Category Archives: Front Page

Advent 2021: Celebrate the Alleviation of Child Poverty

Advent 2021: Celebrate the Alleviation of Child Poverty

Sister Eilis McCulloh, HM
December 10, 2021

The Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete “rejoice” Sunday – pink candle) symbolizes Joy with the “Shepherd’s Candle” reminding us of the Joy the world experienced at the coming birth of Jesus. As part of NETWORK’s ongoing Advent reflection series, Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM, NETWORK Grassroots Mobilization Fellow, shares how cutting child poverty via federal policy is one cause for rejoicing this year:

This Advent, Celebrate the Alleviation of Child Poverty

At Christmas, God appears to us as a defenseless child. In the U.S., child poverty threatens millions of children. Children are a source of joy, hope, and renewal in every life they touch. Their existence should not be marked by such suffering, and as followers of Jesus, we should answer their cry with action. Happily, in March of this year, that’s exactly what happened.

The American Rescue Plan of 2021, which NETWORK supported, made the Child Tax Credit fully refundable, meaning families who qualified for the credit have received direct payments from the government rather than having the amount counted toward their taxes at the end of the year. Those payments have reduced child poverty in the U.S. by 40 percent! The majority of the children who benefitted are children of color.

We know that the Child Tax Credit has brought stability to children whose lives have been rocked by instability, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the direct payments, families have been able to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table, and pay utility bills and, as a result, their children are able to focus more fully on school. This has the power to affect an entire generation of children.

As NETWORK prepares to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our founding, we can look to this success as an example of the vision that animated the Catholic Sisters who gathered in Washington one cold December weekend with a vision of politics transformed by the belief that the federal government can create legislation that serves the common good. Half a century later, Pope Francis shares this vision, writing in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti that politics are “a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity.”

NETWORK will always seek this highest form of charity – better translated as love – such as in our continued lobbying for the Build Back Better bill and its provisions that will serve families, such as the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit and the four weeks of paid family leave and medical leave. This Advent, let us prepare for the arrival of Jesus by making our country a more hospitable place for all children. That’s something worth celebrating!

Take Action!

Advent 2021: The Moral Demands of Migration

Advent 2021: The Moral Demands of Migration

Ronnate Asirwatham
December 3, 2021

The Second Sunday of Advent symbolizes Faith or Love with the “Bethlehem Candle” reminding us of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. In this week’s Advent reflection, Ronnate Asirwatham, NETWORK of Government Relations Director, looks at how the journeys surrounding the birth of Jesus align with the suffering of migrant people in our world today:

Advent Evokes the Moral Demands of Migration

Jesus entered the world as a victim of forced migration with nowhere to go. Just as Joseph and Mary traveled far from home and were turned away, so too our world faces a refugee crisis that manifests itself across different continents and intersects with crises and conflicts sparked by political oppression, drug trafficking, and climate change.

As Jesus spent his first night in a cave used to shelter livestock, countless families around the world have spent years in refugee camps, living in conditions that most people in the U.S. cannot fathom. And just as the Holy Family fled into Egypt, so also the people at our border flee unimaginable violence and other threats to their well-being.

On Christmas Eve 2017, Pope Francis preached on this stark reality and its religious dimensions:

“So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away but, driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones. In many cases this departure is filled with hope, hope for the future; yet for many others this departure can only have one name: survival. Surviving the Herods of today, who, to impose their power and increase their wealth, see no problem in shedding innocent blood.”

We should ask ourselves this Advent with whom we’re identifying, the refugee child who is God incarnate or the insecure tyrant who devalues his existence. One example of this is the Biden administration’s continued use of Title 42, a Trump-era policy used to expel an unknown number of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, putting them in harm’s way and denying them the opportunity to seek life-saving protection. The coming of Jesus at Christmas is an urgent present day reality when we choose to recognize his presence in those who still seek refuge today.

Take Action!

Title 42 Livestream

Stay Tuned!

Livestream will begin Friday December 3 at 10:00 AM Eastern.

Contact the White House 

Email the White House about this event – Tell them to Rescind Title 42 

The White House comment line is only open Tuesday-Thursday from 11 AM-3 PM Eastern. 
Dial 1-888-496-3502 to call the comment line. 

Write a Letter to the Editor about Title 42  

Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 7:00 PM Eastern

Register for NETWORK’s Title 42 LTE Training here.

Post on Social Media 

Use the Title 42 Social Media Toolkit and share to your, or your organization’s, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook Accounts.  

Advent 2021: The Struggle for Racial Justice

Advent 2021: The Struggle for Racial Justice

Joan Neal
November 27, 2021

The 1st Sunday of Advent symbolizes Hope with the “Prophet’s Candle” reminding us of the prophetic ministries, especially Isaiah, that foretold of Jesus’ birth. In this year’s Advent reflection series from NETWORK, Joan Neal, our Deputy Executive Director and Chief Equity Officer, reflects on the implications that the coming of Jesus at Christmas has for racial justice in our world today:

God is with Us in the Struggle for Racial Justice

Advent is a time when so many Christians prepare to welcome Jesus at Christmas. But what does that mean lived out in the U.S. today? And what demands does it make of us who believe? Remember, Jesus was a person of color and member of a religious and ethnic group that lived in the shadow of the most powerful empire in the history of the world up to that time.

