Category Archives: Front Page

Lent Week 6: We Aren’t Falling for Division

Lent 2025: Giving Up Billionaires


Welcome to week 6 of our Lenten series, “Giving Up Billionaires,” as we call on Congress to give up billionaires so our communities can have what we need to thrive. Click here for the rest of our Lenten reflections and actions.

We Aren’t Falling for Division

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
April 9, 2025

 

In the U.S., only one percent of the population earns a million dollars or more per year, and there are just 800 billionaires. Yet this small group of the wealthiest individuals has spent millions to persuade everyday Americans to vote in favor of their interests instead of our own. How have they done that? One answer: by stoking racial fear.

In the 1950s and ’60s, some politicians and their ultra-wealthy backers seized on the discomfort of the Civil Rights Movement to stoke racist resentment. They tried to weaken support for a government that works for the people, so they could instead build a government that works only for the ultra-wealthy.

Some lawmakers and their ultra-wealthy backers today still stoke racial fears by scapegoating our neighbors. The ultra-wealthy try to distract us from the economic problems that their wealth-hoarding creates by pointing the finger at immigrants, transgender people, or working people.

We see this in the Trump administration as they spin lies about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to pit white, Black, and Brown workers against each other. And, we see it this week as Republicans in Congress seek $350 billion in the budget reconciliation bill to detain and deport our immigrant neighbors.

Take action
  • Call your House Member at 1-888-897-9753 to ensure that Congress does not pay for more tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and more funding to detain and deport our immigrant neighbors by cutting Medicaid and SNAP in the budget reconciliation bill.
  • Spread the word. Save the image that I’ve placed below to your computer or phone, then share it on social media or email it to friends and family.
  • Write a letter to the editor (LTE) calling Congress to reject the budget proposal. LTEs are one of the most effective advocacy tactics. Please join us TOMORROW, Thursday, April 10 at 7:00 PM Eastern / 4:00 PM Pacific at our LTE training at our LTE workshop to learn some LTE best practices.

Find more LTE and social media guidance in our Lent toolkit.

The result of these divide-and-conquer tactics has been devastating for most of us, no matter our race or gender. As the ultra-wealthy have amassed power, they have weakened regulations that protect us and our communities and let billionaires off the hook from paying their fair share and contributing to the common good.

These lawmakers and their ultra-wealthy backers hope that we will become too divided and distracted to recognize the real culprits. But we aren’t falling for it! We refuse to fear our neighbors or to fall for attempts to divide us. We know the way through this: to come together across our differences and work to build a world that truly works for all of us–not just the ultra-wealthy. We must demand that our elected officials make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share instead of giving them tax breaks and taking away our health care, food, and even our immigrant neighbors, to do it.

TAKE ACTION: Call your House member today at 1-888-897-9753 and tell them to protect SNAP and Medicaid and reject funding for detention and deportation and tax cuts for billionaires in the budget proposal! Then, use our Lent toolkit to write an LTE calling Congress to reject the budget proposal.

NETWORK has more shareable content, sample social media posts, and LTE guidance for you in our Lent Toolkit.

Emily TeKolste_2025_Spring

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP is NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Coordinator. To read more, check out her column in Global Sisters Report, “The existence of billionaires is immoral.”

Network condemns voting righs EO and SAVE Act bill

NETWORK Lobby Condemns Trump’s Voting Rights Executive Order and the SAVE Act (H.R.22)

NETWORK Lobby Condemns Trump’s Illegal and Blatantly Authoritarian Voting Rights Executive Order

Min. Christian S. Watkins
March 28, 2025

President Trump issued an extreme executive order Tuesday, March 25, 2025 that threatens our freedom to vote with unconstitutional mandates, public and election administration confusion, and draconian restrictions for election officials and voters.

According to the White House, the Trump administration desires to require “government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship on its voter registration forms.” to ensure no non-citizens are voting in U.S. elections. Additionally, the Administration’s move preempts House Republicans’ attempts to pass H.R.22—the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill that seeks to codify extreme voter suppression tactics into law.We know that these non-citizen voting claims are a false flag, as there is no evidence that noncitizen voter registration and voting is occurring at any meaningful scale. Not only is it practically infeasible for an undocumented immigrant to have the documents required to register to vote in the first place, it’s also difficult to imagine an undocumented immigrant would risk government scrutiny, arrest, and deportation — all to cast just one vote. President Trump and his enablers in Congress peddle the lie of noncitizen voting to try to justify their attempts to take away our freedom to vote. They know that their policies are unpopular, so they want to make it harder for our communities to vote and have a say in the decisions that affect us. This is yet another move in their effort to consolidate power for themselves.

