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{{Short description|Social justice lobby}}
{{redirect|NETWORK|other uses|network (disambiguation)}}

'''NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice''' is a national [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] social justice [[Lobbying in the United States|lobby]] founded in 1971 and headquartered in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name="nytimes_goodstein">{{cite web|last=Goodstein|first=Laurie|title=Nuns, Rebuked by Rome, Plan Road Trip to Spotlight Social Issues|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us/us-nuns-bus-tour-to-spotlight-social-issues.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=12 June 2012|date=5 June 2012}}</ref><ref name="latimes_castellanos">{{cite web|last=Castellanos|first=Dalina|title=Catholics all a-Twitter about the role of nuns|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2012-may-17-la-na-nuns-20120518-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=12 June 2012|date=17 May 2012}}</ref> The organization focuses its lobbying efforts in the areas of economic justice, immigration reform, healthcare, peace making and ecology.<ref>[http://networklobby.org/issues] NETWORK website, accessed Jan. 28, 2016</ref>

Sr [[Simone Campbell]], [[Sisters of Social Service|SSS]] was executive director of NETWORK from November 2004 to March 2021. She was succeeded by Mary Novak.

==History==
Network was founded in December 1971 when 47 Catholic sisters involved in education, healthcare, and other direct service activities gathered from across the U.S. at [[Trinity Washington University|Trinity College]] in Washington, D.C., with the intent to form a new type of justice ministry. The Catholic Church was undergoing dramatic changes in response to [[Vatican II]] reforms and calls from the Vatican and U.S. Bishops to seek "Justice in the World". Individual women [[Religious institute|religious orders]] had already become involved in the [[Civil Rights Movement]], and [[Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-war]] activism.<ref name=netw/>

In April 1972, the group opened an office in Washington, D.C.<ref name="netw">[https://networklobby.org/about/history/ "History", Network]</ref> They sponsored legislative seminars that attracted many notable participants and presenters including prominent Members of Congress (e.g., Senators [[Ted Kennedy]], [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]], [[Barbara Mikulski]], [[Walter Mondale]] and [[Joseph Biden]]) and Catholic notables such as Fr. Bryan Hehir.<ref name=netw/>

In January 2001, President [[Bill Clinton]] presented the [[Presidential Citizens Medal]], the US's second highest civilian honor, to a Network founder and first executive director, Sister Carol Coston. She was the first Catholic nun ever to receive this award.

=== Obamacare ===
In 2010, during the [[Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act|2010 healthcare reform]] debate, lawyer and the executive director of Network, [[Simone Campbell]] a member of the [[Sisters of Social Service]],<ref name="nytimes_goodstein" /><ref name="latimes_castellanos" /> wrote the "nuns' letter" supporting the bill. The letter had 55 signatories, including the president of the [[Leadership Conference of Women Religious]] and several leadership teams of women's orders. On March 18, 2010, Sr. Simone Campbell was interviewed by [[NPR]] about Network's support of the then pending US national health care bill, when she, along with "heads of dozens of religious orders"<ref name="npr-in force">{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124824219|title=American Nuns Out In Force To Support Health Bill|last=Martin|first=Michel|date=March 18, 2010|work=NPR News (Tell Me More)|publisher=[[NPR]]|access-date=8 April 2010}}</ref> signed a letter to congress urging passage. Network circulated the letter to the various heads of the orders and asked them to sign.<ref name="npr-in force" />

