>>> and now the nun story. why are thousands of american nuns standing up to the vatican ? the battle is over criticism from rome . american nuns are radical feminists. their word. rome 's word for focusing on poverty and social justice . while staying silent on abortion and same-sex marriage. it is a fight that goes all the way back, in fact, four decades since the nuns first demanded the right for women to become priests. joining me, sister simone campbell, leading the network, a catholic social justice lobby. starting mo ining monday is going to be on a bus tour. nuns on a bus to rally opposition to paul ryan 's proposed health care cuts. sister simone , it's good to see you. thank you very much for joining me. tell me what inspired you and your colleagues, your fellow nuns to take on the bishops, in some case, and in fact the vatican ?

>> well, actually what's really interesting about this is we're actually standing with their bishops who also say that the house passed ryan budget is actually immorale. when the center came out from the vatican and catholic sisters were getting so much attention, we said, well, we're not used to having attention on ourselves. i mean, that's not what we're about. we're about using our opportunities to serve the needs of people who live in poverty. who live at the margins of society. who have fallen through the cracks of our rather fractured tenuous economy. and so we came together and i invited help from our colleagues to say, what can we do to lift this moment up? and we know how terribly important it is that the american public understand the problems, the huge problems in the house-passed budget and that we need to educate the american people . and how to do it? well, it struck us that going on a bus and lifting up these issues might get information out beyond the beltway. beyond washington, d.c.

>> it is an unusually public -- i know you waited several months after the vatican censure to decide how to respond. you took your time and did it in a very contemplative way, but you really are raising lots of issues and issues that really do affect women, primarily, women and children at the margins of our society economically.

>> right. right. well, i think we need to make a distinction between the leadership conference of women religious who is really the biggest focus of the vatican criticism and they have a direct tie to rome in that they are like incorporated by rome so that their existence depends on rome 's approval. network, the organization i run, was criticized in this same document as a troublemaker, a suspect organization for lcwr. the women religious, to have a relationship with. so our response has been a little more public, a little more quickly. the leadership conference has had board meeting, was in rome earlier this week. and in prayer and reflection we'll be having more meetings this coming weekend and then over the summer in the regions. so that process is going on. our process is really a political process. lifting up our faith to push back, to use it for mission so that the people that jesus responded to in the gospel, the people that were cared about by jesus, the poor or the least and the lest as we sometimes say, that they are lifted up and the focus is on them and their needs. and our nation's soul is not corrupted further by the house ryan budget.

>> sister simone , as far as the leadership conference is concerned, as you correctly point out, is basically created and answers to the vatican . they were rebuffed in their meetings in rome . can you explain to us what is the prospect now? what next steps are even open to them? to challenge the vatican authority?

>> or even to dialogue with the vatican authority. i am -- i hope that this is like on capitol hill when you begin negotiations, everybody comes out saying, well, you know, we had candid discussion, which usually means there was some fighting going on, and that we were able to agree to disagree but we will continue in this process. and then everybody reiterates their starting position because nobody in a negotiation wants to give away their initial position too quickly. i come from a democratic culture. that's what i'm hoping is going on in rome . but i've been saying and realizing quite a bit that rome comes out of a culture of monarchy and we in the united states come out of a culture of democracy. and i think that's where the real tension is. this really isn't about tenets of faith. it's about culture understanding of the role of people and role of leadership. and i'm very concerned that women religious have had a long history of democratic dialogue and engagement. and rome hasn't. and how this is going to play out, i don't know. they're at the lcwr and the bishops are at the center of my prayer these days and my worry, i must confess.

>> sister simone , thank you very much. thanks for joining us today. we will follow the nuns on the bus, your tour next week.

>> do follow us. it's going to be a great trip. thank you.