The nuns are here! The nuns are here!

Just after 9 p.m., with the sky almost pitch black, Sister Diane Donoghue bounded off the Nuns on the Bus. Although 81 years old, she had the enthusiasm of a young child thrilled at being able to stay up late on a warm summer evening.

In a rare moment of being off-task, Sister Donoghue quickly walked to a chain-link fence overlooking the 1-43 freeway near Atkinson Avenue in Milwaukee’s central city. She wanted to take pictures of something that, in her more than eight decades, she had never seen.

The nuns were going to take part in the Overpass Light Brigade, which comes out at sunset and shows up at pedestrian passages over the freeway to hold well-lit placards and send messages to travelers below. This evening, Light Brigade’s message was geared toward the Nuns on the Bus tour. 

“Question Austerity,” the placards read.

It was a fitting end on Tuesday June 19 to what had been a long, long day for the nuns — Day 2 of what will be a 15-day, 9-state journey to highlight the anti-poor essence of Rep. Paul Ryan’s federal budget proposal.

The nuns began with a 9 a.m. press conference at a food pantry in Iowa, got on the bus to Wisconsin, visited Ryan’s office in Janesville to deliver their budget critique, headed up to Milwaukee where they ate dinner at the St. Ben’s meal program in downtown, followed by a “Friend Raiser” at St. John’s on the Lake.

For most normal human beings, it would have been enough for one day.

But the nuns, activists with an affinity for community and blessed with super-human energy, had that one final stop with the Overpass Light Brigade.

Somewhat of a cult event among Milwaukee’s art and activist crowd, the Light Brigade is not usually high on the radar screen of out-of-town guests. But the nuns clearly have their pulse on what’s happening on the streets. (Check out the Light Brigade’s Facebook page.)

Making their way to the Light Brigade’s gathering on the pedestrian bridge, the nuns were escorted by fans and media — and treated like royalty as a bag-piper led the way and cleared a passage.

For once, the nuns weren't expected to deliver speeches. This was a low-key get-together based on mutual respect. The crowd, learning it was Sister Mary Wendeln's 72nd birthday, burst into a spontaneous if ragged rendition of "Happy Birthday."

Wednesday’s schedule is as packed as Tuesday’s. It begins with a 9 a.m. press conference at a dental clinic on Milwaukee’s South Side, followed by joining the picket line at Palermo’s Pizza, where workers are on strike and fighting for a union. Then it’s off to Illinois, with the first stop at Rep. Joe Walsh’s office.

NUNS ON THE OFFENSIVE
The Nuns on the Bus tour is organized by Network, a social justice lobby [http://www.networklobby.org/] in Washington, D.C., that was founded more than 40 years ago by group of Catholic nuns inspired by the Vatican II reforms and religious involvement in civil rights, antiwar and feminist movements.

“Because of their work, Sisters see the suffering of people in poverty on a daily basis,” according to the press release that announced the tour. “As a result, they recognize the harm that the Ryan budget will cause.”

Throughout the tour, nuns from different localities will join in for a few days, as others return to their daily work on behalf of the poor. Sister Donoghue is the only nun who will stay on the bus during the entire tour. She is officially retired after decades of working with a low-income housing group in Los Angeles, Esperanza, which translates into English as “hope.”

Throughout the day, the nuns were greeted by fans, treated as both celebrities and saviors. In Wisconsin, where many activists are still coping with the June 5 recall results, the nuns provided a needed boost of enthusiasm and commitment. As if often the case with nuns, they set a high standard. After all, if Sister Donoghue can keep on for 81 years, where’s the excuse for younger people to give up?

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Nuns on the Bus tour overlaps with the U.S. bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” crusade against Obamacare and its call for comprehensive contraception coverage in insurance plans, even at Catholic universities and hospitals. The bishops’ 14-day effort of “prayer, education and action” begins June 21 and ends July 4.

No one publicly mentioned the “Fortnight for Freedom” at the nuns’ events in Milwaukee. But the liberal Catholics, fallen-away Catholics and ex-nuns/ex-priests at their gatherings was as good a sampling of the liberal wing of the Catholic Church as one is likely to find in Milwaukee.

The tour also has international implications. The Vatican has taken on the U.S. nuns for paying too much attention to social justice, not enough attention to abortion and gay rights, and for not automatically bending the knee when a bishop speaks. Network was one of the groups mentioned in the Vatican critique.

Some conservative Catholics, who prefer a smaller and purer church, apparently have no problem with ignoring the Nuns on the Bus, and are willing to throw the nuns under the bus to suit their increasingly narrow ideology. [Make sure to catch the NYTimes opinion last Sunday on this). 

But if Tuesday’s events are any indication, the Church will do so at a peril to its soul.

Photo captions. Top, Sister Donoghue snaps a photo of the Overpass Light Brigade. Sister Campbell marches onto the overpass to join the Light Brigade. Middle: Sister Wendeln enjoys the Happy Birthday song. Bottom: The Overpass Light Brigade's message Tuesday night. More photos on Facebook. All photos by Barbara J. Miner.

This blog is cross-posted at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Purple Wisconsin project.