Sister Jan Kilian of the Clare’s Well retreat center knows the importance of solitary rest and reflection, but she demonstrated last week that she also sees value in vigorous action for a worthy cause.
Kilian was one of six Catholic nuns from Minnesota who joined the Network Nuns on a Bus tour around the state from Monday, Sept. 22, to Wednesday, Sept. 24.
The mission of the traveling advocacy group, which is in the midst of a 10-state national tour, was to encourage voters to be active in the upcoming election.
"I was so honored to be one of those six," said Kilian, explaining that Network is a Catholic sisters social justice lobby in Washington, D.C., working on behalf of the disenfranchised.
Nuns on the Bus tours have taken place in past years, including an immigration focus last year, but Kilian said this was the first year the tour has come through Minnesota. This year’s theme is "We the people, we the voters."
"There is so much big money in politics these days. There’s nothing wrong with people who have money, but when it comes to voting and designing what the people need, we ask them to leave their big money at the door and listen to everybody," said Kilian. "But then everybody has to speak up. It’s voting for the 100 percent, meaning 100 percent voting if at all possible, not just the 1 percent at the top of the economic scales."
The Minnesota portion of the tour began in Rochester and Mankato, where the nuns held a town hall meeting and get-out-the-vote rally, respectively. The tour bus also stopped at The College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, then went to the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth and the University of Minnesota-Duluth for rallies on National Voter Registration Day, Tuesday, Sept. 23.
That day concluded with a visit to the Dorothy Day Center for the homeless in St. Paul, and stops at other points around the Twin Cities were also included.
"We didn’t get much sleep," said Kilian. "There was no big, long line to be part of this. It’s a very difficult tour and sisters are getting older, and there are fewer of us. They were very happy to have us. I don’t think anybody who asked to go was turned away."
At the meetings and rallies Kilian said she heard many concerns voiced about current conditions and policies, including transportation issues, how the use of railways to transport oil is affecting farmers, and more. One of the biggest issues discussed was the need for livable wages.
"This whole business of needing more than one job to support a family – I spoke to at least two people who had to choose between food and medicine or food and gas to go to work so they could buy food," Kilian said. "It was very eye-opening for me, as well as just plain energizing. And it was so good to see people enthused about the needs of our country and our state and ready to go vote for things like this."
Importance of voting
In some cases the nuns simply mingled with the people present to encourage voting and to sign voting pledges, as well as help with registration. In more formal settings, the group gave presentations with each nun speaking in turn.
In her speeches Kilian explained how she has been motivated to be an active voter through her research about the women’s suffrage movement. She referenced the first women’s rights convention in New York in 1848 and proponents such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
"These women did not live to see the 19th Amendment passed (in 1920)," she said. We get so impatient, but they did not give up. I just said, especially as women, we (should feel shame) if we don’t vote after what our foremothers went through for the sake of their daughters and the women who follow. We need to be part of our democracy. Pope Francis has said that it’s a moral obligation to participate in public life. I certainly believe that."
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