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Build Anew Series – Housing

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Build Anew Series — Part 9
Housing

Virginia Schilder
November 30, 2023
Welcome back to our Build Anew Series, with weekly posts covering the people, policies, and values at the heart of the issues we work on. This week, we’re talking about housing.   

Everyone can agree that food, water, shelter, and health care are the most fundamental necessities of life. Yet, the United States, the wealthiest country in the world, is facing a long-term trend of increasing houselessness. From 2015-2022, the unsheltered population increased by 35 percent — which means an additional 60,560 people in this country are without shelter. In 2022, the numbers of unhoused persons (over 420,000) and chronically unhoused persons (nearly 128,000) reached record highs.

Leaving so many of our neighbors out on the street is a policy choice. A structural refusal to control rent prices and designate and maintain affordable housing is a moral issue. The housing crisis most affects the people already made vulnerable by unjust systems, including the elderly, children, Black and Brown communities, LGBTQ+ persons, Native Americans, and families in poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened these disparities.

We know that housing is an essential part of the wellbeing of ourselves and our families. Access to affordable housing creates stability and unlocks a greater ability to get and keep a job, to pursue education, to stay out of the criminal legal system, to tend to one’s health, and to care for oneself and loved ones. We all deserve the basic security of a safe and stable place to live. This is why NETWORK supports a housing first model, and why we must engage federal policy to build anew our systems of ensuring housing security for all.

Present Realities

In our profit-driven housing market, millions of people experience housing insecurity every year. The largest problem renters and potential homeowners face today is a lack of affordable housing. In the United States, a record number of over 40 million renting and homeowning households are cost burdened, spending more than a third of their income on housing. When so much of a family’s income must go towards housing, they have to cut back in other areas. Cost-burdened renters or homeowners may experience hunger, struggle to pay for transportation, find it harder to pursue educational or professional opportunities, and experience higher rates of eviction and foreclosure. Rising rents and housing costs are worsened by stagnant wages, the decreasing public housing stock, and the poor condition of remaining units. (Since the 1990s, the U.S. has destroyed almost a quarter-million public housing units, and replaced only a fraction.) Meanwhile, rent prices for new privately developed housing are unattainable for low-income families.

Peter Cook, executive director of the New York State Council of Churches, participates in a NETWORK “Care Not Cuts” rally NETWORK on Long Island on May 22.

For people of color in the U.S.—especially for Black families—banks, the real estate industry, and local, state, and federal policies have enforced centuries of legal segregation and housing discrimination. Practices such as forcing Black families into higher-cost and lower-quality segregated housing (often in neighborhoods near toxic waste sites or highways with poor air quality), denying federally backed mortgages, and preventing the racial integration of white neighborhoods, have had devastating impacts on economic, education, community safety, and health outcomes. The legacies of redlining, environmental racism, and exclusionary zoning persists. Today, more than 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement won the passage of the Fair Housing Act, the gap between white and Black homeownership (which exacerbates the racial wealth gap) is even larger than it was in 1960 before the legislation went into effect.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half a million people in the U.S. were experiencing houselessness, disproportionately in Black, AAPI, and Native American communities. With housing costs already stressing families’ financial security, layoffs and other unexpected costs during the COVID-19 pandemic caused many to fall behind on rent and mortgage payments, leading to evictions and foreclosures where state or federal eviction moratoriums failed to protect vulnerable households. Before the national eviction moratorium went into effect (temporarily), the expiration of state eviction moratoriums in 27 states led to tens of thousands of additional COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Access to safe, affordable housing is absolutely critical for every person and supports our country’s overall health. Housing creates stability that helps people pursue education, employment, and health, as well as eliminate contact with the criminal legal system, comply with the terms of their probation, and reduce their risk of recidivism. By failing to ensure housing for all members of our society, we harm family development and deprive millions of the stability of a secure shelter. Lack of housing is a matter of life or death, and one disproportionately faced by communities of color. This is immoral. We must respond to this urgent need and build anew with housing policies that dismantle systemic racism in housing and ensure equitable access to safe and affordable housing for all.

Facts and Figures on Housing in the U.S.
Our Values

“Dorothy Day and The Holy Family of the Streets,” Kelly Latimore

As we’ve been exploring throughout the Build Anew Series, Catholic Social Justice principles call us to uphold the dignity of each person as an equally valuable member of the global family. Because dignity refers to what people deserve by virtue of their humanity, upholding dignity means ensuring that each person has what they need to live well. Stable, affordable housing — a shelter, a home — is among the most basic of these necessities.

The pervasiveness of houselessness and housing insecurity stands in stark contradiction to the Catholic call to uphold the dignity of each person. The Vatican II encyclical Gaudium et spes reads, “All offenses against human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions… all these and the like are criminal: they poison civilization; and they debase the perpetrators more than the victims and militate against the honor of the creator.” In other words, failing to ensure safe living conditions for all people is an offense against God!

Widespread houselessness is also where we see our social sin of racism and classism especially clearly. It is immoral that some people in this country have multiple houses, while so many have none. It is immoral that so many offices, hotel rooms, and other gathering spaces remain empty at night while our neighbors sleep out in the cold on the streets below. Whether or not you have shelter should not have anything to do with the color of your skin, or how much money is in your bank account. Yet, this is the reality in the U.S., an unconscionable affront to the equal dignity and worth of every single human being which our faith emphatically professes. We have an obligation to our siblings to redress this grave moral harm, as a matter of what it means to live a faith of justice, peace, and compassion.

We are all interconnected. When we all have the food, water, health care, and shelter that we deserve by virtue of our humanity, the whole community benefits. When we all have housing, our nation as a whole will be a healthier, safer, more stable, and more caring place to be for all of us.

When he visited a homeless shelter, Pope Francis asserted, “The home is a crucial place in life, where life grows and can be fulfilled, because it is a place in which every person learns to receive love and to give love.” Housing is a basic human right and the foundation of a person’s ability to meet their needs and care for themselves and their family. Each person deserves a stable shelter in which they can feel safe and at home. Together, we have the resources to make this a reality, and our faith calls us to do so.

Housing Justice and Federal Policy

Luckily, we know that good policy can significantly reduce houselessness. We saw this in the period from 2020-2022, when the rate of increasing houselessness slowed, due to strong (yet temporary) investments in human services programs during the pandemic.

The federal government must take action to promote lasting housing stability for all people. Congress must expand vouchers and increase funding for Section 8 rental assistance (including tenant-based assistance and project-based rental assistance), as well as invest in public housing repairs and rehabilitation (which need more than $26 million in major capital repairs). Additionally, federal lawmakers should pass legislation to provide a renter’s tax credit and expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.

In addition to ending houselessness and bolstering rental assistance programs, Congress must address the ongoing legacies of redlining, by investing in Black and Brown neighborhoods and creating sustainable pathways to homeownership for communities of color, who still face racial discrimination in housing and lending practices.

In rural America, homeownership is the principal form of housing. Yet, access to mortgage credit is limited, especially for Black households. Another challenge for rural households is clean water infrastructure. Hundreds of rural communities nationwide do not have access to clean residential drinking water and safe waste disposal systems. The government should support the fostering of sustainable, vibrant rural communities, including by increasing investment in Department of Agriculture housing grant and loan programs to ensure every rural household has the resources to repair, buy, or rent affordably.

Most urgently, as Congress appropriates funding for Housing and Urban Development (HUD), let your elected officials know that housing programs must be bolstered, not cut!