The SAVE Act would mandate American citizens provide proof-of-citizenship documents that many can’t access – like a passport or certified birth certificate – to register to vote or update their registration, such as after a move. Federal courts have found it an impermissible violation of the Constitution. State Department data shows 43-49% of Americans, or 104-118M voting-age citizens, do not have current passports.

Moreover, research from the Center for American Progress finds that approximately 69 million women do not have a birth certificate with their legal married name on it. Nearly 80% of married women–more than 69 million American women–have adopted their partner’s surname, and they would be unable to register to vote if the name on their ID does not directly match their proof of citizenship.

In effect, millions of people would have to get a passport that has lists their current name. But obtaining a passport takes time (in recent years, it has taken 10-13 weeks to process a passport applications) and is costly. Current rates are a $130 application fee plus a $35 execution fee. The fees are the same for passport renewal. This is seemingly a reiteration of poll taxes levied against African Americans and other impoverished citizens that were commonplace before the 24th Amendment to the Constitution ratified on January 23, 1964.

Consumer research shows that citizens in rural, working class, farming, and evangelical communities are least likely to hold passports. The data show:
• 76% of citizens who have not attended college do NOT have a valid passport
• 70% of citizens with family income less than $50K do NOT have a valid passport
• 62% of “evangelical hub” citizens do NOT have a valid passport
• 58% of citizens in working-class communities do NOT have a valid passport
• 53% of rural and farmland citizens do NOT have a valid passport

The freedom to vote is a foundational American value. And it’s one that states deliver on in every election cycle. States have strong checks and balances in place to ensure their elections are secure and accurate, with layers of safeguards in place set by state and federal law. States do not need Elon Musk’s DOGE accessing our personal information or disrupting electoral systems that effectively delivered results just a few months ago. Additionally, withholding federal funds from states that do not cooperate with the order’s provisions is egregious and will be a detriment to the unity and stability of our nation and elections. President Trump’s order, the SAVE Act, and bills like it are meant to divide Americans at a time when we are united in what we want from our government leaders: solutions to fix our broken economy.

Read NETWORK’s March 28 statement condemning the Trump administration’s illegal effort to steal the voting rights of millions.

Additional resources

Lent Week 5: Congress: Keep Families Together, End Private Prison Profits

Lent 2025: Giving Up Billionaires


Welcome to week 5 of our Lenten series, “Giving Up Billionaires,” as we call on Congress to give up billionaires so our communities can have what we need to thrive. Click here for the rest of our Lenten reflections and actions.

Congress: Keep Families Together, End Private Prison Profits

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
April 2, 2025

 

On a recent call with investors, Damon Hininger, CEO of private detention company CoreCivic, called this “one of the most exciting periods in my career.” He was referring to President Trump’s executive orders targeting immigrants–and Congress’s passage of a bill that would force the detention of some of our immigrant neighbors without due process.

It is reprehensible that President Trump’s actions to militarize our neighborhoods, tear families apart, and devastate our communities is an “exciting” career moment for an ultra-wealthy CEO.

The budget reconciliation bill that is moving through Congress includes more than $300 billion in funding for the Trump administration to detain and deport our immigrant neighbors, and to fund tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. Republicans in Congress plan to pay for all of that by cutting our Medicaid and SNAP.

Take action
  • Call your House Member at 1-888-897-9753 to ensure that Congress does not pay for more tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and more funding to detain and deport our immigrant neighbors by cutting Medicaid and SNAP in the budget reconciliation bill.
  • Spread the word. Save the image that I’ve placed below to your computer or phone, then share it on social media or email it to friends and family.
  • Write a letter to the editor (LTE) calling Congress to reject the budget proposal. LTEs are one of the most effective advocacy tactics. If you’d like to receive LTE training, join us on Thursday, April 10 at 7:00 PM Eastern / 4:00 PM Pacific at our LTE training at our upcoming LTE workshop to learn some LTE best practices.

Find more LTE and social media guidance in our Lent toolkit.

Nearly all people in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention are held in private prisons operated by companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group. In 2022, GEO Group made $1.05 billion from ICE contracts, or 43% of its total revenue. And following Trump’s electoral victory in November, stock prices for private prison companies soared.

