FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 18, 2024
SAN FRANCISCO—The Nuns on the Bus & Friends 2024 “Vote Our Future” tour was a “rallying point for freedom” said leadership of NETWORK Advocates for Catholic Social Justice, the organizers of the nonpartisan voter education tour.
The tour, the organization’s first in six years, which celebrated its finale at Marina Green in San Francisco on October 18, visited 20 cities, starting with Philadelphia on September 30. Catholic Sisters and their coalition partners urged Catholics and all people of goodwill to be multi-issue voters to protect the freedoms that allow all people to flourish.
Joan F. Neal, NETWORK Deputy Executive Director & Chief Equity Officer, said:
“When we embarked on the ‘Vote Our Future’ tour, we had one value foremost in our minds: freedom – freedom to participate in a vibrant democracy, to care for ourselves and our families, to be healthy, to be free from harm, to live on a healthy planet, and to live in a welcoming country that values dignity and human rights. This was a faith-filled rallying point for freedom. Over the course of this tour, we encountered what these freedoms mean, in the faces of people of different colors, ages and abilities, in cities, suburbs, and rural areas from the Northeast to the Midwest to the Southwest. We also learned how some people in our politics today are determined to take our freedoms away, to discourage us from meeting both the challenges and opportunities before us in ways that promote justice and equity in our world. They want us to feel discouraged, tired, and willing to give up the freedoms of a thriving democracy. But the people we met prove that we won’t see our freedoms relegated to the history books!
“On the road with our multi-faith and secular partners, we experienced how, when people come together, we have the power to shape that future of freedom, and to live out the vision Pope Francis described when he said, ‘The only future worth building includes everyone.’ And we encountered what ‘everyone’ means, in the folks who joined us onstage, in the organizations and people we visited, in the beautiful realization of beloved community. And everyone is who we need when we go to VOTE OUR FUTURE. Together we can build a society where everyone thrives, no exceptions!”
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 52 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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