Our 50-Year Justice Journey
The first “Nuns on the Bus” tour kicks off in Iowa to raise awareness of the negative effects that House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan’s federal budget would have on our country’s most vulnerable people and families.
Pope Benedict XVI resigns; Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, is elected, taking the name Francis.
The Senate passes the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, a comprehensive immigration reform that NETWORK strongly supported, in a bipartisan vote. The bill is never brought to a vote in the House.
Following Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration, NETWORK activated members for advocacy at an unprecedented scale to protect people and programs threatened by the President’s agenda. This included a 21-hour vigil on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol to defend access to health care.
2012’s first “Nuns on the Bus” tour — to speak out against the immoral federal budget proposed by former House Speaker Paul Ryan — wasn’t the last. NETWORK launched six more tours in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2020 and mobilized hundreds of thousands of people across the country to address important justice issues like voting, healthcare, immigration, and tax policy.
Throughout the year, NETWORK organized 17 rural roundtables in 16 states, meeting and listening to a diverse group of 250 people living in rural parts of the country. Their hopes and hardships were published in a report titled “Raising Rural Voices” to help guide federal policy decisions.