That’s why these private corporations are funding politicians who drum up anti-immigrant narratives.

In total, the American Immigration Council estimates that the mass deportations promised by the Trump campaign would cost $1 trillion and take ten years to carry out. With a significant portion of that money going to private contractors who celebrate this as “wins,” it’s no wonder the ultra-wealthy want us to think that immigrants are the problem. They simply deflect blame from where it belongs – among some lawmakers and their ultra-wealthy backers who hoard wealth and power, making life worse for all of us.

While some lawmakers and their ultra-wealthy backers try to divide us with hate and fear, we aren’t falling for it. Immigrants are our family members, neighbors, coworkers, and friends. No matter where we come from, we all work hard and dream of a good life for ourselves and our families. Together, we can reject scapegoating and demand that our elected officials stop caging families and invest in our communities in ways that benefit all of us.

TAKE ACTION: Call your House member today at 1-888-897-9753 and tell them to protect SNAP and Medicaid and reject funding for detention and deportation and tax cuts for billionaires in the budget proposal! Then, use our Lent toolkit to write an LTE calling Congress to reject the budget proposal.

NETWORK has more shareable content, sample social media posts, and LTE guidance for you in our Lent Toolkit.

Emily TeKolste_2025_Spring

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP is NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Coordinator. To read more, check out her column in Global Sisters Report, “The existence of billionaires is immoral.”

Lent Week 4: Congress: Keep Our Homes in Our Hands

Lent 2025: Giving Up Billionaires


Welcome to week 4 of our Lenten series, “Giving Up Billionaires,” as we call on Congress to give up billionaires so our communities can have what we need to thrive. Click here for the rest of our Lenten reflections and actions.

Congress: Keep Our Homes in Our Hands

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
March 26, 2025

 

We could end homelessness in the U.S. for ten years for a cost of $200 billion. Over those same ten years, we could generate $1.4 trillion with a 2% tax on wealth over $1 billion.

Here’s the math: With that simple 2% tax on all wealth over $1 billion, we could provide housing for every single person in the United States – and we would still have $1.2 trillion left to invest in our communities!

Yet, homelessness is at a record high, and one in three households are “housing cost burdened” — forced to spend disproportionate parts of our income on rent or mortgage payments. This is because some members of Congress choose tax cuts for their ultra-wealthy backers instead of funding programs that would make housing more affordable for all of us.

Take action
  • Call your House Member at 1-888-897-9753 to ensure that Congress does not cut our Medicaid and SNAP to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and to pay for deporting our neighbors in the budget reconciliation bill.
  • Spread the word. Save the image that I’ve placed below to your computer or phone and share it on social media and in emails to friends and family.
  • Write a letter to the editor (LTE) calling Congress to reject the budget proposal. LTEs are one of the most effective tactics for advocacy we have. Join us on Thursday, April 10 at 7:00 PM Eastern / 4:00 PM Pacific at our LTE training to learn some LTE best practices.

Find more LTE and social media guidance in our Lent toolkit.

The ultra-wealthy and the politicians they fund aren’t just blocking housing solutions, they are also actively making housing more unaffordable by allowing investors to buy up houses in our neighborhoods for their own profit, not to inhabit. In the first three months of 2024, investors bought up to 20% of homes in some markets. These investors drive first-time homebuyers out of the market, forcing them to rent from the investor-owners who hike up the cost of rent.

While those wealthy investors buy up our homes and line their pockets with our money, many of our neighbors are left out in the cold. Currently, there are 28 vacant homes for every one person facing homelessness.

Catholic teaching affirms that stable housing is a basic human right for everyone. Together, we will elect leaders who will prevent the ultra-wealthy from controlling our neighborhoods and hoarding our resources, and instead make housing security a reality for all of us.

TAKE ACTION: Call your House member today at 1-888-897-9753 and tell them to protect SNAP and Medicaid and reject tax cuts for billionaires in the budget proposal! Then, use our Lent toolkit to write a letter to the editor (LTE) calling Congress to reject the budget proposal.

NETWORK has more shareable content, sample social media posts, and LTE guidance for you in our Lent Toolkit.

Emily TeKolste_2025_Spring

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP is NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Coordinator. To read more, check out her column in Global Sisters Report, “The existence of billionaires is immoral.”

Lent Week 3: Congress: Prioritize Our Health, not Private Profits

Lent 2025: Giving Up Billionaires


Welcome to week 3 of our Lenten series, “Giving Up Billionaires,” as we call on Congress to give up billionaires so our communities can have what we need to thrive. Click here for the rest of our Lenten reflections and actions.

