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November 25, 2024, Washington, D.C. – For more than 50 years, NETWORK, a social justice advocacy group, has been working with Catholic Sisters and other people of faith to lobby for social justice in national public policies, grounded in Catholic social teachings. What began in 1972 as an organization training Catholic Sisters to lobby for justice in the political sphere now extends to training the next generation.
“We have a long history of working with college and high school students over our 52-year history,” said Chelsea Puckett, Grassroots Mobilization Outreach and Education Specialist. In the Fall of 2023, NETWORK launched the Young Advocates Leadership Lab (YALL), with chapters of college student advocates established in several colleges and universities, she explained.
Through NETWORK’s involvement with Barry University, Chelsea said, she learned that a named fellowship was an effective way to keep the connection between NETWORK and the universities sustainable. Barry University was founded by and is sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Now, heading up each campus chapter is a Carol Coston Fellow, named for Adrian Dominican Sister Carol Coston, OP, Founding Director of NETWORK.
“We wanted to give them a way to connect, and who better than Carol Coston?” she said.
Last Fall, NETWORK hired 10 Fellows to lead YALL Chapters at colleges in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, California, Florida, and Ohio, Chelsea said. Nine of the YALL Chapters are established in Catholic universities – including Barry University.
Meg Olson, Senior Grassroots Mobilization Organizer for NETWORK, sees in the students today the same spirit that led 47 Catholic Sisters to establish NETWORK. “Our students stepped in and said yes,” she said. “I think about that ability to trust the Spirit and say yes, just the way that Carol said yes” to establishing NETWORK.
The first cohort of Carol Coston Fellows began their work in March 2024. After taking the summer off they became involved in social justice advocacy in the fall of 2024. “They all joined us in our mission to work for justice,” Chelsea said. In the first year, the Carol Coston Fellows attended a conference in Washington, D.C., where they lobbied Senators; wrote letters to the editor; and built coalitions on their campuses with campus ministry, offices for mission, and women’s leadership institutes. “They collectively registered more than 1,000 people to vote on all the campuses,” she said.
In addition to working directly with the Carol Coston Fellows, Chelsea said that during on-campus visits, she also works with the students organized by the Fellows. “I’ve been really impressed by the coalition building that is happening on campuses,” she said.
Meg said the Carol Coston Fellows were also involved in NETWORK’s Nuns on the Bus and Friends program, in which Sisters and other advocates ride a bus during election years to pre-determined cities, where they hold rallies and town hall meetings to educate local voters about the issues involved in the election. Carol Coston Fellows attended events at the bus stops in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Miami. They met the bus riders and people attending the events to “get a better sense of NETWORK’s mission,” Meg said.
“In Philadelphia, a student from St. Joseph’s University spoke at the [Nuns on the Bus] event,” Chelsea said. One 20-year-old public policy major, she added, had “an incredible ability to share her lived experiences with the challenges in our healthcare system.”
Although they work on separate campuses, the Carol Coston Fellows have formed their own community as well. At the beginning of the academic year, the Fellows gather in person. Meg said she is impressed by the “incredible community that they forge together. It seemed they had been friends forever.” They also learn from one another during Zoom sessions, she added.
“We’ve learned how challenging voter registration can be in a time of heavy voter suppression,” Chelsea said. “Our students in some states were very discouraged.” Much of the experience in voter registration depends on the state. For example, Wisconsin had very early deadlines for voter registration.
“I’m very proud of the work that they’ve done in the last nine months,” