getting a lot of attention as a swing state, and political leaders talking about the poor in demeaning ways while proposing to cut job training programs should spend time with the people they are affecting.”

Engelking also stated, in reference to the invitation, “Political leaders would not talk about the poor in demeaning ways or cut job training programs if they spent more time with the people they are affecting with their policies.”

While many anti-poverty charity organizations have criticized politicians, FAN goes farther and accuses the rhetoric in Romney’s ads as “unfairly using welfare recipients as political props.”  Lonnie Ellis, a spokesperson for FAN, told Huffington post that Romney is doing “worse than ignoring the poor”, adding that he is “essentially criticizing Obama for helping low-income families.”

"It's saying look, 'President Obama is actually supporting poor people too much, or he's just giving a free ride to poor people,'" Ellis said. "So it's actually using poor people in a really bad way."

“With the political conversation now on ensuring that low-income people are working, the most blatant affront is that the Romney-Ryan Budget actually cuts job training programs for low-income people,” FAN Executive Director Patrick Carolan said in a statement.

FAN gave a press release stating, “The Franciscan Action Network (FAN), an organization of Franciscan friars and sisters and lay Franciscans, is disturbed by the demeaning campaign ad and conversation about welfare by the Romney campaign.  Franciscans, and Christians everywhere, follow Jesus who came to "preach good news to the poor" (Luke 4:18).  Our Christian tradition teaches that we are to treat the poor with dignity and to prioritize the poor in our policies as a society. At a time when millions are struggling financially, it is degrading to talk about the "dependency" of people hurting in this economy, as Gov. Romney did recently.”

They close their press release statement by asking Romney to make his campaign more just and dignified to all Americans and adding couple lines from the Prayer of St. Francis.

Franciscan friar Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM, said, "We ask our political leaders to not sow hatred of the poor, but to speak with compassion. Our national leaders should aim to follow the spirit of The Prayer of St. Francis, which is loved by people of all faiths:

Lord, make me a channel of your peace;

Where there is hatred (of the poor), let me sow love.”

The two groups called Romney's ad, as well as a memorandum and press release, concerning welfare reform misleading.

Romney recently endorsed a GOP plan that will make deep cuts in food stamps and other safety net programs, such as Medicaid and Pell Grants, which benefits the poor and working class.  These cuts could potentially cut off aide to low income families.

Sister Simone Campbell and other sisters criticized Romney’s plan and even called it immoral.  Think Progress pointed out that the Ryan budget would slash 62% of the budget for programs that help low-income families and kick some off food stamps and other programs.

“Faced with long-term debt problems, they say we must immediately slash protections for the poor, even as they fight tooth and nail for trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy and explode the debt at the same time,” Sister Simone Campbell said. “And then they line the pockets of the wealthiest one percent in our nation. This is wrong. And they’re doing it under the guise of fiscal austerity.”

“I’m not going to stand here and say the Ryan budget is moral. It’s immoral!” Sister Diane Donoghue added. “That’s all there is to it. And we stand with our bishops when we say that. It is immoral.”

Think Progress also quotes Sister Richelle Friedman as saying, “The Ryan budget would slash food stamps, it would slash Medicaid, it would slash a lot of domestic programs that benefit low-income people, affordable housing programs that [the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development] does. So this is just really critical.”

Sister Campbell told Think Progress, in an interview, that Romney does not have a clue about low-income families and the struggles they face.

“The fact is, his policies shift wealth to the upper class,” she said. “Yes, it hurts the middle class, but it devastates those at the margins of our society.”

If Romney accepts her offer to see what the poor deals with on a daily basis, she would take him to St. Augustine’s in Cleveland, Ohio, where food programs help the poor and give them “a hand up” in the community.  Sister Campbell hopes Romney accepts her offer and believes he should accept it, but so far, the Romney campaign has not yet accepted it.

“He thinks they’re lazy,” Campbell said, in reference to Romney’s misleading welfare reform ad. “It is hard work to keep things together when you’re poor. He doesn’t have a clue. Let him talk to them, and maybe they’ll touch his heart. And his mind too.”

Sister Campbell also stated in the NETWORK’s press release, “Recent advertisements and statements from the campaign of Governor Romney demonize families in poverty and reflect woeful ignorance about the challenges faced by tens of millions of American families in these tough economic times.  We are all God’s children and equal in God’s eyes.  Efforts to divide us by class or score political points at the expense of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters reveal the worst side of our country’s politics.”

Sister Campbell is also quoted with saying, “That’s not Christian,” according to the Rachel Maddow Blog, concerning Romney’s stance on low-income families.

Other religious group also call the GOP plan immoral, saying that it “robs from the poor and gives to the rich”, and Bishop Gene Robinson, of the Episcopal Church, stated that it fails the moral test.

“The Ryan budget robs the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable of the safety net so integral to their survival,” [Bishop Gene] Robinson said. “By any measure of civility and regard for one’s neighbor, it is an immoral disaster.”

Other leaders of various faiths also gave their critical opinion of the GOP plan, but only the nuns and friars invited Romney to spend a day among the poor.

Rev. Michael Livingston, director of the National Council of Churches’ Poverty Initiative:  “Rep. Ryan’s budget uses the deficit as an excuse to pursue an ideological agenda that punishes poor people who can’t find a job.  If Rep. Ryan wants us to take his moralizing about the national debt seriously, he should have the courage to ask for shared sacrifice from his millionaire donors instead of kicking poor families while they’re down.”

The Romney campaign has not yet responded to the friars’ invitation either and Steve Benen quotes Rachel Maddow from an show in June, saying, “I have one thing to say here personally, not as a TV show host here but just as a person who happens to be related to some nuns: don't mess with nuns. It's not a warning. It's not advice. It's not a threat. It's fact that I have learned from personal experience. Ask anybody in my family, if you mess with nuns, you will lose every time. You will always regret messing with nuns."

On August 11, Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate and NETWORK wrote another press release strongly opposing his choice of a running mate, calling it the "starkest election decision in years".  The sisters strongly oppose Ryan because his budget plan would "eliminate critical food assistance for many hungry families, decimate safety-net protections that keep people from falling further into poverty, and enrich the ultra-wealthy at the expense of low-income families."

Sister Simone Campbell, NETWORK’s Executive Director, stated,  “We agree with Catholic Bishops that Paul Ryan’s budget fails the test of Catholic Social Teaching since it deliberately harms people at the economic margins. It is also unpatriotic because it says that we are an individualistic, selfish nation. This is emphatically not who we are. Both our Constitution and our faith teach us that “We the People” are called to care for one another, to have responsibility for each other. This year’s election will present us with a critical choice. Do we want to favor the rich on the backs of people in need? Is that who we want to be?”

The Franciscans have not made any statement at this time on Romney's chosen running mate.

Mriana

Mriana is a humanist and the author of "A Source of Misery". She has two grown sons and raises cats. She enjoys writing, reading, science, philosophy, psychology, and other subjects. Mriana is also an animal lover, who cares for their welfare as living beings, who are part of the earth. She is a huge Star Trek fan in a little body.

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