Congress: Protect Our Health, Not Private Profits

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
March 19, 2025

 

A friend of mine is a primary care doctor who regularly shares stories about insurance executives blocking her ability to care for her patients. For example, they delay her patients’ access to life-saving medications, which puts their health, and perhaps even their lives, at risk. Meanwhile, these insurance executives rake in record-breaking profits for themselves and their wealthy investors.

Catholic Social Teaching affirms that ensuring access to quality health care is essential to respecting the dignity of each person. No matter our race, country of origin, or size of our bank account, we value our health and want affordable health care–for ourselves and our families.

But insurance executives are lining their pockets at the expense of our health and using their profits to fund politicians who will protect their money grabs. It’s no wonder that some members of Congress are working on a bill to slash Medicaid funds–because by gutting government-supported health care, they can force more of us onto private plans and turn a bigger profit. Meanwhile, too many of us are left with huge medical bills and denials of needed medical treatment.

Take action
  • Call your House Member at 1-888-897-9753 to ensure that Congress does not cut our Medicaid to give tax-breaks to the ultra-wealthy and to pay for deporting our neighbors in the budget reconciliation bill.
  • Spread the word. Save the image that I’ve placed below to your computer or phone and share it on social media and in emails to friends and family.
  • Write a letter to the editor (LTE) calling Congress to reject the budget proposal–make sure to include your Members of Congress (Representative and two Senators) by name!

Find more LTE and social media guidance in our Lent toolkit.

There is a lasting solution: end the private profit motive and ensure that everyone has quality, affordable health care–for less than we’re paying now. This solution is sometimes known as Medicare for All. With Medicare for All, billionaires wouldn’t be able to continue profiting at our expense through the private insurance industry (which is why they pay to put people in office who will block it).

Until we achieve a common-sense program like Medicare for All, our society fills the gaps with Medicaid, which covers more than 71 million people. Right now, a few millionaires in Congress, backed by billionaire donors and the insurance industry, are working to kick people off Medicaid to fund massive tax cuts for themselves and their ultra-wealthy backers.

We are coming together to insist that a handful of billionaires stop profiting off our health care while families struggle to afford the care they need.

Call your Representative today at 1-888-897-9753 to ensure that Congress does not cut our Medicaid to give tax-breaks to the ultra-wealthy and to pay for deporting our neighbors.

NETWORK has more shareable content, sample social media posts, and LTE guidance for you in our Lent Toolkit.

Emily TeKolste_2025_Spring

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP is NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Coordinator. To read more, check out her column in Global Sisters Report, “The existence of billionaires is immoral.”

Lent Week 2: Tax Billionaires and Feed Our People

Lent 2025: Giving Up Billionaires


Welcome to week 2 of our Lenten series, “Giving Up Billionaires,” as we call on Congress to give up billionaires so our communities can have what we need to thrive. Click here for the rest of our Lenten reflections and actions.

Congress: Tax Billionaires and Feed Our People

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
March 12, 2025

 

As a child, I remember receiving the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl at church just before Lent. I was urged to donate my spare change or the money I saved from not buying a bag of chips after school so that hungry children in other countries could eat.

In 2021, David Beasley of the United Nations’ World Food Programme presented Elon Musk with a plan to address critical world hunger for $6.6 billion, about two percent of Musk’s wealth at the time. Musk had issued a challenge offering to pay that amount of money if someone presented a plan, but then refused to follow through. Two percent of my wealth is probably close to what I gave CRS as a child. It didn’t make much of a dent in world hunger, but Elon Musk could have fully ended critical world hunger at that moment.

It is a policy failure that the whims of one person can determine whether the world’s 8 billion people have access to food, or not.

In 2021, no billionaire stepped up to fund the UN World Food Programme’s proposal. Today, Congress is trying to cut our communities’ access to food to pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. Families who are already struggling to put food on the table will be even hungrier.

Take action

Call your House Member and tell them to reject cuts to SNAP and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. 

Join us as we continue promoting our Lenten campaign, “Giving Up Billionaires for Lent.” Save the image that I’ve placed below to your computer or phone and share it on social media and in emails to friends and family. And check out our Lent toolkit for more ways to share our campaign on social media and write letters to the editor (LTEs).

We must reject these cuts and act to ensure that the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share, so our communities can have what we need.

