The Bottom Drawer: NETWORK’s Fifty Years of Political Ministry

Abstract

The Bottom Drawer: NETWORK’s Fifty Years of Political Ministry Mara D. Rutten (bio) In the summer of 1978, Father William J. Brennan, SJ was attending the seventh legislative seminar of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, an organization formed by U.S. women religious, when news reached the attendees that Illinois had once again failed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), one of the organization’s primary issues. “As a minority male,” he later wrote, “the mood made one uncomfortable. But once the cloud of depression passed, I was amazed at the resilient spirits of these 200 women.” When he expressed his own frustration with the hurdles that the amendment faced to Sister Maureen Kelleher, RSHM, she responded with equanimity. The women of NETWORK do not win too many, she reminded him, because “you see, Bill, we don’t espouse popular causes.”1 The causes they did work on were not those with much money or powerful interests behind them. Unlike other lobby shops, they did not have a particular client or agenda, unless one counted advocating for a just and equitable society on behalf of those living on the margins. Fighting for healthcare or workers’ rights while opposing military spending and tax cuts hardly endeared them to the powers that be. Thus it was a surprise when, in 2012, NETWORK, in the guise of “Nuns on the Bus,” took these issues on the road and became something of a media darling and the focus of adulation by justice seekers both in and outside the church. It had been a long time coming. A Call to Action NETWORK was founded shortly after the Second Vatican Council, when Catholic Social Teaching, a body of teachings emphasizing the [End Page 109] political, social, and economic implications of the gospel, was in vogue among those excited about the changes the church was undergoing. When Pope John XXIII called for a council charged with aggiornamento (bringing the church up to date), no single group of Catholics embraced the spirit of reform with more enthusiasm than American women religious. Vowed religious life itself underwent a renewal, with sisters reviewing their way of life in light of “the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time.”2 They rewrote their constitutions, transformed their governing structures, and replaced their medieval habits with modern clothing. “These, however, were only the external changes,” Sister Anneliese Sinnot, OP wrote, “the more important transformations had to take place within the members.”3 Inspired by the council’s Gaudium et Spes, which reiterated the scriptural mandate to place the cry of the poor at the center of Christian discipleship, and the social movements of the 1960s, sisters who had previously worked in institutional church settings explored “open ministry,” or discerning their professional calling for themselves. Many went out into the world to live and work among those on the margins, becoming advocates for better housing, food security, workers’ rights, peace, and equal rights for LGBTQ, women, and people of color, shifting “the meaning of ministry . . . from church work to the work of the church.”4 Though long practiced at charitable works, the sisters received an education concerning the underlying causes of the problems they saw every day. “Sisters began to feel that they were running around stamping out brush fires as they tried to prevent gang wars or counsel drug addicts,” reflected Kelleher. “After reflecting on the causes of gang wars and the availability of drugs, they recognized the need to address themselves to action on the causes of these problems, causes related to unemployment, substandard housing and corruption in high places. And so this combination of study and experience has brought them to a new consciousness leading to a new response—organizing for social impact.”5 [End Page 110] Click for larger view View full resolution Sister Maureen Kelleher, RSHM, NETWORK’s first lobbyist on staff (undated) Photo courtesy NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice The sisters leaned heavily on Catholic social teaching as their guide. Sisters who had been moved by the spirit to engage in justice issues were galvanized when, in 1971, Pope Paul VI released his apostolic letter, Octogesima...