Join us again next week for our tenth and final installation of the Build Anew Series, looking ahead to 2024! And don’t forget to stay tuned on Instagram (@network_lobby) and Facebook for our Build Anew video series!

It’s Time for an Income Floor

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It’s Time for an Income Floor

Recent Crises Prove That We Can End Poverty in the U.S.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
November 29, 2023

 

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman has represented New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District since 2015.

My father, John S. Watson, instilled a core value that is my guiding principle: “To whom much is given, much is required.” This mantra from the Gospel of Luke was the impetus for my run for Congress.

Now that I have the privilege to represent New Jersey’s 12th congressional district in Congress, my core belief can be summed up around this concept: In the United States of America, there is a floor below which we should never allow any child, any family, or any person to fall. We have an obligation to ensure that every American is entitled to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness and has an equal opportunity to chase the American dream.

However, many of us know that it is difficult to achieve these pursuits without economic security. Anti-poverty advocates understand the wide array of factors that cause Americans to fall below this floor. It is time for us to evaluate what economic security means for all.

During my time in Congress, I have been fighting to close the wealth gap and ensure that all Americans receive a fair wage; a living wage, which data from the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning estimates would be $25.02 per hour, or $104,077.70 for a family of four. It is simply a moral outrage that there are millions of Americans surviving on wages below what is necessary to support themselves and their families. The arbitrary minimum wage — which is variously set between $7.25 per hour and $17.00 per hour depending on where one works — is simply not enough. The inability of millions of families to meet their basic needs, such as food, health care, clothing, and shelter in the richest country in the world is shameful.

Fortunately, we have the power to guarantee all Americans an income sufficient to care for their families in a safe, secure home, to afford quality medical care, and to secure a good education.

The concept of a guaranteed income, or directly giving unrestricted cash to people, offers dignity and self-determination for recipients. A one-size-fits-all approach to providing economic assistance to Americans combats the antiquated and misguided notions of deservedness rooted in distrust. As Dorothy Day said, “The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.” All people, as children of God, deserve the necessities of life.

Guaranteed income also has historical relevance and was — and still is — a centerpiece demand of the Poor People’s Campaign, the movement to economically empower America’s most vulnerable. Martin Luther King, Jr. praised the idea of guaranteed income, stating that “the dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain, and when he knows that he has the means to seek self-improvement.”

My piece of legislation I authored, the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act, would establish a nationwide pilot program to test the outcomes of a federally funded income support program that would keep more American families from experiencing permanent financial fallout and lasting poverty from a single unexpected crisis.

We have seen the devastating impacts of the pandemic on our economy. At the same time, the government’s response has demonstrated that there is a real and meaningful ability for federal programs to keep Americans out of poverty. The interventions taken by the federal government, in fact, led to one of the steepest declines in poverty in American history including a 50 percent decline in poverty among children. Every effort should be taken to make these programs permanent. The success of lowering poverty during an economic crisis further proves that, in modern economies, poverty is a choice.

Black women sit at the core of our economy, and yet they are routinely the last to benefit from economic booms and the first to suffer from downturns. This instability has a devastating effect on families and communities. The security and stability of a guaranteed income would unleash untold economic opportunities; the ripple from this transformative change would reach all corners of our economy.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that, when John answered to the crowd, he said “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” (3:11) What was accomplished to cut poverty during the COVID crisis shows us what is possible when our actions are in line with our priorities. We now have the opportunity to reimagine how we address the suffering of the most vulnerable in our society. There is no reason we can’t live in a world without poverty.  

This story was published in the Quarter 4 2023 issue of Connection. 

Black Catholic History Month Reflections: Sister Josita Colbert

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Black Catholic History Month Reflections: Sister Josita Colbert, SNDdeN

Susan Dennin and Virginia Schilder
November 29, 2023

Sr. Josita’s involvement in Black Sisters’ organizing began in August 1968, when Sr. Martin de Porres Grey, a Mercy Sister in Pittsburgh, organized a weeklong conference for about 200 Black Sisters at Carlow College. This was the beginning of the National Black Sisters’ Conference.

Sr. Josita Colbert, SNDdeN

“[At that conference,] there was a lot of education about what the Black Power movement meant. It was an educational and spiritual experience. There was singing and music that made liturgy much more meaningful. We had a Black priest there, and at the first Mass, Sister Teresita Weind, SNDdeN preached. It was so refreshing there, even though the meetings were long! And we had speakers who would come in. They were really trying to explain the whole system of the Black Power movement and Nguzo Saba principles. We had Jesse Jackson… a lot of famous speakers. It was a little over a week, the first time we met. We met a couple of times at Carlow, and then we moved marto Dayton.”

A central theme of those early meetings, according to Sr. Josita, was that coming to know and love oneself, especially as Black women religious, is critical for being able to teach and empower others.

“During that time, the organizers were trying to help us learn about ourselves and appreciate who we were as Black religious women — but also how to better empower those who we taught, because most of us were teachers. It was almost like a reeducation, in terms of how we could teach differently, especially about Africa. It was learning to respect our people, the way we look, our hair, our features… that they are all beautiful, and God made us. It was a whole learning of oneself, and respecting of oneself. The intent was that if you believe these things about yourself, and internalize them, then it’s reflected not just in what you tell other students, but what they see.

We had workshops that would empower you, whether it be in spiritual direction, or working in civic, political, or church activities. They taught us how to enhance those who you were responsible to, and how to build their leadership skills. I think my style of teaching was different as a result of going to the conference.

When I think back about it, my own family and the people in our church— lay people who led various activities—they also taught us these skills, and about taking on responsibilities. My family was very active in the church, and they were very open and accepting of people. When I came to the conference, they were telling us about being open and sharing with others the skills you have. That’s what the people in the church did. That connected with me, in terms of how I taught and interacted with others. I learned not to have rash judgments of people, and instead to try to accept them.”

Sr. Josita cited a few Christian principles of Nguzo Saba as central in her formation:

“One was Nia: having purpose in whatever you do. When I think about the life of Jesus, or some of the early saints, they focus on what they were called to do, and helping others learn more about God and themselves. Another one is Imani: faith, and believing in God. I look back to my family: they were faithful in what they did and how they treated other people. It’s believing in God, that God will see us through, and also believing in yourself. And certainly if you do that, then you have a belief in others and a respect for the personhood of other people.

And then the other is a long word, Kujichagulia: self-determination. That’s what the educational part of the conference was all about. You hear so many negative things about Black people; you hear about those orders of priests and nuns who would not readily take in Black women or Black men simply because of the pigmentation of their skin – blatant racism. Self-determination meant to me to be focused on what you’re supposed to be about, as a Black religious woman, as a Christian. Focus on that. Don’t dwell on the negative stuff, because it gets in the way of the mission, what we’re supposed to be doing.

Those are the three principles that I stuck with, all relating to God and to self.”

Sr. Josita shared about her experiences of Black Sisters working together, providing support to one another and to young people, as advocates and mentors. In particular, she spoke about supporting Black women in vocations to religious life.

Sr. Josita Colbert, SNDdeN speaks at NETWORK's 50th anniversary celebration in Washington in April 2022.

Sr. Josita Colbert, SNDdeN speaks at NETWORK’s 50th anniversary celebration in Washington in April 2022.

“I try to tell younger ones today, when they talk about what they go through, to focus. … I have had opportunities to do workshops in various parishes. These have been learning opportunities for me, helping students and young people to be involved in their churches, to be active members of the church. There are a lot of African American youth that were so involved in their communities, but not in their Catholic Church because we didn’t provide them with opportunities. They have to be a part of the conversation.