Ann Carey, author of ''Sister in Crisis'', takes issue with the claim that those signing the letter represented over 50,000 religious sisters. Said Carey, <blockquote>"I have heard from many women religious who asked me to make it clear in my writing that such sisters do not represent them, and those prominent sisters have no right to speak for all sisters."<ref>[http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2403/Women_Religious_in_the_US_The_Past_Fifty_Years.aspx Harmon, Catherine. "Women Religious in the U.S.: The Past Fifty Years", ''The Catholic world Report'', July 9, 2013]</ref> </blockquote>President [[Barack Obama]] invited Campbell to the ceremony celebrating the bill being signed into law. The Network group was credited with being a significant force in the passage of the bill into law.<ref name="gam-2nd to nun">{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/sisters-obamacare-lobby-second-to-nun/article1514028/|title=Sisters' Obamacare Lobby Second to Nun: Nuns say Catholic bishops' blustered on abortions|last=Anderssen|first=Erin|date=March 26, 2010|work=[[The Globe and Mail]]|access-date=8 April 2010|location=Toronto}}</ref>

=== Pope Benedict XVI ===
On April 18, 2012, the Vatican's [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] under [[Pope Benedict XVI]] issued a report criticizing the [[Leadership Conference of Women Religious]],<ref name="Doctrinal Assessment (2012)">{{cite web |author=Congregation for the Doctrie of the Faith |title=Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious |date=April 18, 2012 |publisher=[[Vatican.va]] |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20120418_assessment-lcwr_en.html |access-date=March 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130724203319/http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20120418_assessment-lcwr_en.html |archive-date=July 24, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> a group that represents the vast majority of the 57,000 nuns in the U.S. The report explicitly cited NETWORK as being a particularly negative influence.{{r|Doctrinal Assessment (2012)}} In response to the criticism, [[Vice President of the United States|U.S. Vice President]] Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic, defended NETWORK and its activism.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/us/politics/biden-drawing-on-his-past-expresses-common-cause-with-activist-nuns.html Biden, a Catholic School ‘Kid,’ Praises Nuns Under Fire From the Vatican] N.Y. Times, Sept. 17, 2014</ref>

The report, which specifically accused NETWORK of focusing too much on the [[social justice]] mission of the church, was released without NETWORK being notified in advance that anything was amiss. Noted Campbell: <blockquote>"The sweeping condemnation came like a bolt out of the blue--it even took the American bishops by surprise--and it came without the courtesy of input or a response from our organization." </blockquote>However, unlike LCWR, NETWORK is independent of the Vatican and was thus able to continue its mission unencumbered.<ref>Sister Simone Campbell, A Nun on the Bus, Harper-Collins, 2014, pp. 104-105</ref> In response to the "blistering critique" they received, NETWORK created the "[[Nuns on the Bus]]" program, which ''The New York Times'' called a "spirited retort to the Vatican."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us/us-nuns-bus-tour-to-spotlight-social-issues.html Nuns, Rebuked by Rome, Plan Road Trip to Spotlight Social Issues] NYT, June 5, 2012</ref>

==Nuns on the Bus==
{{Main|Nuns on the Bus}}

Network sponsors ''Nuns on the Bus''. Led by Sister Simone Campbell, they place emphasis on the church's long-standing commitment to social justice. A small group of nuns travel on a dedicated bus inside the United States publicizing different issues. In 2012, the Nuns aimed to draw attention to nuns’ work with the poor and to protest against planned aid cuts.

In 2013, the Network partnered with self-described "strategy center" "Faith in Public Life" to promote the theme of immigration reform. FPL was founded in 2005 "to advance a positive alternative" after "decades of political dominance by the Religious Right". FPL "played an integral role in planning and executing the 'Nuns on the Border' bus tour".<ref>[http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/about/accomplishments/ "2013– Hitting the road with the Nuns on the Bus", Faith in Public Life]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://networklobby.org/ Official website]
*[http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/nuns-on-the-bus-vs.-bishops/ Carey, Ann., "Nuns on the Bus vs. Bishops", ''National Catholic Register'', July 23, 2012]

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[[Category:1971 establishments in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Lobbying organizations based in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Political advocacy groups in the United States]]
[[Category:Religious organizations based in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Christian organizations established in 1971]]
[[Category:Catholic Church in the United States]]
[[Category:Catholic advocacy groups]]
[[Category:Religious activism]]

NETWORK Lobby - Revision history

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