Topeka ? A group of Catholic nuns who are known for their political activism will be in Topeka Saturday, carrying what they say is Pope Francis’ message of social and economic reform.

The “Nuns on the Bus” tour is led by Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby group.

The tour is scheduled to stop in 13 cities in as many days, including several state capitals, leading up to Pope Francis’ visit to Washington, D.C., where he will meet President Barack Obama and address a joint session of Congress.

Sister Simone Campbell, shown here at a 2012 rally in Washington, D.C., will bring her Nuns

“Our theme is ‘Bridge the divide; transform politics,’ and what we’re on the road to do is to lift up Pope Francis’ message that, in our world today, what we need is an economy of inclusion,” Campbell said in a telephone interview Friday. “And I hate to say it, but Kansas is Exhibit A right now for parts of the divide.”

“The challenge of our democracy is to come together and solve the challenging problems,” she said. “Let’s do it together and quit calling each other names.”

Simone lobbied hard in 2009 and 2010 for passage of the Affordable Care Act. She wrote what became known as the Nuns Letter, cosigned by leaders of 59 other Catholic orders, which some have credited for helping push the bill through its final votes in Congress.

Simone said she has been disappointed that Kansas still has not taken full advantage of the law by expanding Medicaid and making health care more available to the uninsured.

“But the real anguish, from my perspective as a person of faith valuing the dignity of all people, is that we’ve got people dying unnecessarily because they can’t get access to health care,” she said. “And so our piece is to say let’s bridge this divide.”

“In the richest nation on earth, it is wrong that we can’t figure out a way to get our people health care,” she said. “It’s just wrong. So we have to find the political will to make it happen. And you all are having a hard time doing it.”

Committees in the Kansas House considered two bills to expand Medicaid this year, including one from a committee chaired by Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence. Neither bill was brought up for vote on the floor of the House.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP leaders in the Legislature have opposed expanding Medicaid, arguing that it would be too expensive for the state, especially if the federal government fails to uphold its end of the bargain to pay for upwards of 90 percent of the cost.

Simone said it is no coincidence that the bus tour is stopping at several other state capitals as it wends its way to Washington.

“The key reason for doing state capitals is that they’re pretty much seen as the heart of the place where a state comes together to wrestle with the policy challenges that they’re facing,” she said. “So we want to be at the center of it.”

“And quite frankly, I do lobbying on Capitol Hill for issues that we care about in Washington, D.C., the federal issues, and so we’re about creating a new politics,” she said. “And where better to do it than Topeka?”

In 2012, Simone organized the first Nuns on the Bus tour, which traveled through nine states campaigning against a federal budget proposal known as the Ryan Budget, authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, who later became the Republican vice presidential nominee that year.

Among other things, that budget would have repealed the Affordable Care Act and, for people born after 1957, would have converted Medicare into a voucher system, changes that Simone argued would have been harmful to people most in need of health care.

Simone belongs to an order, the Sisters of Social Service, that has been known for social and political activism since it was founded in 1891. It was a response to an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, “Rerum Novarum,” Latin for “revolutionary change.”

That document addressed the “rights and duties of capital and labor,” and it dealt specifically with economic conditions of the working classes during the industrial revolution.

Simone said she sees many parallels between that document and the teachings of Pope Francis. And she hopes that will be part of the message he delivers when he speaks to a joint session of Congress Sept. 24.

“I think he’s a pope of surprises, so it may be difficult to predict what he says. But I know he consistently has said that we need an economy of inclusion so all can live in dignity, and that our culture of exploitation — and our throw-away culture, the idea that people and things can be thrown away — has got to change,” she said. “I believe he’s going to raise that challenge for us.”

Starting at 11:30 a.m., the Nuns on the Bus will visit the Topeka Rescue Mission Distribution Center, 401 NW Norris St.. At 2 p.m., they will conduct a town hall meeting at Central Congregational Church, 1248 SW Buchanan.