In those days, we had a committee. If one of the younger sisters had a problem, we’d ask to speak with the superior, and work with them, to be advocates and mentors. We’d work with Black sisters and with the community.

We’d also have conversations with leadership of various communities, to talk about tips for working with and inviting African American women to religious life — and what to do when they’re there, visiting all-white communities. In the early days, we tried to educate white religious communities, but it didn’t seem to change the behavior. Most women would say, ‘We’ve never been around Black people.’ And then you point out, ‘What about sister so and so?!’ Were they invisible? They weren’t seen.

One sister called me and said, ‘Things in 2023 have not changed – what did we do back in the 60s and 70s?’ I said, I’m doing things differently. It may be through writing, talking, engaging, having meetings with LCWR, with the National Religious Vocations Conference… we need to get on those committees. Shirley Chisholm said, if you go to the table and there’s not a seat, take a chair up there! We were trying to explain that God calls Black people to the religious life as well. … And it was so important to know that there were others doing the same work. You could call people, you could write – you knew there were others out there doing the same thing.

Most of my life I did teaching and then I became a vocations director, listening to women’s stories. I worked with women who were white, Black, Latina. It made no difference: [they shared] what they felt God called them to do.”

Sr. Josita also spoke at length about the role Sr. Thea Bowman has played in her life, especially as a source of courage and grounding in clarity about “who and whose you are.”

“You are Black, you are Catholic, you are a religious woman. You bring yourself to the Church. sr. Thea’s thing was that, you don’t turn me off because I’m Black. At a conference, she sang a Gospel song and people would look at her strangely, not realizing she was a keynote speaker.

Her thing was that you had to be clear about who you were, and feel certain about that, so that you don’t let anyone tear you down because of who you are. [It’s about] doing the right thing, being like Jesus, and if you’re religious looking at your mission statement and constitutions that are written so very beautifully, being accepting and open…

We as humans sometimes do just the opposite of the things we’ve written. What is our mission statement trying to guide us to do, and what does that mean to me as a Black woman? Sr. Thea spoke truth. Trying not to hurt anyone; just trying to share. Sr. Thea was a humble woman. She loved life. Do what it is the Spirit moves you to do – that’s always the right thing to do.

When I think about Sr. Thea, it’s about remembering who and whose you are, so that you can then go out and do the mission, do what you have to do, as long as you aren’t hurting anyone violently or tearing anyone’s personhood down. We try to respect others as human beings. That’s what Sr. Thea did.”

Sr. Josita cited Angela Davis’ “I’m changing the things I cannot accept” as a point of guidance for her prayer and justice actions. Through her teaching, vocational mentorship, and service on various committees, Sr. Josita shares her voice in service of a more just future for Black Catholics.

“We place ourselves in situations in which we can strive to effect the changes that can be made. We look at how we can invite members of leadership teams, vocation directors, and organizations to be a part of conversations and education. It’s not just us being educated, but trying to work with other people.  We’re trying to get people to read Subversive Habits by Shannon Dee Williams!

[At the Black Sisters conferences,] we learned that it’s important that you’re a part of the decision-making. Bring the chair with you! I was on a bishop’s advisory board. If something was not inclusive, I tried to make sure that whatever the documents and mission statement and goals are, they are inclusive to all, not just one group of people.

A seventh grader asked me, “Why do people hate Black people? What’s wrong with me?” I’m saying, Oh God, how do I answer this question? I said, there’s nothing wrong with you. God made you, God made all of us. We need to learn how to accept and respect the differences that exist among us. We’re supposed to be like Jesus, and Jesus didn’t reject anyone. I fight the fight so that those behind me don’t have to do it, so that they won’t have to endure hatred, so that they’ll be accepted for who they are and their contributions.

Sr. Thea had a way of getting across to others, speaking on behalf of Black people and on behalf of what was just and right. It’s not easy! You have to have a relationship with God, otherwise it’s not gonna work. How do we do this with others not so much in words, but in deeds and actions in our churches, schools, work and ministries?”

Build Anew Series – Health Care

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Build Anew Series — Part 8
Health Care

Virginia Schilder
November 17, 2023
Welcome back to our Build Anew Series, with weekly posts covering the people, policies, and values at the heart of the issues we work on. This week, we’re talking about health care, and the dangerous Medicaid “unwinding” going on in many states.   

In 1966, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death.” These words still ring true in the United States, where many die each year because of a lack of access to health care. Millions of people in the U.S. are uninsured — a number that is rising with the ongoing Medicaid “unwinding” (more on this below) — and even more cannot afford the cost of needed medicine or health services. This “injustice in health” is felt most strongly by people of color, low-income families, immigrants, disabled people, and members of the LGBTQ+ community who, because of structural barriers to health, face lower life expectancy, higher mortality rates (especially maternal mortality rates), and higher rates of chronic diseases.

Access to health care is a fundamental human right that all people deserve as a function of their dignity. The Catholic tradition is emphatic that no person’s life is of greater worth or value than another’s — meaning that it is a grave moral wrong when people with wealth have privileged access to needed health care, medications, and treatments. Our families should not have to choose between life-saving medical care, and putting food on the table or paying the rent.

The COVID-19 pandemic made acutely clear the reality that our health is tied together. By building anew our health care system, we can improve the wellbeing of our society as a whole.

Present Realities

We have seen too many family members, friends, and neighbors die from a lack of care and critical medicines. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than one out of 10 adults in the U.S. knew at least one friend or family member who had died without needed medical treatment because they were unable to pay for it. For people of color, that number is one out of five. Let that sink in.

This is unconscionable — especially in a nation as wealthy as the U.S. Everyone deserves access to health care and prescription medications, but our sinful lack of affordable, comprehensive health insurance and the pharmaceutical industry’s exploitative behavior blocks access to needed medicines and care. It’s no surprise that the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is medical bills. The soaring costs of health insurance and medical bills, and the egregious raising of prices on needed everyday medicines, reflect an immoral effort to profit from our universal need to be taken care of when we are sick—or to simply live with chronic conditions.

We also deserve the time to heal from illness and to care for sick loved ones and children without risk of losing our jobs or critical income — which means that paid sick days and medical leave are indispensable. According to the Center for American Progress, the U.S. is the only “industrialized” nation that does not guarantee paid sick days and family and medical leave. This failure to guarantee paid medical leave most acutely impacts lower-income families and the communities who are already most vulnerable in our society.

The U.S. suffers from immoral health disparities, which the COVID-19 pandemic made worse. Black, Latinx, and Native Americans became sick with COVID and died at higher rates than white people across the U.S. But even before the pandemic, because of systemic racism, people of color in this country have long suffered higher rates of mortality and disease (including heart disease) and lower life expectancy than white Americans. A particularly urgent example of these disparities is the Black maternal mortality crisis. Adverse health outcomes are also closely tied to poverty, which is one of the most significant social determinants of physical and mental health.

In addition to one’s ability to access health care, socioeconomic factors like housing, employment status, incarceration, food security, environmental safety, and education all determine a person’s health. This underscores how health care justice is a comprehensive issue that requires accessible and affordable health care, but also justice and transformation across multiple racial, social, and economic dimensions.

Racial and class health disparities are not only unjust and immoral, but they harm everyone. The pandemic made even clearer how our health is tied together: we are all put at risk when any of us is without insurance, access to affordable care, or the ability to take off work when sick or caring for a sick loved one. To end health inequities and promote our common well-being, we must build our unjust healthcare system anew, and ensure that each of us has what we need to best care for our bodies.

Facts and Figures on Health Care in the U.S.
Lived Experience

Maura, the second daughter of Joe and Rita McGrath of Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, was born with Down syndrome. Now 17 years old, Maura continues to be the blessing her parents have always known her to be. In addition to Down syndrome, Maura is nonverbal and has been diagnosed with autism. As a minor living with disabilities, Maura qualifies for Medicaid benefits. Even though Joe and Rita both work, the cost of Maura’s healthcare is too expensive for their family to afford on their own.

An integral part of Maura’s wellbeing is the care Maura receives from her beloved home health aide Williamina. Taking care of Maura is a full-time job and looking after her became more difficult for Rita after fighting cancer. Additionally, Joe has Parkinson’s disease. Medicaid provided the necessary funds for the McGraths to hire assistance.

In addition to a home health aide, Maura needs eight different medications, medical equipment and supplies (such as her wheelchair and diapers), and frequent doctor appointments. Medicaid covers the cost of these needs. Without Medicaid, the McGrath family would be in financial ruin. The cost of Maura’s medicine alone would be several hundred dollars every month. These are expenses that the McGraths, and many families in similar situations, would be unable to afford without the help of Medicaid.

The principles of Catholic Social Justice teach us that all human life has value. Cutting Medicaid benefits would take away critical healthcare that Maura and many other people deserve. Healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. Medicaid caps or any cut in Medicaid benefits would prevent people from accessing healthcare that is critical to their survival. The McGrath family deserves the peace of mind that comes with knowing they can provide care for their daughters. We are one another’s keeper and Medicaid provides access to care every human is entitled to.

Adapted from text written by Emma Tacke, NETWORK Grassroots Mobilization Associate  

Our Values

The Catholic tradition affirms that each person has a right to the care their bodies need to thrive. The right to access care when you get sick, the medicine and support you need to live with chronic conditions, and the preventative care to keep you healthy, are human rights that we all need and deserve.

Pope Francis says, “Health is not a consumer good, but rather a universal right, and therefore access to healthcare services cannot be a privilege.” The Catholic faith proclaims the ultimate worth of life as infinitely more important than profit—thereby condemning the egregious immorality of over-pricing and profiting off of life-giving medicines and health care. Access to medical services should never be contingent on a person’s ability to pay. At the center of the Catholic faith is the belief that all lives are of equal and immeasurable value. Therefore, allowing those with fewer means suffer or even die while those with wealth access the treatments they need to live is an affront to the Catholic view of the human person.

Throughout the Build Anew Series, we’ve explored how the Catholic tradition is clear that resources are to be shared and used to meet needs — especially the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. Funds raised to pay for health care through our tax system should help promote public health by expanding health care access. Moreover, the price of health care should not rest on those who have the least — those who are able to pay more, must contribute more.

To love our neighbors means to care for their bodies — ensuring that we all have food, water, clothing, safe shelter, and good health care. Health care services provided through insurance must be comprehensive, and include preventative, primary, acute, mental health and long-term care services. Compassionate and affordable health care that meets needs and tends to the whole person serves to nurture the dignity of everyone in our communities.

Take Action: Why Medicaid Should be Expanding, Not “Unwinding”

Medicaid is our country’s main system of health care coverage for low-income individuals, children, and families, as well as older and disabled adults. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), families and individuals earning less than a certain percentage of the federal poverty level are eligible for Medicaid. Today, there are still state governments refusing to opt-in to this expanded coverage for people on the brink of poverty. Lawmakers in those states who deny access to health care for families and individuals struggling in poverty are responsible for keeping their states’ residents from life-saving care.

As a new report from UNIDOS explains, many COVID-19-related Medicaid protections expired on April 1, 2023, allowing states to redetermine eligibility and begin terminating families’ Medicaid. In many states, this has enabled a devastating process of Medicaid “unwinding,” with unprecedented numbers of people losing coverage. The most frustrating part is that most people losing Medicaid are still eligible. They have only lost coverage because of simply missing paperwork or other red tape barriers. This unwinding is particularly affecting Black and Brown communities, as it is estimated that over half of the people losing Medicaid are people of color.

If this unwinding continues, we will be facing an ever-growing and unconscionable health care disaster. Medicaid must be available to all who are eligible, without work requirements or other burdensome restrictions. Investing in our health is critical and benefits all of us. Our elected officials should expand this vital health care program immediately, so that all of us can access the health care we need and deserve.

TAKE ACTION: learn more by reading the full report here: Six Months into Unwinding: History’s Deepest Medicaid Losses Demand State Action.

Join us again next week for part eight of the Build Anew Series on housing. And don’t forget to stay tuned on Instagram (@network_lobby) and Facebook for our Build Anew video series!

Tax Justice is Racial Justice

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Tax Justice is Racial Justice

Undo the Hidden Racism of the U.S. Tax Code

Jarrett Smith
November 16, 2023

 

Jarrett Smith, pictured above at an August 25 reparations event outside the White House, is a NETWORK Government Relations Advocate.

It is no secret that the U.S. suffers from a staggering degree of wealth inequality. Resources are increasingly concentrated in the possession of the top 1 percent, creating a degree of inequality never before seen in the country’s history.

This wealth stratification is most acute across racial lines. A Pew Research study in 2016 found the median income of white households was $117,000, while Black households had only $17,000. And while a white person in the U.S. has an equal chance of being a millionaire and having no wealth, a Black person is 20 times more likely to have no wealth than to be a millionaire. Between 1983 and 2016, Black wealth decreased year over year, and education did not stop this trend.

This vast inequality did not happen by chance. As NETWORK’s Racial Wealth and Income Gap workshop helps to illustrate, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Jim Crow, and centuries of the U.S. government’s racist policies created and still preserve this hoarding of wealth in the hands of a small class of white folks. Many of these policies shaped our tax system. Indeed, the U.S. tax code plays a central role in not only keeping rich people rich, but also rewarding white people at the expense of Black folks.

The marriage joint filing bonus, for example, privileges married couples, especially when one spouse makes high income while the other isn’t employed. A high earner can split their income with their spouse, and thus split their tax liability. Usually, these couples are white, as the highest-earning demographic in the country is overwhelmingly white. Because Black married households make the least household income in the country, rarely does one member of the household make enough money to enable their spouse to stay at home. Joint filing or married filing separate tax incentives do not help Black or Brown households because they earn so little income compared to their white counterparts.

In addition, tax incentives are structured to reward the things that wealthier, white folks can afford. For example, there are tax incentives for home ownership, but not for renting or for buying cars. Moreover, medical insurance is tax-deductible, but medical debt is not — penalizing Black and Brown communities who face inequities in access to affordable health care.

Long-term capital gains, usually enjoyed by white wealthy folks, are taxed at a lower rate than “ordinary income” — that is, wages, salaries, or even short-term capital gains. In 2021, an unmarried middle-income worker like a teacher or truck driver paid 22 percent of income tax on every dollar of taxable salary she made over $40,525. Meanwhile, a billionaire living entirely off long-term capital gains or dividends paid no more than 20 percent on millions of dollars of unearned income.