With just a two percent tax on all wealth over $1 billion, we could end hunger and homelessness, provide universal paid family and medical leave, and offer tuition-free community college in our country. We could also end hunger around the world—and still have money left over!

Take action with us today by calling your Member of Congress and asking them to reject cuts to SNAP and protect our access to food.

NETWORK has more shareable content, sample social media posts, and LTE guidance for you in our Lent Toolkit.

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP is NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Coordinator. To read more, check out her column in Global Sisters Report, “The existence of billionaires is immoral.”

Giving Up Billionaires for Lent

Lent 2025: Giving Up Billionaires


Welcome to week 1 of our Lenten series, “Giving Up Billionaires,” as we call on Congress to give up billionaires so our communities can have what we need to thrive. Click here for the rest of our Lenten reflections and actions.

Why Catholicism Calls Us to Give Up Billionaires

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
March 5, 2025

 

This year, we’re giving up billionaires for Lent. It’s not like giving up a sweet indulgence like chocolate. When we say we’re giving up billionaires, we mean we are working toward a future where no one is allowed to hoard excessive wealth and power–so that we can live in a world that looks more like the Kingdom of God.

This Lent, we are urging Congress to reject tax cuts for billionaires and to protect programs that provide critical services like access to food and health care in our communities. We’ll be doing this by calling Congress, writing letters to the editor, posting on social media, and sharing about the campaign with others in our lives. 

Let’s put “billionaire-ism” into perspective

Billionaires in the United States hold nearly $7 trillion in total wealth. If you earned $100,000 per year, paid no taxes, and had no living expenses, it would take you 10 years to save $1 million. In 10,000 years you could save $1 billion. It would take you 10,000,000 years to save $1 trillion.

It’s not just that it is wrong that billionaires exist while so many of their fellow Americans face homelessness or don’t know where their next meal is coming from: the existence of billionaires is why so many of us don’t have stable housing or food. Our economic system concentrates resources that should be for everyone into the hands of a tiny group of people. This is a policy failure and a moral failure.

Take action

Join us in spreading the word about giving up billionaires for Lent! Save the “imagine where we can go” image I’ve placed below to your computer or phone and share it on social media and in emails to friends and family. And, consider writing a letter to the editor (LTE) of your local newspaper about why Congress must give up billionaires.

NETWORK has more shareable content, sample social media posts, and LTE guidance for you in our Lent Toolkit.

Catholicism teaches: tax billionaires! 

Catholic Social Teaching offers a principle called the “Universal Destination of Goods.” The Catholic Church has long taught that the fruit of creation was given to us by God, and that private property exists to protect access to the fruits of creation for all people. When private ownership fails to do that, “Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good” (Catechism, 2406). It is long past time that Congress makes billionaires pay their fair share in taxes.

Giving up billionaires this Lent and beyond 

So this year, we’re giving up billionaires for Lent. Beyond Lent, we’re committed to coming together to elect leaders who will make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes so that we can live in a world that looks more like the Kingdom of God: where everyone has clean water to drink, healthy food to eat, a safe place to live, and time to spend with our loved ones.

Over the next few weeks of Lent, look out for weekly emails from me about our “Giving Up Billionaires” campaign, which culminate with our Easter call to tax billionaires out of existence, so that all of us can share in the fruits of creation!

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP is NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Coordinator. To read more, check out her column in Global Sisters Report, “The existence of billionaires is immoral.”

Joan F. Neal smiles as she addresses the March 5 Ash Wednesday service for a compassionate budget.

The Ash Wednesday Call for a Compassionate Budget

The Ash Wednesday Call for a Compassionate Budget Faith

 

Leaders, Members of Congress Hold Ash Wednesday Prayer Service Calling on Congress to Choose Families Over Billionaires

 

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU, NETWORK Chief of Staff, distributes ashes at the March 5 prayer service for a compassionate budget on Capitol Hill.

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU, NETWORK Chief of Staff, distributes ashes at the March 5 prayer service for a compassionate budget on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Jim Clyburn opens the March 5 Ash Wednesday service for a compassionate budget.

Rep. Jim Clyburn

Representatives of different religious traditions offered prayers as Members of Congress joined with them for a service, “Ash Wednesday: A Call to Action for a Compassionate Budget,” on March 5 on Capitol Hill. After a ceremonial distribution of ashes to mark the holy day, those gathered lamented the the harms the GOP plans on Budget Reconciliation pose to health, food, taxes, immigration/militarization, and democracy.

The Democratic Faith Working Group led by Rep. Jim Clyburn (SC-06) and members of the Washington Interfaith Staff Community came together in  the wake of President Trump’s address to Congress and decried how the proposed budget would gut health care and food programs for families to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and the mass deportation of beloved immigrant communities.

Joan F. Neal spoke about the proposed budget reconciliation's impact on taxes. She was joined by Members of Congress, faith leaders, and NETWORK on Capitol Hill at an Ash Wednesday service of prayer, distribution of ashes, and lament over the House budget reconciliation resolution and the harm it will do to individuals and families across the country.

Joan F. Neal

Joan F. Neal, Interim Executive Director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice addressed the tax injustice at the heart of the Budget Reconciliation:

“Right now, the House Budget Resolution calls for giving at least 4.5 trillion dollars in additional tax cuts to billionaires, which they intended to pay for by taking food from families, and healthcare for millions — this at a time when so many people in this country don’t know where their next meal is coming from or are one medical bill away from financial ruin. That is immoral. The faithful ask Congress today: Whose side are you on?”

The service marked the beginning of the 40-day season of Lent and offered prayers for strength and guidance while lamenting the passage of a budget resolution that would significantly harm millions of hardworking people and families to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, if it becomes law. The faith leaders, including NETWORK Chief of Staff Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU distributed ashes to the people gathered.

Rev. Camille Henderson, the Senior Executive Director for Advocacy of the General Board of Church and Society offered the opening gathering prayer. United Methodist Bishop Julius C. Trimble, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society was among the Christian faith leaders who spoke — along with Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, President and National Secretary, National Council of Churches; Rev. Terri Hord Owens, General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ; Bridget Moix, General Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation; Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould, Political Director at Faith in Action; and Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ.

Rep. Clyburn opened the service with his close reading of Matthew 25. He noted that most people jump to the “whatever you did for the least among you, you did for me” portion of the Scripture. But his focus, he said, is on Jesus speaking of how people are to use their talents–things of great value–out in the world. This question, he said, could be reflected in the priorities reflected in the Federal Budget.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05) echoed this sentiment:

“Show me your checkbook and I will tell you what your values are,” said Rep. Cleaver. “The checkbook of the United States declares who we are. … To talk about cutting Medicaid is a sin and an insult to the God who lets us walk around and breathe.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver speaks at the March 5, 2025 Ash Wednesday prayer service for a compassionate budget.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver

Cleaver shared what he wanted to call out during Trump’s address to Congress:

“Elon Musk, how much did you get? The poor got nothing! Speaker Johnson, how much did you get? The poor got nothing! Donald Trump, how much did you get? The poor got nothing!”

Rep. Shontel Brown (OH-11) connected the values of her faith to concrete human needs.

“This is not a call of faith but a call to action. Our faith isn’t about what we believe, it is about how we serve,” she said. “Seniors are choosing between groceries and medication. Parents are working multiple jobs but can’t make ends meet. … We are called to walk with one another.”

Rep. Shontel Brown speaks on the connection of faith and the human needs of people in her district at the March 5, 2025 Ash Wednesday prayer service on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Shontel Brown

Rep. Brown added: “In my district, one in five families, thirty-two percent of seniors, and fifty-one percent of people with disabilities rely on SNAP. These numbers represent people, our neighbors, our friends, and our fellow congregants. This is not about politics, this is about people getting the help they need.”

Rep. Chuy Garcia (IL-04) lamented that cuts to vital programs will go to tax cuts for billionaires, as well as mass deportation efforts by the Administration.

Rep. Chuy Garcia speaks on the impact on immigrant communities posed by the Budget Reconciliation at the March 5 Ash Wednesday service on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Chuy Garcia

“My ask is that Republicans give up billionaires for Lent and to reflect deeply on the needs of ordinary people across the country, especially the condition of 11 million undocumented migrants needing a pathway to citizenship,” he said.

“I pray that we will also reflect on the violent rhetoric that has been used by President Trump and other Members of Congress, which is rooted in lies and distortions,” he added.

“Immigrants give so much to this country. Let’s not forget that they pay taxes — over $580 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes. They are our neighbors, small business people, they are the other children who attend school with our own. They are human beings. ”

Rep. Robin Kelly (IL-02) spoke of a different kind of reconciliation than the budget process:

Rep. Robin Kelly speaks about how millions of people will be harmed by cuts to Medicaid under the proposed GOP budget at the Ash Wednesday prayer service for a compassionate budget on March 5.