“He knew what it was to be oppressed in this system,” says writer, activist, and NETWORK board member Leslye Colvin. “He knew the history of his people and how his people had been in bondage, and all the ups and down of their journey.”

From the moment he is born, Jesus is a target of state powers that seek his violent and unjust death. They ultimately succeeded, abetted by religious leaders of the time, in publicly putting him to death in his 30s. There are still people who are unjustly targeted today. Despite making up only 13% of the population, Black people comprise 38% of the U.S. prison population and over a third of defendants executed in the U.S. in the last 45 years. Among unarmed victims, police kill three times as many Black people as white people. Also, Black and other people of color face persistent and pernicious efforts to exclude our voices from the political process through restrictive new voting laws that 17 states have enacted in just the past year. Unjust racial targeting is alive and well today.

In the Gospel this weekend, Jesus urges us, “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent.” These words resonate, not just with Black people and other people of color, but with the struggle of all who hunger and thirst for racial justice. None of us can afford to turn a blind eye or to ignore the growing racism and racial violence in our country. We have seen the cost of falling asleep will be catastrophic for the entire country.

Advent calls us all, especially people of faith, to stay awake! To be willing, as Jesus was, to see and confront morally unfair structures and to stand for justice no matter the cost. To truly make a place for Jesus in our hearts and our country, we must realize and embrace our common humanity and God-given dignity. We must summon the strength to live in solidarity rather than in separation. Trusting that God is always with us, we must be prophets and practitioners of this change today.

Take Action

Confronting the Inflation Scare

Confronting the Inflation Scare

Jarrett Smith
November 24, 2021

There is a new scare tactic corporations and their lobbyists are using to maintain the status quo of hoarding their profits for themselves. They are manufacturing a false and misleading panic about inflation to scare elected officials away from supporting policies that require corporations and the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share.

We cannot let a disingenuous panic over inflation get in the way of passing our common-good agenda.

Here are the facts about our economy:

1.) COVID-19 is the driver of recent inflation, not public investments. Resolving supply-chain problems and making progress on COVID-19 will reduce inflation.
-Consumers shifted their buying patterns during the pandemic, spending more on goods than on services. This is temporarily squeezing capacity and driving up prices.
-On the supply side, supply-chain bottlenecks are the result of initial shutdown of production and ongoing disruptions from the pandemic around the globe.

2.) The Build Back Better plan will help reduce inflationary pressures in the long term.
-Build Back Better (and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) will create jobs and make it easier for workers to keep them, expand our capacity to produce goods and services in the medium- to long-term, and reduce the risk of inflation.

3.) In the short-term, the Build Back Better plan will help families deal with rising costs by:
-Providing families with children up to $300 per month per child to help afford the basics and get ahead
– Helping families cover the rising cost of childcare – one of families’ biggest costs
– Lowering the cost of prescription drugs and making health insurance more affordable
– Helping people with low incomes afford housing and avoid evictions and homelessness

It is deceptive to look only at rising prices, without taking into account recent wage gains and income boosts from the American Rescue Plan. Seventeen Nobel Prize-winning economists refuted inflation panic and supported President Biden’s economic agenda in a joint letter, saying,

“Because this agenda invests in long-term economic capacity and will enhance the ability of more Americans to participate productively in the economy, it will ease longer-term inflationary pressures.”

Build Back Better will help our communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic equitably. The Build Back Better Act just passed the House; now we must urge the Senate to pass the bill and send it to President Biden’s desk.

Thank you for your help confronting inflation-panic scare tactics and advocating for Build Back Better!

Running from the past is no way to dismantle racism

Running from the past is no way to dismantle racism

Julia Morris
November 23, 2021

Did you know that the Catholic Church was one of the largest slave holders in North America? Me neither.

I have spent over a decade in the church and in countless hours of schooling, Mass, and service projects no one mentioned this to me once. I went to Catholic school for 12 years, 5th grade through college, but it was not until my post-grad Catholic year of service that I learned that the Catholic Church played a role in American slavery.

The private Catholic education system did not just forget to teach me and countless other, predominantly white students about this history. The Catholic Church is and was, running from an uncomfortable past.

The church’s history runs parallel, overlapping, and intertwined with white supremacy United States. The Catholic Church was a major player in the transatlantic slave trade, and the effects of white supremacy are still felt today, as researcher Robert P. Jones reports that white Christians who regularly attend church on Sundays are more likely to hold racial bias.

While the church did not teach me about racism, it did teach me about sins of omission, or leaving out parts of the truth to manipulate your listener. Leaving out parts of our history is lying. If the public education system in the United States was to do the same, it would not only be immoral but contribute to the increasing distrust our citizens have towards our own institutions.

