Simone Campbell (born October 22, 1945), is an American Catholic

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated: Sr.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to prayer and ...

, lawyer, lobbyist and executive director of NETWORK. She belongs to the Sisters of Social Service. She is known as an outspoken advocate for social justice.

Early life and education

When Campbell was born in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, to parents who had recently moved from

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, she was given the first name "Mary" in honor of her paternal grandmother. She was the eldest of four siblings. She joined the Sisters of Social Service, an international Catholic

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of Religious institute (Catholic), religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from Religious order (Catholic), religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – i ...

rooted in the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

tradition, in 1964 and took her final vows in 1973, adopting the name "Simone." She received a

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...

degree in 1969 from Mount St. Mary's College in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In 1977, Campbell received the degree of

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the University of California, Davis, School of Law, where she had been an editor of the ''UC Davis Law Review''.

Career

In 1978 Campbell founded the Community Law Center in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, which she served for the next 18 years as its lead attorney. She practiced

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriag ...

and worked on the needs of the working poor of her county in

Probate Court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts o ...

. Between 1995 and 2000, Campbell was the General Director of her religious institute and oversaw its activities in the United States, Mexico, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

NETWORK

Campbell was first recruited to lead NETWORK in 2004 and continues to serve as its executive director. In March 2010, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

debated reforms to healthcare, known as the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ...

(H. R. 3590). As a part of her work with NETWORK, Campbell wrote the "nuns' letter" supporting the reforms and asked leaders of women's religious orders to sign it. Sixty heads of religious orders and umbrella groups signed and the letter was sent to all members of Congress. The

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Co ...

did not support the healthcare reforms. The letter contributed to the momentum in favor of the legislation. Campbell attended the signing ceremony for the law and received a hug of gratitude from President Obama. Campbell led the Nuns on the Bus project, in which she also participated. Campbell and a small group of religious sisters (commonly, "nuns") make tours on a dedicated bus to highlight social issues. In 2012, the first year of the project, the Nuns aimed to draw attention to nuns' work with the poor and to protest planned aid cuts. In honor of her advocacy work she was the 2014 recipient of the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, which commemorates the 1963 encyclical of Saint John XXIII of the same name. Campbell addressed the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

held in September 2012, and again in 2020. On July 7, 2022, the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

awarded Campbell the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

Views

Campbell was among the people attentioned by then Pope

Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, his resignation on 28 Februar ...

in his investigation of American nuns for communist views and promoting "certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith". The investigation was ended by Pope Francis on April 16, 2015. The official report from the investigation was quoted as including "oversight of their publications and choice of speakers for their annual conference to ensure doctrinal orthodoxy, and both sides agreed to a new set of statutes for the LCWR." Unlike the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Campbell supported the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

. In her view, this was not only a matter of social justice but also a better way to eliminate abortion rather than through criminalization. She said: "From my perspective, I don't think it's a good policy to outlaw abortion. I think, rather, let's focus on economic development for women and economic opportunity. That's what really makes the change." With regard to sexual abuse committed by clergy and covered up in the Catholic Church, Campbell noted in 2017 that she found it "outrageous" that the church was failing to sufficiently address sexual abuse and clerical accountability.

Writings

Campbell's

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

''A Nun on the Bus'' was published in 2014.A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community Simone Campbell, Author
/ref> * Author Sister Simone Campbell, title: Hunger for Hope: Prophetic Communities, Contemplation and the Common Good. Publisher Orbis Press, New York 2020 ISBN 9781626983786

References

External links

Sister Simone Campbell – “A Nun on the Bus”
Tavis Smiley Show
U.S. Nuns Face Vatican Crackdown
Democracy Now * {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Simone Living people 1945 births People from Santa Monica, California American abortion-rights activists 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns Mount St. Mary's University (Los Angeles) alumni University of California, Davis alumni California lawyers American women lawyers Roman Catholic activists Catholics from California 21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients