Naples Speaker Series Explores Nuns' Stories, Future in the Catholic Church

Naples Daily News
January 12, 2013

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2013/jan/12/no-headline---nun_series/

Sister Simone Campbell, who worked with a "Nuns on the Bus" tour to bring the story of poverty to the nation, will speak in Naples on Jan. 31. Charlie Neibergall Photo by Charlie Neibergall

The Rev. Douglas Koessel Photo by Kenneth Briggs

Sister Simone Campbell, nationally known as the "nun on the bus," will be one of the speakers in a series on nuns in the Roman Catholic Church sponsored by Voice of the Faithful of Southwest Florida.

Under its 2013 theme, "It's All About the Nuns," the group is bringing in a Cleveland priest whose sermon on the role of nuns in today's world went viral on the Internet. Also attending will be a former religion correspondent for the New York times whose book, "Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns" was published in 2006.

The series will be on consecutive Thursdays and are free. Speakers, who will appear at Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church at 7 p.m. on their dates, are as follows:

Jan. 24: The Rev. Douglas Koesel. The Roman Catholic priest's topic is "The Nuns' Story: What Difference Does It Make?" Rev. Koesel is a pastor of a Blessed Trinity parish, a new single parish, established after three of 13 parishes in its Cleveland, Ohio, area were closed. His answers to his new parishioners questions about the Vatican's critique of the American nuns was delivered in a sermon that found its way to the Internet, and he has been in demand since, including being a panelist for the Thomas Merton Society.

He is also a member of the Association of United States Catholic Priests.

Jan. 31: Sister Simone Campbell, Sisters of Social Service. Her topic is "The Call to the Voices in the Wilderness: Faith in Action."

This past summer, Sister Simone generated the "Bus of the Nuns" pilgrimage, which toured nine states. One of the nuns' missions was and is to awaken the financially comfortable to the dire poverty of numerous families in the U.S. who live on the fringe. She is a lawyer, a poet and the executive director of NETWORK, a National Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, D.C.

She served as executive director of JERICHO, the California interfaith policy organization that works to protect the interests of people living in poverty. She spoke at the National Democratic Convention last fall.

In December 2002, she participated in a delegation of religious leaders to Iraq just before the war.

Feb. 7:Kenneth Briggs. Briggs' topic is "What It Means To Be a Good Sister in a Divided Church." A Methodist, Briggs wrote about religion for Bill Moyers when they both worked for Newsday on Long Island, N.Y., and he was the first religion correspondent for the New York Times. Briggs taught journalism at Columbia University in New York, at Lehigh University, and at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He received his Masters in Divinity from Yale.

The topic for his presentation is: "What It Means To Be a Good Sister in a Divided Church." Briggs has written on the topic of religion for more than thirty years. His nonfiction book "Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns"(Doubleday; 2006) is available as an e-book and through bookstores.

Voice of the Faithful of Southwest is an affiliate of an international organization which was founded in 2002 by Catholic laity in the Boston area in response to the Catholic Church handling of children who were victims of sexual abuse by priests.