What kind of effects could excluding teaching students about racism have on the American public? Take a look at Catholic politicians.

President Biden was Catholic educated yet he upholds Title 42. A Trump era immigration policy instated under the guise of containing the spread of COVID, which former CDC officials reveal they found no evidence that it would have any control to slow the spread of COVID were “forced to do it”, by the Trump administration. Biden’s choice to uphold Title 42 shows his either lack of care for or his inability to see the policy’s xenophobia.

Senator Joe Manchin is Catholic, in spite of foundational Catholic teachings that uphold the family and caring for children, he still pushed for work requirements for the Child Tax Credit that would benefit 400,000 children in West Virginia. Work requirements are a well-known dog whistle aimed at demonizing Black and Brown folks living in poverty.

Lets face it: This is a lose, lose, lose situation. Pandering to racists doesn’t help advance good policy. Refusing to reconcile is hurting the church’s numbers. People of color, as usual, are paying the price with food insecurity, facing bigotry, and their lives.

If the Catholic Church is actually serious when it says that racism is an intrinsic evil, then Catholic educators, politicians, and voters are going to need to start acting like it. So take it from me and the 87% of Americans who want this to be taught in schools -– not teaching about racism helps no one.

Recommended Reading for Black Catholic History Month

Recommended Reading for Black Catholic History Month

Colleen Ross
November 18, 2021
In honor of Black Catholic History Month, consider reading one or more of the books below!

Thea Bowman – Faithful and Free by Fr. Maurice J. Nutt, CSsR 

With every passing year since her death in 1990, more people are recognizing Sister Thea Bowman as one of the most inspiring figures in American Catholic history. This granddaughter of slaves became Catholic on her own initiative at the age of nine. As a Franciscan sister, she lived a wide-ranging ministry of joy, music, and justice.

Father Maurice Nutt offers a new biography of Sister Thea that introduces her and sheds new light on who she was. Drawing on careful research and the insights of people who were close to her, Nutt explores her personality, her passion, her mission, and her prayer. He captures Thea Bowman as she was: an unapologetically African American woman, a religious sister who deeply loved God and the people to whom she ministered through teaching, preaching, and singing, and who embraced the blessing of her ancestry, the wisdom of the “old folks,” and a passion for justice and equality for all God’s children. Published in 2019.

 Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church by Olga Segura

Birth of a Movement presents a radical call to dignity and equality for all people. It examines the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, the church’s involvement with slavery, including the decision by Georgetown University to make amends for its past actions, and the Catholic Church’s response to the recent deaths of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor.

In relating the story of the Black Lives Matter movement through a Christian lens, readers—Catholic and others—will gain insights and a deeper understanding of the movement and why it can help the church, and the country, move closer to racial equality. Published in 2021.

Racial Justice and the Catholic Church by Fr. Bryan Massingale 

“We all are wounded by the sin of racism… How can we struggle together against an evil that harms us all?”  

Racial Justice and the Catholic Church examines the presence of racism in America from its early history through the Civil Rights Movement and the election of President Barack Obama. It also explores how Catholic social teaching has been used–and not used–to promote reconciliation and justice. Published in 2010. 

The History of Black Catholics in the United States by Fr. Cyprian Davis, OSB 

This book makes an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of African-American religious life by presenting the first full-length treatment of the Black Catholic experience. It should be read by all interested in the history and culture of Black Americans. Published in 1995. 

No Crystal Stair: Womanist Spirituality by Diana L. Hayes 

In this collection of essays, prayers, and meditations, Diana Hayes lays the foundation for womanist spirituality in the lived faith and struggles of African American women. This spirituality, as she observes, “flows from their lived encounters with God, nurtured and sustained with sweat, tears, and blood as they worked the fields, worked in the homes of white families, worked in factories and wherever else they could to support their families and build their communities.…It is a spirituality which arises from a deep and abiding faith in a God of love, a wonder-working God who walked and talked with them, giving them the strength to persevere.” Published in 2016. 

Uncommon Faithfulness: The Black Catholic Experience edited by M. Shawn Copeland with LaReine-Marie Mosely & Albert J. Raboteau 

These essays describe the experience of Black Catholics in the United States since their arrival in North America in the sixteenth century until the present day. The essays highlight the difficulties black Catholics faced in their early attempts to join churches and enter religious communities, their participation in the civil rights struggle, and the challenges they face today as they seek full inclusion in the church, whether in terms of liturgical practice or pastoral ministry. 

The five parts–history, theology, ethics, pastoral ministry, and pan-African concerns–include essays by Albert J. Raboteau, Diane Batts Morrow, Cyprian Davis, Cecilia A. Moore, Katrina M. Sanders, LaReine-Marie Moseley, Jamie T. Phelps, Diana L. Hayes, Bryan N. Massingale, Wilton D. Gregory, Kevin P. Johnson, Paulinus I. Odozor, Clarence Williams, and M. Shawn Copeland. Published in 2009.