Over the past several centuries, white families have been able to amass wealth off the backs of enslaved and underpaid workers. They then pass that wealth on to their descendants, usually without having to pay their fair share of taxes on what is passed down. The tax code specifically protects this preservation of generational wealth in white families, and even helps it build up, by providing tax benefits to assets that are inherited. Under one policy called “Step Up in Basis,” if the owner of an investment or asset that has increased in value dies, neither the owner nor the inheritor owes any tax on that gain!

We know that for all nations, not just the United States, social and health outcomes — including for the richest folks — are worse in countries with high wealth inequality. Wealth inequality is immoral. It harms the most vulnerable and marginalized among us, especially Black and Brown communities, and it harms the wellbeing of the country as a whole.

The fact that racism is written into our tax code makes three things clear. First, it confirms that racism is systemic and is enacted through policies and structures. Second, the road to equality is reparations now, to begin to heal our society and close the ever-widening gap between those who have been allowed to amass and hoard resources, and those who have had to go without – so that all communities can truly thrive. And third, as we think, dream, and envision a future with reparations, transforming the tax code must be part of what it means to repair and build anew our society.

 

This story was published in the Quarter 4 2023 issue of Connection. 

Working for Transformation

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Working for Transformation

New York Advocates Show the Power of Commitment to Issues, People, and Communities

Mark Pattison
November 10, 2023

 

Justice-seekers from New York and NETWORK staff participate in a Zoom meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York in 2021.

Getting involved in the work of justice-seeking takes many forms. For Anne Kiefer of Penn Yan, N.Y., it was as simple as receiving an email. “There was an invitation: If you would like to become more active, come to a New York NETWORK Advocates Team meeting,” she recalls. “If you have an inclination to do advocacy for social justice issues,” Kiefer says, “NETWORK makes it easy. I can’t say enough for the support you get.”

She’s had letters to the editor published in her local Finger Lakes Times newspaper and in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on preserving the expanded Child Tax Credit. With issues-based advocacy, Keifer notes, “it’s really great to turn aside from the partisan part of it, which has gotten toxic in the last few years.”

NETWORK, with its long and vibrant history of over 50 years of educating, organizing, and lobbying on federal policy affecting the common good, has in recent years built Advocates Teams in strategic states across the U.S. With Catholics coming together with people of other faith traditions as well as secular justice-seekers, these teams exemplify the power of organizing and advocating for the common good. And the New York NETWORK Advocates Team, after just a couple of years, has shown what members dedicated to the issues of NETWORK’s policy agenda can do to serve people impacted by these issues, to each other, and to their communities.

Building Relationships

Janet and Lou Tullo, along with Bill Hurley, present a 2022 NETWORK Voting Record certificate to Rep. Pat Ryan (N.Y.-18). The Congressman received a 100 percent rating from NETWORK for his votes in the second session of the 117th Congress.

Catherine Gillette, NETWORK’s senior grassroots mobilization organizer, convened the New York team in mid-2021. With her from the start was Jane Sutter Brandt, a communications professional who now serves as team lead. The group meets monthly on Zoom, with Gillette providing policy updates and opportunities for advocacy as the team’s liaison to NETWORK. “Jane’s leadership has been invaluable,” notes Gillette.

Sutter Brandt says of Gillette, “She sends out the links to the NETWORK policy position on its website,” plus messaging to New York’s congressional representatives. “They make it so easy for us to be advocates, and to encourage family and friends to be advocates.”

“I know it’s in line with where I want to go as a Catholic.” —William Hurley

NETWORK first came to Rev. Peter Cook’s attention through a Nuns on the Bus tour. Cook, executive director of the New York State Council of Churches and its 7,500 congregations, and himself an ordained United Church of Christ minister, said the council collaborated with Nuns on the Bus on tax policy and a threatened rollback on the Affordable Care Act. Earlier this year, he collaborated with NETWORK on the “Care Not Cuts” rally NETWORK held in Long Island.

“With NETWORK, we thought they’d have the right approach, and they had a pretty good plan. We kind of piggybacked on that,” he says. “We’re always down for a fight at the federal level because it always has such an impact on the state.”

Peter Cook, executive director of the New York State Council of Churches, participates in a NETWORK “Care Not Cuts” rally NETWORK on Long Island on May 22.

The NETWORK partnership works, says Cook: “Roman Catholics are well grounded in Catholic Social Teaching, which has a lot of depth — theological depth — to it, and it’s very compatible with the position statements of our (nine) denominations. But I appreciate the depth of thought that goes into the social positions, and also particularly among religious …sisters.”

“We trust them, and they give a good social justice opinion on issues before Congress. They’ve already done their homework,” echoes William Hurley, a team member from Washingtonville, N.Y. “I know it’s in line with where I want to go as a Catholic.”

Members of the New York team met in February with the staff of their representative, Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24), a Republican who is not often aligned with NETWORK on justice issues.

“The staff expressed gratitude for the opportunity for conversation. Tenney puts out a weekly newsletter and puts out her record and an explanation on why she voted [as she did],” Kiefer says. “We commended her staff for that.”

Transforming Politics

Jane Sutter Brandt speaks at an August 2022 reparations vigil in Rochester, N.Y., one of four reparations-themed events sponsored by NETWORK’s New York Advocates Team.

In addition to building relationships, whether in their communities or in engagement with elected officials who may or may not share their priorities, the New York Advocates team has a robust track record of taking action to raise awareness on key issues and spurring people to greater action.

Team member and organizational partner Serena Martin Liguori is the executive director of New Hour for Women and Children on Long Island, which advocates for marginalized women and mothers who have been arrested or incarcerated, or have had family who have been incarcerated. Martin Liguori helped to organize and participated in NETWORK’s Care Not Cuts rally on Long Island in May. The event, which drew over 85 attendees and 12 community organizations, opposed proposed cuts in the federal budget to essential human programs providing food, housing, and healthcare.

“It was wonderful to bring together the faith-based and the local community — justice-impacted folks, folks who really rely on the system,” says Martin Liguori.

Other New York NETWORK Advocates Team members planned and hosted a “repair and redress” reparations prayer vigil last year in Rochester. The event pressed for support for H.R. 40, a bill that would create a commission to study the lasting impacts of slavery and Jim Crow in the U.S. and the possibility of reparations for Black Americans. It was one of four reparations events held by members of the team in different parts of the state—one of which included Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), H.R. 40’s chief proponent.

Jim Buckley and Joseph Molinatti join NETWORK Advocates Carol DeAngelo and Lois Harr in presenting a 2022 NETWORK Voting Record certificate to Rep. Ritchie Torres (N.Y.-15).

H.R.40 was first introduced in 1989 by former Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and has been introduced in every Congress since. The bill has yet to come to a House vote, and during the 2020 campaign, President Biden promised to set up such a commission. NETWORK has urged him to do so by executive action.

Sr. Phyllis Tierney, an Advocate Team member and justice coordinator for her community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester, says reparations go well beyond slavery and require drawing connections for people to help them understand racist structures and policies through the years that have excluded Black communities from opportunity and deprived them of wealth. One example: the widespread destruction of Black neighborhoods across the country to build interstate highways.

“It really destroyed cities and neighborhoods. That was one of the things that we’ve talked about: to give examples, and local examples, that people would talk about and understand,” Sr. Phyllis says of the education, conversion, and the dismantling of systemic racism that must precede political transformation. “It really brought out the reason for doing this prayer vigil. …It was certainly good consciousness-raising.”

This story was published in the Quarter 4 2023 issue of Connection. 

Build Anew Series – Criminal Legal System

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Build Anew Series — Part 7
Criminal Legal System

Virginia Schilder
November 3, 2023
Welcome back to our Build Anew Series, with weekly posts covering the people, policies, and values at the heart of the issues we work on. This week, we’re talking about the criminal legal system, and the urgent need for reparations.   

The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other nation in the world. Stop and let that sink in. In a nation with this extreme incarceration rate, where migrants and refugees seeking safety are placed in cages, and where millions of people — especially people of color — are ripped from their communities and locked up for years or decades, we must ask if the U.S. is really “the land of the free.”

The U.S. criminal legal system targets impoverished, working-class, and Black and Brown communities — seen in who and how the system polices, arrests, prosecutes, sentences, and even executes. In reacting to real social need with surveillance and criminalization, the system fosters instability and insecurity, and furthers the cycles of crime, violence, and poverty. Under the 13th Amendment, incarcerated persons can still be forced into labor for little to no pay. As a result, mass incarceration, which disproportionately locks up Black and Brown Americans, is the primary system of racial segregation, oppression, and coerced labor of our time.

Prisons and cages are incongruous with the Gospel message of true community. No human is disposable. The prevailing ethic of punishment (including capital punishment), separation, and imprisonment is not justice. We are called to a fuller picture of true justice — one characterized by community accountability, integration, healing, and well-being for everyone in our country, with no exceptions.

Present Realities

Since the end of legal slavery, U.S. criminal legal policies have targeted people of color, especially Black Americans. Professor Michelle Alexander writes, “Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.” The “tough on crime” movement of the 1980’s gave way to policies, like the The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (the “1994 Crime Bill”), which caused widespread over-criminalization, mass incarceration, and police militarization. Years of “tough on crime” policies and a focus on punishment rather than community healing have targeted already vulnerable communities, worsening racial inequality and creating cycles of poverty for many individuals, families, and neighborhoods. Financial incentives for drug arrests have encouraged over-policing in Black and Brown communities, who are left with disproportionate numbers of folks with criminal records (mostly for minor non-violent offenses) and face ongoing brutality from the police.

The U.S. has the highest percentage of incarcerated people in the world, largely a result of extreme sentencing measures such as mandatory minimums and “three strikes” laws. Even non-violent offenses can result in years in prison and continuing restrictions and penalties after release. Disparities in sentencing policies for comparable offenses, such as using powder cocaine vs. crack cocaine, have yielded vastly longer average sentences for people of color compared to white folks. The ongoing use of cash bail and barriers to accessing adequate legal defense trap low-income people in the system. And, the practice of referring kids (usually Black and Brown children) to the youth justice system for misbehavior at school has facilitated a “school to prison pipeline” that disrupts the lives of children and perpetuates cycles of incarceration.

Within U.S. prisons, the inhumane practice of solitary confinement, disproportionately used for people of color and people with mental illnesses, persists — along with other dangerous living conditions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the U.S. is the only Western nation that still implements the death penalty and ranks fifth in the world in executions.

Restore Act Leave BehindA person convicted of a crime in the U.S., whether or not they serve time in prison, suffers long-term discrimination in employment, education, and public services. Requirements to “check the box” on employment applications and prohibitions against licensing in certain fields cost formerly incarcerated people both the immediate income they need and their long-term earning potential, which hurts not only themselves but also their families and children. Returning citizens face restrictions in accessing federal student aid, health care, the right to vote, public housing (which impacts family reunification), and nutrition programs like SNAP. These policies all contribute to the cycle of poverty for families and communities.

Head to our recent Build Anew Series – Food Systems post to learn more about the SNAP ban for citizens returning from prison with felony drug convictions. Read a testimony from Serena Martin-Liguori about the need to pass the RESTORE Act, which would end the ban on SNAP for returning citizens in the upcoming Farm Bill.

Facts and Figures on the U.S. Criminal Legal System
  • 2 million people are currently in jail or prison in the U.S. The U.S. has over 25% of the world’s population of incarcerated persons despite accounting for only 4% of the world’s total population. The U.S. has the highest percentage of incarcerated people in the world, 655 per 100,000.
  • The U.S. prison population has increased by 500% over the past 40 years. People of color comprise nearly 78% of the prison population. These trends are explained by changes in policies and laws, not crime rates.
  • In 2013, the Sentencing Project reported that if incarceration rates continue to grow at the pace they have since the 1970’s, 33% of Black American males can expect to go to prison in their lifetime, as can 16% of Latino males, and 6% of white males.
  • The U.S. carceral system costs taxpayers $80 billion per year.
Our Values

The murders of George Floyd and countless others are examples of the systemic violence committed every day by our country’s “justice” system. Our people cry out for change. We cannot tolerate the loss of another generation to mass incarceration. Our legal system’s punitive, “tough-on-crime” mentality perpetuates poverty, instability, and a dehumanizing ethic that harms us all.  

A legal system predicated on control, alienation, and racial subjugation stands in complete affront to the restoration, inclusion, peace, and racial justice into which the Catholic faith calls us.  Throughout the Bible, God moves to set free the imprisoned: “The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1).  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that when you visit people in prison, you visit him. 

Further, the Psalms proclaim that God looked at Earth to “hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die.” Pope Francis has clearly stated that the death penalty is “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” that is “inadmissible” in all cases. The Catholic Church is unequivocal in opposition to capital punishment, which in the world today is needless, state-sanctioned murder that perpetuates vengeance, violence, and militarism. Moreover, the death penalty is a mechanism of white supremacy, disproportionately executing Black Americans and our siblings with mental illness.    

We are rooted in our faith in a God not of punition, retribution, and abandonment, but of healing, mercy, and transformation. We are called to extend these graces to one another. To be truly just, our legal system must affirm the human capacity for reconciliation, reintegration, and reconnection. Even further, we must recognize the ways in which racist constructions of “crime” and oppressive social conditions undergird the punitive carceral system.

During his lifetime, Jesus did not look away from social problems and the people they affected, but moved into encounter and was an agent of healing. In his example, we cannot cast away our neighbors behind cell doors. As Angela Davis articulates, 

“Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.” 

The Catholic teaching of the immeasurable worth of each human being means that no one is disposable. We cannot let illusions of disconnection — “us vs. them” narratives — keep us from responding to the suffering in our prisons: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3). Salvation means wholeness, liberation, and communion. God does not leave a single person out of the circle of care, forgiveness, and restoration, no matter their past — and neither can we.  

Take Action: H.R.40 Reparations Study Commission

White text on a dark blue background reads, in capital letters, "IT'S TIME TO ADDRESS, REPENT, AND REPAIR." Throughout the Build Anew Series, we’ve been noting the operation of racism in and through our economy, our tax code, and our political, immigration, and even food systems. This week, we see that the legacy of enslavement is acutely visible in the system of mass incarceration. In conjunction with other social and economic barriers, our carceral system continues to chronically destabilize and tear apart Black and Brown families and communities.

All of this makes clear: we need reparations. The legacy of enslavement persists today. Structural racism keeps communities from accessing the housing, health care, food, economic stability, safety, and political participation we all deserve and need to thrive. As a country, we need reparations in order to move towards repair, transformation, and liberation for all of us.

Catholics are called to be agents of peace, healing, truth-telling, and justice. Take action here by telling President Biden to use his executive power to establish an H.R. 40 reparations study commission. Together, we can work for reparations and take a crucial step towards true healing, democracy, and flourishing in our country.

