It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since the infamous Vatican report, our first Nuns on the Bus trip, and all the notoriety that came with it. During these four years, NETWORK has been blessed with growth in our reach, effectiveness, and most importantly, our community.

With this growth came conversation: How can NETWORK best represent our growing community of Spirit-filled activists? While I’ve resisted the term “branding,” I realized that we need to ensure that the NETWORK image (reluctantly called “brand”) models our growth as a community of activists across the country and inspires the creation of the just world that we seek. Thus, a refresh was needed to update how we all understand and talk about ourselves.

I’m writing today to introduce that refresh to you:

You’ll notice a few things:

New Logo

We hope you’ll agree with us that this logo inspires forward movement, while still staying true to our roots of our founding name and sunburst, to more clearly communicate NETWORK’s current and growing identity.

New Tagline

One of the most remarkable areas of growth for NETWORK during the past four years has been the energy and interest from people who don’t identify as Catholic, but feel an affinity with Catholic Sisters and are inspired by the teachings of Catholic Social Justice. Our new tagline “Advocates for Justice, Inspired by Catholic Sisters” captures the reality of our community and acknowledges the continued leadership of Catholic Sisters in communities across the country.

New Parallel Name Structure.

While “Advocates for Justice, Inspired by Catholic Sisters” captures the NETWORK identity as a whole, NETWORK is actually two organizations with one mission. The partnership of these two organizations allows us to expand our reach even further into educational settings, meetings on Capitol Hill, and more. Our “new” names will hopefully bring more clarity:

• NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice is our lobbying organization
• NETWORK Advocates for Catholic Social Justice (also known as NETWORK Education Program) is our 501(c)3 organization that focuses on growing, connecting, and nourishing our Spirit-filled network

NETWORK Lobby and NETWORK Advocates are sister organizations that work closely together, and we hope that this new take on the relationship between the two will provide more clarity: two organizations, one mission.

I am so grateful for you, the members of the NETWORK community, for making this growth possible and I’m excited to take these steps forward with you. Together we can reweave the torn fabric of our society and realize our 2020 Vision. Let’s take a deep breath, share a prayer to the Spirit alive in our midst, and dive again into the world of justice-making. We are the community that can help make justice a reality and I am so grateful that we are in it together. You give us life!