This is the tension of being a politically active nun in the United States: Women religious are caught between what they see as a call to serve their vocation and condemnation from the religious authority they follow.

“I don’t think anyone who’s called by God has an option about being political active," said Sister Ann Scholz, the LCWR's associate director for social mission. “Like Jesus, if we’re going to follow him in our vocation, we’ve got to be willing to be intimately involved in the world—and that includes a political reality.”

But it's tricky for sisters to determine exactly how they should fit into the American political landscape. Scholz said every order has a particular charism, or calling, for their work—many are involved in education, health care, etc. But American nuns have beenincreasingly outspoken about social justice since the 1960s—other orders focus more broadly on issueslike serving the poor and reaching out to new immigrants, which have both been the focus of past Nuns on the Bus tours.

But Vatican leaders object that the LCWR "is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States"—women's issues, in other words.

Simone Campbell, a member of the Sisters of Social Service who organizes the Nuns on the Bus campaign, has vocally pushed back against the Vatican's perspective. "Helping women choose to carry their babies is all about economics," she said in an interview. The bigger question is whether women can "get health care and feed their kids .… There are so many ways we could support women rather than criminalizing [abortion]."

Although the leaders of the LCWR have been hesitant to discuss the Vatican's censures with the press, Campbell said she thinks the Vatican pushback is all about politics. "The real reason my organization got named in the censure is because we went in on health care," she said, referring to a letter she and other religious sisters submitted to Congress in support of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. In contrast, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed the legislation because of its contraception-coverage requirements. "Politics is being played way above our heads," Campbell said.

Although Scholz said it's uncommon for religious orders to align themselves with any political party, Campbell spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, and past Nuns on the Bus tours have aligned with Democratic issues like aid to the poor and immigration reform. She hinted that the censure of the LCWR was being pushed by certain "players" in the Vatican who hold conservative views on reproductive issues. "I want to protect life, not some political ideology," she said.

But for nuns, it's not an option just to board a bus and ignore the men in Rome. The Church is these women's lives. All sisters take a vow of obedience when they enter consecrated life. "Originally, it was extremely painful and extremely shocking," Campbell said of the censure. "I felt surprised, and maybe even a little betrayed. This month, I celebrate 50 years of being part of my community—that’s my life! To have somebody say we did it wrong ..."