Tag Archives: resistance

Our Map to a Better World

The Common Good Can Guide Us When All Feels Uncertain

Laurie Carafone
May 13, 2026

Laurie Carafone

As we weather the daily barrage of cruel and chaotic news defining our current politics and culture — war, family separations, economic chaos, and more — it’s easy to feel lost, and it can be hard to see a clear path forward. We all yearn to get to a better place.

What will it mean for people of faith and goodwill to engage genuinely and meaningfully with the myriad social and moral issues — some would say crises — as we approach the midterm elections? Listening and dialoguing with NETWORK colleagues, the road that rises to meet our feet is both awe-inspiring and daunting. But we trust it leads to a better place, a future where everyone is caring and cared for.

Catholic Social Justice proclaims a world where every human need is inextricably entwined, weaving a stunning tapestry of human thriving: affordable health care, food, and housing; living wages; a healthy planet; and just and humane treatment of our neighbors. These issues are at the core of NETWORK’s “An Economy for All” policy agenda, but many U.S. Catholics aren’t fully aware of the rich treasure of the tradition more formally known as Catholic Social Teaching.

Some call it a well-kept secret, but this body of teaching offers a map we can use with confidence toward a better world — we can follow its wise tenets to inform how we engage in times like these. How are we called to witness and take action together in the public square? Catholic Social Justice is not a theory or an intellectual exercise, but rather a blessedly simple and clear map of how people of faith are called to live the Gospel in our world — even for those of us who can’t read a map! It can save our lives.

A woman with short hair and glasses speaks at a podium; a quote about Catholic Social Justice and midterm elections appears beside her on a colorful background.

NETWORK’s Executive Director, Laurie Carafone speaking at the Multi-Faith Earth Day celebration.

When Catholic Social Justice is not centered in political or daily life, even believers may vote like so many of us do: along predictable party lines. Centering Catholic Social Justice helps us pause and consider candidates’ positions: will they support laws that alleviate poverty and increase access to health care and housing? Or will the candidate support measures that push these basic essentials even more out of reach for our families and communities?

This year marks the 40th anniversary of “Economic Justice for All,” the landmark pastoral letter by the U.S. bishops on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. economy, including poverty, unemployment, and hunger. Reading the signs of their times, the bishops noted:

“Many middle-class Americans feel themselves in the grip of economic demands and cultural pressures that go far beyond the individual family’s capacity to cope.” (paragraph 23) Revisiting the letter is an opportunity for many people—not just Catholics—to connect anew with the tenets of Catholic Social Justice and how they can guide our actions to ensure the common good.

Forty years after the letter was issued, we know that most families can no longer live on a single income, often struggling even with two. We also recognize that some business and government leaders keep finding more immoral and devastating ways to burden working people, all to line their own pockets and advance corrupt and anti-democratic purposes.

But we can find stillness in this chaos. We have the power to speak the truth: that wealth and profit need not be at the center of our world. Building the common good can and should be.

A collection of images showing people of different backgrounds holding signs, conveying powerful messages and unity.

NETWORK advocates at multi-state “We The People” mini-rally events

As we live out these convictions, our Spirit-filled field has been busy at work, visiting their legislators with the 2025 NETWORK Voting Record, having hard conversations, and showing lawmakers the powerful map we hold — and asking them to come with us.

These personal encounters are leading to connections, encouragement, and accountability. Catholic Social Justice inspires us to advocate fiercely now and into the coming months as we approach the midterm elections. Through the murky fog of lies, disappointment, cruelty, and corruption, we can follow our map, trust each step, and walk toward the light of that better place.

Together, we will find our way home.

Laurie Carafone, J.D., ThM, is Executive Director of NETWORK. This “Spirited Sisters” column originally appeared in the Quarter 2 2026 issue of NETWORK’s Connection magazine.

Meeting This Moral Moment

The Stakes for Our Democracy Will Demand What NETWORK Has to Offer

Laurie Carafone
February 27, 2026

Last year was an unimaginably tough year for anyone who loves and cherishes the promise of an inclusive and pluralistic democracy, as the U.S. has at different times aspired to be. We experienced a daily deluge of immoral, racist, and oppressive government actions, unleashed
by an administration whose recklessness and cruel policy agenda are an assault on the values that NETWORK and justice–seekers everywhere hold dear.

We are living history, and the NETWORK community must—and will—meet the moment in 2026. We are clear–eyed and speak the truth of what is happening: the Trump administration is rapidly consolidating authoritarian power to shamelessly enrich themselves and the corporations and billionaires who bend the knee and take from the people.