Join us again next week for part eight of the Build Anew Series on health care. And don’t forget to stay tuned on Instagram (@network_lobby) and Facebook for our Build Anew video series!

Reflections on Solidarity and Democracy - Connection

Participants in Transformation

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Participants in Transformation

Renewing Democracy is a Truly Sacred Process 

Mary J. Novak
November 3, 2023

Mary J. Novak is NETWORK’s Executive Director.

We are about a year away from the 2024 election, a critical moment for our country. We will either choose candidates who uphold and protect our democratic processes, or ones who degrade and subvert them.  

Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly making choices about democracy. Every day, voting rights are put up for negotiation, Congressional maps are drawn and redrawn, our leaders are offered millions of dollars from corporate lobbies — and people like you and me engage in the work of advocacy for the common good. Democracy is a way of living that we must practice continually to keep common good goals in play.  

While some see “politics” as a dirty word, Pope Francis teaches that we need politics. Specifically, we need politics centered on human dignity and the common good. For that centering to happen, our politics and policies must spring from below — being not just for those on the margins, but with and of the margins. The Catholic tradition teaches that when our politics are grounded in inclusive participation, love, and encounter with communities who are suffering, politics can become a sacred vocation — and, in Francis’ words, “one of the highest forms of charity.”  

The importance of elections in transforming our politics cannot be overstated. But our politics also requires a kind of transformation that no single election can bring about. This is because a just democracy does not only mean free elections and functional governance. It also means a culture, politics, and society of participation.  

Participation is one of the central principles of Catholic Social Teaching. The U.S. bishops, in their resources on Catholic Social Teaching, write, “We believe people have a right and a duty to participate in society, seeking together the common good and well-being of all, especially the poor and vulnerable.”  

What could it mean to transform our politics, to create a system animated by participation, solidarity, and interdependence? What policies do we need?  

For starters, we can ditch the heinous lie that only the “productive” or “prosperous” deserve what they need to get by (this is the false logic of Reagan-style capitalism). We can enact legislation that strengthens communities with access to health care, housing, jobs, and food. We can halt the ongoing legacy of disenfranchisement by strengthening the rights of Black and Brown communities. We can elect candidates who, in both word and deed, respect and bolster democratic processes. We can stop allowing corporations and lobbies representing the interests of the wealthy few to dominate our politics — especially when those interests involve grave harms like fracking and weapons proliferation.  

Christian leaders gather across from the U.S. Capitol Building for a sunrise vigil marking the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. Photo courtesy of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Christian leaders gather across from the U.S. Capitol Building for a sunrise vigil marking the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. Photo courtesy of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

A participatory political system is not just one in which everyone gets a vote — although that is critical, and not even where our system is now. Rather, it is one in which communities are able to work together, in a spirit of liberation and mutual care, to solve problems and ensure that everyone has what they need to thrive. There is absolutely no room for any kind of oppression, stratification, or exploitation. A participatory political system is predicated on solidarity: the understanding that we are all interconnected, and that true flourishing is never at the expense or exclusion of another.  

At the core, our political consciousness needs a renewed awareness of our interconnectedness. This is what Pope Francis has been calling for, especially in his encyclical Laudato Si’: “Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity.” It is this emphasis on interconnectedness, among and with both people and the rest of the natural world, that has prompted NETWORK to join in the crucial work of climate justice.  

Ultimately, we are called to see that we are all intrinsically linked, which means your liberation is inseparable from mine. We are called to processes of inclusive, justice-driven, and collective decision-making. Many communities of women religious in the U.S. and around the world — communities I enjoy visiting and working with directly as part of my role at NETWORK — already model this vision of transformed politics, in the way they live into consensus-based, community discernment that follows the Spirit and is enlivened with care.  

This season, we are moving through the annual dying back that is autumn, which will soon turn to the surprising hope breaking through at Christmas. In our politics, may we similarly move through a “dying back” of exclusion and domination, and emerge with hope and new possibilities for a society of participation, solidarity, and transformation.  

Reclaiming the reality of our interconnectedness will unlock greater potential to transform our society. Instead of trickle-down, let transformation and renewal flow from living our sacred vocation of politics for the common good. 

Mary J. Novak is NETWORK’s Executive Director.

This column was published in the Quarter 4 2023 issue of Connection. 

Happy All Saints Day and Black Catholic History Month

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Happy All Saints Day and Black Catholic History Month

Listen to Sr. Patty Chappell’s Reflections on Sr. Thea Bowman

November 1, 2023

November 1 is All Saints Day and the beginning of Black Catholic History Month. Take a couple minutes with Sr. Patty Chappell, SNDdeN. Hear about how she found community with other Black Sisters and first encountered Sr. Thea Bowman, who is now on the path to sainthood, in their midst.

Sr. Patty recounts how, “when [she] saw that some of the Sisters were in habits, some were wearing dashikis, some had pressed hair, some had full blown stylish afros, all from different religious communities, different skin tones … oh the beauty of our Sisters!”

Sr. Patty shared these thoughts in a panel at the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University on May 3, 2022. Check out the full video here.

Build Anew Series – Democracy

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Build Anew Series — Part 6
Democracy

Virginia Schilder
October 27, 2023
Welcome back to our Build Anew Series, with weekly posts covering the people, policies, and values at the heart of the issues we work on. This week, we’re talking about democracy.   

This past weekend, NETWORK held the third iteration of our White Supremacy and American Christianity event series, with Fr. Bryan Massingale, Dr. Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, and NETWORK’s Joan F. Neal — this time joined by Darcy Hirsh from Interfaith Alliance and Laura Peralta-Schulte, NETWORK Senior Director of Public Policy and Government Relations.

Fr. Massingale and Dr. Jones articulated how Christian nationalism and white supremacy (we cannot talk about one without the other) suppose that America belongs to white Christians, who are therefore entitled to its control and its resources — and justified in achieving that control through violent means. Our speakers explained that white supremacist Christian nationalism is a “consistent ethic of hatred” that benefits only a specific subset — “the right kind” — of white folks. This hostile ethic, predicated on exclusion and hierarchy, is fundamentally anti-democratic.

In seeking to concentrate power in the hands of a select few, Christian nationalism and white supremacy pose an urgent threat to democracy today. While this threat to democracy is growing, it isn’t new. Systemic racism has worked to disenfranchise Black and Brown voters for centuries. The restriction of voting rights, gerrymandering, the undermining of election integrity, and the unchecked role of corporate money in politics all weaken democracy and threaten free and inclusive political participation.

The weakening of democracy in the U.S. is part of a larger trend of marked decline of democracies worldwide. Pope Francis has lamented this decline with urgency, affirming that “Universal participation is something essential; not simply to attain shared goals, but also because it corresponds to what we are: social beings, at once unique and interdependent.” Catholic Social Justice emphasizes the sociality and the dignity of each human being, which means that each person has a right to a say in the decision-making processes that affect their lives. What could it mean for our democracy to be oriented towards participation, encounter, the common good, and truly collective decision-making?

Facts and Figures on Democracy in the U.S.
  • Between 2016-2018, after the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision, at least 17 million voters were purged from voter rolls. Counties with a history of voter discrimination continue to purge voters at a much higher rate than other counties.
  • Research demonstrates that strict voter ID laws significantly increase the turnout gap between white voters and Latinx, Black, and multiracial voters.
  • As of 2020, 5.17 million people — one out of 44 adults, and 2.27% of the total U.S. voting-eligible population — are disenfranchised due to a current or previous felony conviction. Over 6.2 percent of the adult Black American population is disenfranchised, compared to 1.7 percent of the non-Black population. It is estimated that over 560,000 Latinx Americans are disenfranchised, and approximately 1.2 million women are disenfranchised, comprising over one-fifth of the total disenfranchised population.
Present Realities

While democracy is much more than what happens on election day, even the right to vote, our most basic method of democratic participation, is not fully realized. Voting rights in the U.S. are under assault at the state and federal levels.

