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October 20th, 2025

Episode #42, John Dear in conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell, Part 1 of 2

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” we hear part one of a 2 part conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell, one of the strongest voices, organizers, and leaders for social and economic justice in the U.S.  A Sister of Social Service, Sr. Simone is a religious leader, attorney, author, and recipient of the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom. For 17 years, she was executive director of NETWORK, the national Catholic Lobby for Social Justice and the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.” Her healthcare policy work was critical in the passing of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” Before that, she spent 18 years working at the Oakland Community Law Center which she founded. She also has served as the leader of her religious community and now serves on their governing Council. Her two award-winning books are A Nun on the Bus (2014) and Hunger for Hope (2020).
 
In part 1 of this 2 part conversation, John asks her about the growing authoritarianism and fascism under Trump, and her journey to the Oakland law center, to Network, to organizing for the Affordable Care Act. “We have a two party system, and what we’re experiencing is the end of the Republican party,” she says at the beginning. Now, in this crisis, “we have to learn how to talk to each other and find the best practices to be engaged and talk to each other, and listen to one another. We have a lot of work to do!”
 
She was radicalized with her younger sister in 1965 while watching TV when the children in Birmingham were fire-hosed and attacked by dogs for marching for an end to segregation. “I was horrified but motivated by that. From then on, the gospel and Jesus were always connected with justice. After my sister died of cancer, I picked up her spirit and decided to carry on the journey for justice and have her with me along the way.
 
“NETWORK is now fifty years old. It was founded by Catholic sisters in 1972 to be a network of Catholic sisters around the country to do advocacy for economic justice and environmental issues, to bring the voices of real people to inform pending legislation.” She tells how the work of the sisters became the tipping point to pass the Affordable Care act, which is under assault right now by the Republicans in the current government shutdown.
 
When asked how she has maintained her work for justice over decades, she said, “It starts with a contemplative practice, which is about deep listening to God, to the needs of the time and being present. That leads to holy curiosity, a deep desire to understand the other. With curiosity, deep listening, and sharing stories, we can build community and new connections. The gospels are full of Jesus’ curiosity,” she says. “It’s the invitation that creates the weaving of community.”
 
“Everyone has a piece of the work of justice to do, so what’s yours?” she asks. Listen in to part one of this conversation and be inspired to carry on the work of justice with Sr. Simone!  [See: www.networklobby.org]
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Listen on Apple, Spotify, all major platforms,
and the National Catholic Reporter

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National Catholic Reporter
Apple Podcasts
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Podbean Podcasts
Podcast Index
Fountain FM
True Fans
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October 27th, 2025

Episode #43, Part 2 of John Dear’s conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell

 
This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” we hear part 2 of John Dear’s 2 part conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell, one of the strongest voices,
organizers, and leaders for social and economic justice in the U.S. A Sister of Social Service, Sr. Simone is a religious leader, attorney, author and recipient of the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom. For 17 years she was executive director of NETWORK, the national Catholic Lobby for Social Justice and the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.” Her healthcare policy work was critical in the passing of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Before that, she spent 18 years working at the Oakland Community Law Center which she founded.
 
This episode begins with her reflections on her daily contemplative, Zen practice as the foundation of her lifelong work for justice. “My practice begins every morning. I have a half hour of Zen sitting, being quiet and opening myself. I call it, ‘Deep listening to the divine.’ There, things can bubble up. I follow this with a half hour of spiritual reading. I have to feel secure in myself to be willing to open myself to other peoples’ points of view. If I’m riled up, I can’t do this work, so I need my practice. If we’re going to create change, it’s required that we understand what’s going on inside us if we want to understand others.”
 
“My religious community is dedicated to the Holy Spirit, and our feast is Pentecost,” she says. “Pentecost is about the flourishing of the Holy Spirit in places that are challenging, or potentially conflicted. I need to be able to listen well enough so that what I might say will touch the other. I love being on fire. It’s so exciting.”
 
John asks her about the section in her book, Hunger for Hope, where she writes about the importance of “prophetic imagination.” Community is the best way to nurture prophetic imagination, she says. She recites Walter Bruggemann’s five characteristics: long and available memory; touching the reality of the pain; living in hope; effective discourse across generations and cultures; and the capacity to sustain long term tension with the dominant culture, and the potential for insight and imagination.
 
“You can’t have hope without community,” she says. “Community is at the heart of hope. The hardships people are laboring through today are essentially because of the lack of community, because of our radical individualism and isolation. Community happens when we are in relationship with others so much that we rub each other a little bit the wrong way, and learn the capacity to see the world in different ways.”
 
“Hope,” she concludes, “is critically connected to touching the pain of the world as real. It demands a response.” Listen in and be inspired by this legendary voice of social and economic justice! 

Next week…

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Joan Baez! For more information, visit here.

Upcoming Zoom Programs:

“Hope in the Face of a Fascist Threat”
Sr. Simone Campbell

Saturday October 25, 2025

11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern



“Exploring the Mystical Dimensions of the Peace of God That Surpasses Understanding” With Jim Finley

Saturday November 15, 2025

11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern



Elizabeth Johnson in a Special Christmas Conversation with John Dear on “The Theology of the Incarnation of the God of Peace in a World of War”

Saturday December 20, 2025

11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern



John Dear’s new book now available

“The Gospel of Peace:
Reading Matthew, Mark & Luke
from the Perspective of Nonviolence”

For info, click here
 
To order, Call Orbis Books at 1-800-258-5838
 
Visit Fr. John’s 2025 Speaking Schedule
 
 
 

To invite John Dear to speak in your city, write to: john@beatitudescenter.org 

National Catholic Reporter Review of “The Gospel of Peace,” click here
 
To watch Fr. John’s interview with Dean Young of Grace Cathedral about the book, click here
 
To watch Fr. John’s sermon at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, on Jan. 21, 2024, (at the 30 minute mark) click here

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LATEST NEWS FROM THE BEATITUDES CENTER

Quote for the Day: 

“The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the
adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the God of peace as the waters cover the sea.”

(Isaiah 11:6–9)

Quote for the Day: 

“I am called in the Word of God — as is everyone else — to the vocation of being human, nothing more and nothing less … To be a Christian
means to be called to be an exemplary human being. And to be a Christian categorically does not mean being religious. Indeed, all religious versions of the gospel are profanities. In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst Babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, define the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death’s works and wiles, rebuke lies,
cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed,
raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.”
–William Stringfellow

October 20, 2025

Dear friends, Blessings of Christ’s Peace!

     This Saturday, Oct. 25th, the legendary Sr. Simone Campbell, one of the strongest voices, organizers, and leaders for social and economic justice in the U.S., will join us for a special zoom program to discuss our current predicament under growing fascism and what we can do. Please join us!

     A Sister of Social Service, Sr. Simone is a religious leader, attorney, author, and recipient of the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom. For 17 years, she was executive director of NETWORK, the national Catholic Lobby for Social Justice and the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.” Her healthcare policy work was critical in the passing of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” Before that, she spent 18 years working at the Oakland Community Law Center which she founded. She also has served as the leader of her religious community and now serves on their governing Council. Her two award-winning books are A Nun on the Bus (2014) and Hunger for Hope (2020).

     “Our world of violence and discord is in dire need of a contemplative presence,” she writes. “We are called to take in the mystery of others and weave community into the fabric of our time. We are called to be one organism, one body in this very challenging moment of the twenty-first century. We are called to the joy at the heart of it all because are hummed into existence by the Divine at every moment. This is the source of our hope.” Join us and bring your questions!

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