Rep. Robin Kelly

“Ash Wednesday is a holy day that marks the beginning of repentance and reconciliation,” she said. “But what I cannot reconcile is a budget that harms hardworking Americans.”

She questioned how her Republican colleagues could justify to their constituents back home the cuts they are proposing.

“Thousands of their constituents, just like ours, rely on Medicaid for health care,” she noted. In her own district, she added, over 300,000 people risk losing their health care under the GOP budget.

Rep. Tim Kennedy (NY-26) said a budget that fails in this way is essentially a betrayal of the founding principles of the United States.

Rep. Tim Kennedy addresses the impacts of the GOP Budget Reconciliation at the Ash Wednesday prayer service for a compassionate budget on Capitol Hill on March 5.

Rep. Tim Kennedy

“We have the opportunity right now to actually uplift hardworking families, help our seniors, protect our children,” he said. “Though we humans are not perfect, our forefathers built a democracy that helped lift so many out of poverty, illiteracy, and oppression.”

He added, “Tyrants have no place in our society. We fought to protect our democracy, a system that gives each person a voice in our nation, a voice that time and time again we as Americans have chosen to use for the common good.”

Of the numerous faith leaders from across traditions who spoke at the event, Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould of Faith in Action asserted that the moral and policy perils presented by the Budget Reconciliation require action.

“This season of Lent was the season when Jesus went into the temple and flipped the tables over,” she said. “Our job is not to sit by silently.”

Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould of Faith in Action speaks at the March 5 Ash Wednesday service for a compassionate budget on Capitol Hill

Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould of Faith in Action speaks at the March 5 service, “Ash Wednesday: A Call to Action for a Compassionate Budget,” on Capitol Hill.

The Whole Body Suffers

 

The Whole Body Suffers

This Black History Month Tests the Health of Our Union and Communion 

Joan F. Neal
February 25, 2025

Joan F. Neal, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Equity Officer at NETWORK

Joan F. Neal, Interim Executive Director at NETWORK

This Black History Month has been hard. I simply cannot sugarcoat it. Just as cold and flu season have ravaged so many people during the month of February, this month has also offered one terrible episode after another which should make all of us worry about the health of our country.  The destruction of government infrastructure and institutions combined with the normalizing of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment have ravaged the U.S. in ways that put all of us more at risk of being less financially secure and even less healthy. 

For years, the United States has been credited with having the “best health care in the world.” But if that is true, what else is also true is that access to that system is not equitably shared. Health care continues to be an issue for Black communities, and Black History Month reminds us of that fact.  It shows us how the structures of society can be weaponized against people just as easily as they can promote stability and justice. 

In the U.S., structural racism can be as simple as where a hospital or a grocery store is built; which communities can receive urgent, life-saving care and which lack even adequate transportation to access quality health care.  Structural racism decides which neighborhoods have ready access to the fresh fruits and vegetables so essential for a healthy life and which communities are literal food deserts with only small grocery stores and limited options or fast-food outlets. Caring for our health involves both being able to access medical care when needed as well as being able to maintain good health by eating well. 

And while we may not realize it, these healthcare gaps are at the heart of today’s debates over the federal budget. Republicans in Congress have once again proposed to slash essential food and health care programs to give tax cuts to billionaires, balancing the budget on the backs of children, families, and ordinary people, many of whom are Black and Brown.  These actions not only exacerbate the healthcare situation but also perpetuate the racial wealth and income gap and reverse the gains that Black History Month celebrates.   

Families should not lose the ability to feed their babies through SNAP benefits in order to give Elon Musk another tax break. Nor should they lose their Medicaid in order for Jeff Bezos to further pad his considerable bottom line. Our very health and lives are literally caught up in this budget fight, and it is time for all people to speak out! 

Families should not lose the ability to feed their babies through SNAP benefits in order to give Elon Musk another tax break … Our very health and lives are literally caught up in this budget fight, and it is time for all people to speak out! 

Troubling signs are all around us. At the beginning of February, the report emerged that Black women die at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women around the time of childbirth, an increase from 2.6 times higher only a couple years earlier. The Black maternal mortality crisis is real, a concern of NETWORK, and just one of many indicators of persistent structural racism in U.S. health care. And if the proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid go through, they will be no exception. 

 NETWORK is fighting against these discriminatory policies through our new policy agenda: An Economy for All, which presents a clear plan to create an inclusive economy where everyone thrives – no exceptions.  This is the vision that is central to the celebration of Black History Month. 