The three branches of our government are meant to ensure a check on executive power. But Congress and the Supreme Court are allowing unchecked presidential power to drag our
country toward dictatorship. We know there is another way. With a functioning democracy, we can and will have the collective capacity to achieve policies that support ourselves, our
families, and our communities so that everyone can thrive.

NETWORK is reading the signs of the times and knows the stakes. Our north star is—and has been for a half century—our foundresses’ mission to effect federal policy change for the common good. This advocacy can only continue to be effective if we have a functioning democracy, one where lawmakers are responsive to the people—including our community of advocates—rather than to an authoritarian leader.

Our work in 2026 cannot be business as usual. We need to do our part to save democracy with a focus on power building, policy impacts, voter engagement, free and fair elections, and a
peaceful transition of power. If we lose our democracy to dictatorship, we lose the conditions necessary for NETWORK to do our sacred work for good. With all of you, we will meet this
existential moment.

We know we are prepared because of all you have shownup over and over again for justice. Throughout last year’s chaos, you, our NETWORK community, responded with clarity and
resolve. You are a wise, outspoken, and emphatic moral voice with the proven integrity and expertise that so many people in our country rely on and trust. At every turn, you met this moral moment — advocating for policies that protect human dignity, organizing and accompanying members of your community, amplifying our Spirit–filled message, and directly supporting and sustaining us in our work.

There is much to do in this midterm election year, with so much at stake for our issues and our democracy. The poet Mary Oliver, in her poem “The Summer Day,” writes, “Tell me, what else should I have done?… Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

At NETWORK, we are going to make the most of our lives in 2026, together. We will not do anything alone — it will take many people and organizations doing their own part to succeed. But we must do our part with a clear understanding of our gifts and goals. So what is ours to do as NETWORK?

First, we need to reach more Catholics — calling in all who value living in a free society, no matter what other policy positions or beliefs we hold. We need to communicate clearly and effectively, grounding our work in the Catholic Social Justice teaching that undergirds all of NETWORK’s values.

Second, we need to strengthen our advocacy effectiveness to respond to this unique moment. We will need to train and focus our advocates on strategic actions essential to preserving
democracy.

Third, we need to continue our core issues advocacy. It is critical that we keep this going so that we can pressure lawmakers to stave off further harm and prepare the way for gains we can make when we have a functioning three-branch government.

We know that our country needs what NETWORK has to offer—not only our advocacy, but the vision of universal human thriving that our policy agenda offers. These are the gifts we offer now, at this moral moment. Thank you for being an essential part of this community, contributing in whatever way is right for you. We are in this together.

Laurie Carafone is Executive Director of NETWORK. This “Spirited Sisters” column originally appeared in the Quarter 1 2026 issue of NETWORK’s Connection magazine.

Not on Our Watch, Not in Our Name

Resistance and Persistence Build Community as We Search for Hope

Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM
November 13, 2025

The horrors of this current administration feel like they are coming at us rapid fire. As we at NETWORK have said for months, this is by design — with the hope that we, people united for the common good, lose focus in all of the chaos. They hope that we become burned out by everything that is happening at warp speed and lose steam. And, truth be told, we are tired, but we are not slowing down.

Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM joined by Sr. Barbara Batista, SP, Sr. Dani Braught, ASC, and Meg Olson, NETWORK Director of Grassroots Mobilization at the annual August gathering of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Atlanta.

Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM joined by Sr. Barbara Batista, SP, Sr. Dani Braught, ASC, and Meg Olson, NETWORK Director of Grassroots Mobilization during the Pilgrimage of Hope at the annual August gathering of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Atlanta. The Pilgrimage of Hope was a one-mile walk through downtown Atlanta prayerfully dedicated to addressing systemic injustice in the areas of racism, migration, and the climate crisis.

Years ago, I heard the phrase that we are called to touch the pain of the world. It felt heavy when I could not respond to all the pain in the world. Now this has taken many different forms, but I truly believe that touching the pain of this country and responding to it is a way that we all can practice accountability in 2025.

We need to know where our community is hurting—be it by an increased military presence patrolling our streets, immigration raids terrifying our neighbors, hospitals closing, or a lack of available food. As we become aware of the pain and devastation in our communities, we must be moved to act. This is our current form of contemplation in action and courageously speaking truth to power.

We are called not only to stand in the chasms—in the wake of raids, slashed funding, and fear—but to respond to it. We are called to be the tangible opposition to these horrors and advocates for a better tomorrow. No matter where we live, our walk of life, or whether we’re college students or senior citizens, we are called to be an active form of resistance against the degradation of our democracy and our communities.

As Bishop Marianne Budde recently wrote: “We can rise to this moment, to do our part to stop those who are determined to dismantle the institutions, destroy the guardrails of our democracy, and accelerate the very trends we need to reverse for the human species to survive.”

We are rising to the moment.

We call our Members of Congress. We send emails. We write letters to the editor. We put up billboards, pass out zines, attend workshops and webinars. We talk to our friends and family. Why? To hold our elected officials accountable and maybe, in some ways, to hold ourselves accountable to planting seeds for the greater good of our country.

Across the country, our Sisters and friends have been holding vigil at immigration detention centers, offering prayers and solidarity to those unjustly detained and their family members. In song and prayer, we line local streets with signs that say things like “Protect Families, Reject Deportation.”

This witness says to the wider community: This cannot happen in our name. We are hosting
letter writing campaigns and call-in days, continually widening the circle by inviting friends, neighbors, family, and community members to participate. Through these invitations, we’ve heard from so many who made their first phone call. And it wasn’t so scary after all!

Through it all, we are rooted in community. Each time we join a vigil, protest, or webinar, we meet new people who share our passion. We build bridges. We resist together. We learn together. We celebrate together.

As Bishop Budde said in the same reflection: “We are the ones who must dare to believe that seeds of new possibilities, invisible to us now, have already been planted in the soil of our lives, and they are slowly taking root. New life will emerge from the ashes of what is lost.”

It might not feel like there is a lot of new life emerging in the here and now. But I see it springing forth from every person crowded around tables folding zines, every street lined with people, every chapel filled with people praying, and every meeting room where people are gathered.

We are part of the movement to create An Economy for All, where all people, no matter their economic status, citizenship status, orientation, or ZIP code, have what they need to thrive.

Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM is a Sister of the Humility of Mary and NETWORK’s Grassroots Education and Organizing Coordinator. This “Spirited Sisters” column originally appeared in the Quarter 4 2025 issue of NETWORK’s Connection magazine.

Nonviolent Resistance and Catholic Faith

Two Traditions Promote Beloved Community

Virginia Schilder
September 23, 2025

Sr. Patty Chappell andSr. Ann Howard, SNDdeN hold a sign at the June 24 Sisters Speak Out event on Capitol Hill.

Sr. Ann Howard, SNDdeN hold a sign at the June 24 Sisters Speak Out : Prayer and Public Witness for Immigrants and a Just Economy event on Capitol Hill.

Before this year, Aiden Bondurant had only ever protested one time: against the execution of Khaliifah Williams in Missouri. But in just the first half of 2025, she went to five protests — joining her community members in voicing their opposition to the deportations of immigrants, predatory ICE arrests at courthouses, and the proposed budget that would hand tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy by slashing programs like Medicaid and SNAP.

“It was clear that for the hundred people protesting on the street, there were thousands more in our community who felt the same,” Bondurant says. She recalls many passing cars affirming the protests with their “honks of support.”

Bondurant is one of the millions of people across the U.S. who have taken part in peaceful protests since the second Trump administration took office. These protestors are regular people who share a fundamental belief in a future where all can thrive. They are people who refuse the lies that try to pit them against their neighbors and who insist that they can together make life better in their communities.

History affirms their insistence. Countries that have started to slide into fascism have been able to redirect towards democracy through nonviolent civil resistance from ordinary people. Research from Erica Chenoweth, a researcher at Harvard University, shows that it only takes about 3.5 percent of the population actively engaging in protests to effect real, lasting change. In the U.S., that’s around 11 million people — about the population of North Carolina.

Advocates in action

Today, millions of peaceful demonstrators across the country are joined by hundreds of NETWORK justice-seekers, including members of NETWORK Advocates teams like Mary Nelson, OFS, and Krista Zivkovich.

Nelson, a Secular Franciscan and retired physical therapist, is the leader of the Western Pennsylvania NETWORK Advocates Team. Along with the several communities of women religious in her local Erie area, Nelson participates in regular protests. Lately, the focus of those demonstrations has shifted to making sure Erie upholds its designation as a “Welcoming City” to its many refugee and immigrant community members.

Nelson comes to nonviolent protest guided by the rules that direct her life as a Secular Franciscan, which call members to “be in the forefront in promoting justice by the testimony of their human lives and courageous initiatives.”

She prays, “I am hopeful that more people will feel comfortable speaking out against the tyranny and injustice we are currently facing.”

Krista and Ed Zivkovich participate at an Ohio Hands Off rally in April.

