History

On December 17, 1971, 47 Catholic Sisters from many orders and all over the country gathered for a weekend meeting in Washington, DC, to explore how women religious might speak out as one voice to our federal government on behalf of "justice for all." Many of them had spent decades working with people in need. They had come to believe that providing for the immediate needs of people living in poverty is not enough, that faithfulness to the Gospel demands that we also work to change unjust systems that perpetuate economic inequity.

At their weekend meeting, these women religious decided to form a "network" of Sisters to lobby for federal policies and legislation that promote economic and social justice. To get their organization off the ground, they passed a bag and collected $187. In April 1972, they opened a small office in Washington with a staff of two.

NETWORK is grateful for the continued involvement of hundreds of congregations of women religious and thousands of individual Sisters, as well as that of parishes, small faith communities, dioceses and religious congregations of brothers and priests, and thousands of lay people. Their vigilance helps keep NETWORK faithful to its mission of lobbying, organizing and educating for justice and peace.