The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast is a free, weekly thirty-minute podcast, posted on every Monday, featuring Fr. John Dear and his reflections about Jesus, Gospel nonviolence, and peacemaking, and guests who teach, speak out, organize and work for a more just, most peaceful, more nonviolent world. Through these weekly reflections, we hope to inspire everyone to follow the nonviolent Jesus more faithfully and do our part to welcome God’s reign of peace with justice on earth!

Here is the schedule for the first five podcasts. The link we will provided on the day they are posted; the podcast APP will be available in early February. It will also be posted every Monday on the homepage of the National Catholic Reporter, HERE.

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” we hear part one of a 2 part conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell, one of the strongest voices, organizers, and leaders for social and economic justice in the U.S. A Sister of Social Service, Sr. Simone is a religious leader, attorney, author, and recipient of the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom. For 17 years, she was executive director of NETWORK, the national Catholic Lobby for Social Justice and the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.” Her healthcare policy work was critical in the passing of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” Before that, she spent 18 years working at the Oakland Community Law Center which she founded. She also has served as the leader of her religious community and now serves on their governing Council. Her two award-winning books are A Nun on the Bus (2014) and Hunger for Hope (2020).

In part 1 of this 2 part conversation, John asks her about the growing authoritarianism and fascism under Trump, and her journey to the Oakland law center, to Network, to organizing for the Affordable Care Act. “We have a two party system, and what we’re experiencing is the end of the Republican party,” she says at the beginning. Now, in this crisis, “we have to learn how to talk to each other and find the best practices to be engaged and talk to each other, and listen to one another. We have a lot of work to do!”

She was radicalized with her younger sister in 1965 while watching TV when the children in Birmingham were fire-hosed and attacked by dogs for marching for an end to segregation. “I was horrified but motivated by that. From then on, the gospel and Jesus were always connected with justice. After my sister died of cancer, I picked up her spirit and decided to carry on the journey for justice and have her with me along the way.

“NETWORK is now fifty years old. It was founded by Catholic sisters in 1972 to be a network of Catholic sisters around the country to do advocacy for economic justice and environmental issues, to bring the voices of real people to inform pending legislation.” She tells how the work of the sisters became the tipping point to pass the Affordable Care act, which is under assault right now by the Republicans in the current government shutdown.

When asked how she has maintained her work for justice over decades, she said, “It starts with a contemplative practice, which is about deep listening to God, to the needs of the time and being present. That leads to holy curiosity, a deep desire to understand the other. With curiosity, deep listening, and sharing stories, we can build community and new connections. The gospels are full of Jesus’ curiosity,” she says. “It’s the invitation that creates the weaving of community.”

“Everyone has a piece of the work of justice to do, so what’s yours?” she asks. Listen in to part one of this conversation and be inspired to carry on the work of justice with Sr. Simone! [See: www.networklobby.org]

Upcoming Podcasts

Oct. 27th. #43. John Dear in conversation with Simone Campbell, part 2
Nov. 3rd. #44. John Dear in conversation with Joan Baez
Nov. 10th. #45. John Dear in conversation with Ivana Hughes
Nov. 17th. #46. John Dear in conversation with Wes Granberg Michaelson
Nov. 24th. #47. John Dear in conversation with Gerry Straub
Dec. 1st. #48. John Dear in conversation with Rep. Jamie Raskin
Dec. 8th. #49. John Dear in conversation with Mike Martin
Dec. 15th. #50. John Dear on Mary and the Advent Journey of nonviolence
Dec. 22nd. #51. John Dear on the Epiphany of Christmas
Dec. 29th. #52. “Best of The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast, 2025”
Jan. 5th. #53. John Dear in conversation with Robert Ellsberg

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” we hear part 2 of John Dear’s 2 part conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell, one of the strongest voices,

organizers, and leaders for social and economic justice in the U.S. A Sister of Social Service, Sr. Simone is a religious leader, attorney, author and recipient of the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom. For 17 years she was executive director of NETWORK, the national Catholic Lobby for Social Justice and the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.” Her healthcare policy work was critical in the passing of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Before that, she spent 18 years working at the Oakland Community Law Center which she founded.

This episode begins with her reflections on her daily contemplative, Zen practice as the foundation of her lifelong work for justice. “My practice begins every morning. I have a half hour of Zen sitting, being quiet and opening myself. I call it, ‘Deep listening to the divine.’ There, things can bubble up. I follow this with a half hour of spiritual reading. I have to feel secure in myself to be willing to open myself to other peoples’ points of view. If I’m riled up, I can’t do this work, so I need my practice. If we’re going to create change, it’s required that we understand what’s going on inside us if we want to understand others.”

“My religious community is dedicated to the Holy Spirit, and our feast is Pentecost,” she says. “Pentecost is about the flourishing of the Holy Spirit in places that are challenging, or potentially conflicted. I need to be able to listen well enough so that what I might say will touch the other. I love being on fire. It’s so exciting.”

John asks her about the section in her book, Hunger for Hope, where she writes about the importance of “prophetic imagination.” Community is the best way to nurture prophetic imagination, she says. She recites Walter Bruggemann’s five characteristics: long and available memory; touching the reality of the pain; living in hope; effective discourse across generations and cultures; and the capacity to sustain long term tension with the dominant culture, and the potential for insight and imagination.

“You can’t have hope without community,” she says. “Community is at the heart of hope. The hardships people are laboring through today are essentially because of the lack of community, because of our radical individualism and isolation. Community happens when we are in relationship with others so much that we rub each other a little bit the wrong way, and learn the capacity to see the world in different ways.”

“Hope,” she concludes, “is critically connected to touching the pain of the world as real. It demands a response.” Listen in and be inspired by this legendary voice of social and economic justice!