Nearby in Ohio, Krista Zivkovich was inspired the join the Cleveland NETWORK Advocates Team by the first Nuns on the Bus tour. She describes herself as “a Matthew 25 Catholic,” guided by the question, “Why aren’t you doing what you say you believe?”

Zivkovich and her husband have joined in many nonviolent protests over the years, from local protests with Moms Demand Action for gun safety reform to calling for climate action in Washington, D.C. When some of her fellow parishioners at her church in Painesville were deported during the first Trump administration, she joined prayer pilgrimages hosted by her parish.

Since President Trump returned to office, Zivkovich has been to five protests, including ones targeted to her Congressman David Joyce (OH-14), who has held no local in-person town halls. Because her husband runs the food pantry at their parish, the couple knows how communities rely on SNAP and other food programs — knowledge she shares with her Congressman’s staff.

“Rev. Theodore Hesburgh said, ‘Voting is a civil sacrament,’” Zivkovich explains. “I believe that peaceful protests calling for adequate funding for food, health care, truth in government, etc., are also civic sacraments. Visible signs of our belief that the government should uphold the life and dignity of all.”

NETWORK advocates like Zivkovich, Nelson, and Bondurant join a long tradition of faith-based civil resistance, in which Catholics play a central role. The history of Catholic nonviolence includes landmark figures like Dorothy Day who protested war and poverty, and Sr. Antona Ebo, FSM, who marched at Selma for civil rights.

Day and Ebo are just two of scores of Catholics who drew from a rich array of the Catholic tradition’s resources to ground, nurture, and guide participation in nonviolent protest and public witness for justice. And of course, the example of Jesus himself is a key source.

“Jesus is the ultimate model of active nonviolence,” Sr. Louise Lears, SC affirms.

From injustice to love and hope

Sr. Louise Leers, SC speaks at a Cleveland townhall on the 2024 Nuns on the Bus & Friends Vote Our Future tour. Photo Jacob Schatz, CCR Studios

Sr. Louise Leers, SC
Photo: Jacob Schatz, CCR Studios

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati charism statement concludes with the words, “We dare to risk a caring response.” For two Sisters of Charity we spoke with, “risking a caring response” has meant a decades-long commitment to nonviolent protest.

Sr. Louise’s first experience with nonviolent resistance was in the 1980s at a nuclear weapons test site in Nevada. That experience kicked off her long commitment to peaceful resistance. This has included actions like the March For Our Lives, the Hands Off rallies, and the Poor People’s Campaign. She has joined rallies and marches, fasted for a moral budget, and held protest signs with other Sisters on busy streets.

Sr. Mary Ann Humbert, SC, spent 10 years traveling to protest the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, notorious for its training of Latin American military personnel. “We all knew the risk of ‘crossing the line’ onto government property — for which we could be arrested,” she says. “Jesus spent his attention to both the victimized and the authorities who were carrying out unjust laws and expectations. I feel called to do the same to the best of my ability.”

While some, like Srs. Louise and Mary Ann, have been protesting for decades, others are newer to demonstrating. Sr. Betty McVeigh, a Sister of St. Joseph of Philadelphia (Chestnut Hill), began her involvement in nonviolent protests only after health challenges moved her to retire from 51 years in ministry in education and pastoral work.

She has found that, “It is in the reaching out, making connections, and building bridges that I discover the courage to participate in nonviolent protests and to advocate for justice.”

Those bridges are also built in smaller-scale acts of care. Sr. Caroljean Willie, a Sister of Charity of Cincinatti, Ohio recounts one experience: “Midway through the protest, a pickup truck filled with immigrants drove by and passed out water to all the participants. It was an incredible feeling of ‘We are in this together.’” She adds, “The main fruit of this work is that it brings an awareness to others that people care about justice, that people care about others, that people care about the world in which we live.”

These acts of care are central to the power of nonviolent action. They make the protests themselves bring to life the beloved community of mutual care, joyfulness, and healed relationships. As these participants know, nonviolent resistance has never been only about acting against injustice, but acting for loving communities.

“The injustices we see around us often stem from fear, division, and isolation,” Aiden Bondurant notes. “For me, nonviolent protest is a lamenting act of love.” She adds, “We are meant
to be together, and Christ always invites us to that.”

Spirit-filled hope permeates nonviolent action, and it grows in the new relationships formed there.

“Participating in these peaceful protests most of all gives me hope. I meet and share with other people who share my concerns and have compassion,” Krista Zivkovich says.

Sister Louise Lears believes that finding hope is a fitting response.

“I have learned that nonviolence is a circle, and everyone has a place in the circle,” she says. “Any action on behalf of justice has ripple effects.”