FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 18, 2025

WASHINGTON—As our nation marks Juneteenth 2025, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice renews its call for a national reckoning with the enduring legacy of slavery and systemic racism and for bold, reparative action grounded in faith, truth, and justice.

“Juneteenth is not just a celebration of delayed full emancipation. It is a prophetic reminder that freedom denied must still be fought for,” said Joan F. Neal, Interim Executive Director of NETWORK. “As Catholics, we are called by our social teaching to uphold human dignity, confront racial injustice, and repair what has been broken. Reparation is not optional; it is a moral mandate.”

NETWORK continues to advocate for the immediate passage of the legacy legislation H.R. 40 and complementary legislation including Rep. Summer Lee’s Reparations NOW Resolution, the TRHT Commission Act (Booker/Crockett), Rep. Hank Johnson’s Tulsa-Greenwood and RAP Acts, and Sen. Raphael Warnock’s G.I. Restoration Act.

“These bills are not simply policy. They are acts of national repentance,” Neal continued. “And they are all the more urgent as the current Administration dismantles civil rights protections, defunds critical programs, and deepens the harm to Black communities. Let this Juneteenth be more than memory – let it be forward movement.”

NETWORK invites Catholics and all people of goodwill across the country to go beyond symbolic celebration and join the movement for true racial repair and reconciliation.

Founded by Catholic Sisters in 1972, NETWORK is an inclusive, national, Catholic advocacy organization open to all who share our values, working for justice and equity for everyone. For 53 years, NETWORK has educated, organized, and lobbied for federal policies that serve the common good and honor the dignity of all people.

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