Jump On The Bus
“The squeaky wheel really does get the grease,” Sister Mary Ellen-Lacy, one of the “Nuns on the Bus,” said.
Sometimes acting isn’t enough, and someone has to stand up for a permanent solution. The University of Illinois Friday Forum, featuring the “Nuns on the Bus” movement as part of the “Faith in Action” lecture series, was filled with people excited to hear how they could do their “part”. However, Ellen-Lacy quickly described how doing your “part” could actually make the situation last longer.
“These things are helpful, but what happens [is] when we do our part we’re done,” Ellen-Lacy said, “When we see someone living on the streets, we should be outraged,”
The “Nuns on the Bus” movement doesn’t just have complaints about the system in place now, they have come up with what they call the “Faithful Budget” which was created by a group of people with different beliefs. This group of people joined together to create a budget for the government which would help those in poverty.
“It’s a good thing that they try to help out other people because some charities aren’t as fortunate as others,” Freshman Kevin Mboyo said.
The group of nuns from the bus are members of a 12 person group called Network. Recently they were called a “suspect” group by the Vatican launching them into the public eye.
“Everywhere we went we said, ‘Thank you, Vatican’” said Ellen-Lacy.
Network used their new found publicity to launch their Faithful Budget. The “Nuns on the Bus” campaign began traveling around and hearing people’s stories at the shelters that, without government funding, could be forced to shut down.
“People were excited about it. People came and they wanted to hear about looking out for each other,” Ellen-Lacy said.
Network’s next goal is to start taking on immigration issues as well, but they will not stop working with poverty until the problem is solved.
“It’s not so much that we need more people, we need the people who are avouch to really truly accept that, ‘It could be me’. We are responsible to each other,” said Ellen-Lacy.
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