In particular, election policies continue to deliberately undermine Black and Brown voter participation. Since the 15th Amendment codified the right to vote for Black American men in 1870, state and local governments have continued to pass discriminatory laws to disenfranchise voters. One in 16 Black Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate 3.7 times greater than that of non-Black Americans. Today, voter ID laws and restrictive voting rules disproportionately affect people of color, low-income and disabled voters, elderly and young voters, and voters who are unhoused.

The 2013 Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court ruling gutted Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, dismantling protections that prevented states from disenfranchising voters based on race. Since then, Congress has failed to pass legislation to restore that oversight provided in Section 4(b), meaning that states are still able to enact racist restrictions without accountability. As a result of the Shelby decision, over 1,000 polling places have closed — again, disproportionately harming voters of color, rural voters, and voters with disabilities. According to the White House, since January 2021, 18 states have enacted 30 separate laws that will make it more difficult to vote. What’s more, over 400 bills that would make voting less accessible, including restrictions to voting by mail and early voting, as well as voter roll purges, have been considered in various state legislatures in recent years.

Varied methods of voter suppression, in addition to the undue influence of corporate money in politics, gerrymandering, felon disenfranchisement, and other anti-democracy tactics limit political participation, particularly for our most marginalized community members. States that make voting harder or redraw districts unfairly strip their neighbors of access to involvement in our collective political life. These efforts are serious threats to our democracy, that not only harm our communities’ well-being but harm our ability to politically engage in the pursuit of our communities’ well-being at all.

Lived Experience

Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, with Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, spoke about the 2020 Wisconsin primary at a Faithful Democracy Town Hall in April 2020.

Rabbi Bonnie Margulis. Photo from Madison365

“Our election on April 7th was a morass… The Thursday before the election, a federal court judge said that our absentee ballots did not need witness signatures, so people were sending in their absentee ballots without signatures because they were safer at home [during the pandemic] and didn’t have any way to get their ballots witnessed. 24 hours later, that decision by the federal court was overturned by an appellate court, and so all of those ballots were invalidated. At least 750 ballots in Milwaukee alone were invalidated for lack of signature.”

Rabbi Margulis explained that in Dane County, where Madison is, the county clerk said that if you requested an absentee ballot online you didn’t need an ID. However, “That also was declared to be illegal, so people who didn’t submit an ID couldn’t get an absentee ballot.” At the same time, “A federal court judge had said that absentee ballots could be postmarked as late as April 13th, and on April 6th (the day before the election) the United States Supreme Court overturned that and said no, ballots have to be postmarked by April 7th, the day of the election.”

Further, in part due to a shortage of polling workers during the pandemic, “In Dane County, the number of polling places was reduced from 95 to 63. In Waukesha, a suburb of Milwaukee, the polling places were reduced from 13 to 1. But the most egregious was Milwaukee, which usually has 180 polling places, and it was reduced to 5.” Rabbi Margulis emphasized that this was a blatant attempt to suppress the votes of people of color because Milwaukee has the greatest percentage population of people of color anywhere in the state.

Our Values

A core principle of Catholic Social Justice is that we all have both a right and moral responsibility to participate in our shared public life and political processes, as a matter of our dignity and agency. As the Leadership Conference of Women Religious states, “As women religious and believers in the abundant love of God for all, we are called to bring our faith and our voices to the public square.”

People cast their votes for federal democracy reform as part of NETWORK’s “Team Democracy” events across the country in 2021. Voting rights, which have come under threat at the state level since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, are a key component of NETWORK’s efforts to defend democracy.

People cast their votes for federal democracy reform as part of NETWORK’s “Team Democracy” events across the country in 2021.

This responsibility to participate means each person also has a fundamental right to participate and must be equipped with the resources needed to do so. The intentional curtailing of political participation by restricting voting, gerrymandering, and undermining elections is a serious moral failure and a threat to the free society we are called to build. We have a responsibility not only to participate in the democratic process ourselves but also to protect our most vulnerable neighbors’ right to join in shaping our society.

But participation alone is not enough: political participation must be aimed at and committed to advancing the common good. The Catholic Catechism states, “It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person.” The Catholic tradition also calls us to move beyond partisan politics in our pursuit of justice and social transformation. The US Council of Catholic Bishops writes,

“As citizens, we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group. When necessary, our participation should help transform the party to which we belong; we should not let the party transform us in such a way that we neglect or deny fundamental moral truths or approve intrinsically evil acts. We are called to bring together our principles and our political choices, our values and our votes, to help build a civilization of truth and love.”

Our democratic processes are a vehicle of participation in the public realm, which is where our Catholic obligation to cast our nets wide in cultivating social solidarity, loving one another, and working for the good of others happens. Scriptures tell us, “There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Corinthians 12:25-27), and “So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5). The political arena is where we are called to act as the body of Christ, honoring each of its parts, alleviating suffering anywhere. And just as Jesus did not lead by force or concentrated power but spoke of casting down mighty rulers, we are called to assert the strength and needs of our communities, always opposing the imposition of authoritarian, unilateral rule — the kind of government to which Christian nationalism points.

The Catholic tradition affirms that public service is a noble vocation, but only when it serves justice and the flourishing of life. Elected officials must be accountable to all our people, especially the most vulnerable among us, and center the needs of real communities—not the interests of wealthy donors and corporations. In Fratelli Tutti (66), Pope Francis reminds us that we are called to direct society to the pursuit of the common good, and policies and laws that allow unlimited money in politics threaten this democratic and moral obligation. We are called to uncover these workings of wealth and power (“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11)) and institute justice in their place.

We know that there are alternatives. Catholic sisters, for example, have long modeled “contemplative dialogue, deep listening, and mutual respect” in consensus-based, collective decision-making processes that serve as an example for our political life at large. A democracy is not a democracy unless it is a culture of participation, encounter, and solidarity with those on the margins, in which our communities can work together to solve problems and meet needs. Transforming our politics and working for a multi-racial, multi-faith, and anti-hierarchical society in which all our communities can thrive is the real meaning of democratic participation — our right and responsibility.

Take Action

WATCH: Watch “White Supremacy and American Christianity: A Consistent Ethic of Hate Threatens Our Democracy” to learn more about the threats that Christian nationalism and white supremacy pose to democracy, how it shows up in current policies and legislation, and what we can do protect our democracy.

SIGN: Tell President Biden that the U.S. needs an H.R. 40 reparations commission. In this installation of the Build Anew Series, we’ve talked about how systemic racism operates through our political system. Support a reparations commission to help transform our politics into a multiracial, multifaith democracy.

LISTEN: Listen to a recent episode of the Just Politics podcast, “Actual strategies for saving democracy,” in which Rachel Kleinfeld reflects on why democracy in the U.S. is in decline and names some steps we can take to protect it.

READ: And, check out this reflection by NETWORK Advocate Bob Kloos on his experience as a poll worker.

Join us again next week for part 7 of the Build Anew Series on our criminal legal system. And don’t forget to stay tuned on Instagram (@network_lobby) and Facebook for our Build Anew video series!