Moreover, in areas such as health care, impacts spread.  Scripture tells us that when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers (1 Cor 12:26). This is important to remember as the Trump administration rolls out its cruel and discriminatory agenda. No one can say “this won’t affect me.” Everyone should be concerned. This month’s Senate confirmation of vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary portends a picture of a future where the health of all people in the U.S. will be weakened, where women won’t be able to get the health care they need, where children will die from easily preventable diseases, undoing decades of medical progress that made this country—and the world—healthier. 

The whole body also suffers from the moral wound that is inflicted on society by the acceptance of racist policies, whether in health care, foreign assistance, or immigration. It is all morally unacceptable, and it hurts our souls to permit it, even passively. For U.S. Catholics, this Black History Month has tested our Union, the structures that enshrine  “We the People” of the country. But it has also tested our Communion, our capacity to be one Body with all God’s children. If we are indifferent to our Black or immigrant friends or abandon our fellow neighbors abroad, we have lost our sense of Communion. 

I believe that our country and the church are still healthy enough to rally and offer the moral witness necessary to fight off the harms of entrenched racism and Christian nationalism now ravaging our body politic. But it will require a renewed sense of solidarity, a commitment to being not just one people, but one Body, accountable to all its members without exception. That is a history well worth writing with our actions today. 

Holding onto Hope

Holding onto Hope

Grounding Ourselves in Encounter and Community is the Way Forward

Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM

Nuns on the Bus & Friends riders stand around the graves of Cesar and Helen Chavez as their grandson, Andres Chavez, leads the Prayer of the Farm Worker’s Struggle.

On a warm, sunny morning in Keene, California, Nuns on the Bus & Friends riders stood around the graves of Cesar and Helen Chavez while Andres Chavez (their grandson) led us in the Prayer of the Farm Worker’s Struggle.

“Show me the suffering of the most miserable. Thus, I will know my people’s plight,” Andres prayed, and we repeated.

As we begin 2025 and gear up for a new administration and a new Congress, I find myself returning to this prayer as a source of encouragement amid the struggle that we will be up against with the new Trump administration. I also find myself searching for hope and encouragement to hold onto as we fight for the rights of so many people.

Nuns on the Bus & Friends was a boost of energy and belief in the power of people who come together in search of the common good. From coast to coast, we were welcomed into neighborhoods and communities. We witnessed the resurrection of a community when meeting with the Resurrected Community Development Foundation in Allentown, PA; celebrated liturgy and broke bread with the community in Cleveland at Blessed Trinity Parish; learned from NETWORK’s Coston Fellows at the Town Hall in Milwaukee, WI; and walked along the Border with Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, AZ.

No matter where we were, we heard about the struggle to ensure that all people—no matter their country of origin, faith tradition, economic status, age, or gender—have what they need to thrive. We learned about people who saw a need and did all they could to meet that need in their communities.

Sometimes it included feeding people out of the trunk of their car; other times it involved launching an internet service provider to ensure that neighbors had access to the internet.

Everywhere we went, we heard stories about people seeing a need and meeting a need. This was the gift of the Bus – to give us enough hope, joy, and courage to hold onto as we head into this upcoming year.

As we all know, less than a month after the Bus ended, a stark reality descended upon us. Our fight for thriving communities, for an Economy for All, will be much more difficult.

Make no mistake: the next four years will be difficult and filled with challenges. But we cannot let ourselves lose focus.

We cannot let ourselves be swayed by angry rhetoric that attempts to divide us by demonizing so many members of our communities: immigrants, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and those who depend on life-saving programs like SNAP, WIC, and Medicaid.

Nuns on the Bus & Friends riders visit the National Chavez Center.

These are times that will require us to dig deep, to root ourselves in our communities across the country, to hold onto hope and joy, and to continue the fight for equality and justice.

We must work together to create a country where all people are welcomed; where all people are seen as created in the image of God; and where all people have what they need to thrive.

As we begin 2025, we may find it easy to think about giving up hope and to throw in the proverbial towel. We must reflect on the words of the Prayer of the Farm Workers’ Struggle, so that we can “let the spirit flourish and grow so that we will never tire of the struggle.”

For some of us, that means we cannot allow our privileges of being safe from deportation or discrimination of any kind to lead us into complacency. With a renewed commitment, we must be led into authentic solidarity with our neighbors, our communities, our cities, and our country.

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2025 issue of Connection.