Sister Simone Campbell and other religious leaders on pilgrimage to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2013.
Last night in New York City, Sister Simone was honored at the 2013 Four Freedoms Awards. The annual awards go to those who “exemplify FDR’s vision of democracy as outlined in his famous January 6, 1941 address.”
We caught up with Sister Simone before the ceremony to ask her to reflect on Tuesday’s march. She had this to say:
It was fabulous. It was amazing. We knew we had to do something as a community of faith to shake the House of Reprepsentatives up, because they’re being hijacked by an extremist minority. We [were] getting calls at the office saying ‘where’s the bus’ ‘do something.’
Last week we had a conference call with some of our colleagues and decided we have to do something. I came up with this idea of the pilgrimage because I was thinking we have to go to the offices of the moderate Republicans and that if we had a pilgrimage we could do it in prayer. It wouldn’t be about civil disobedience but supporting their courage for the common good. We had this great turn out. We stood in the rotunda singing. One of the rabbis brought a mandolin and he was playing.
It was such a moving experience. I was doing it for the members of Congress, but at the end it renewed my hope that something good could happen — that in this darkness there could be light.
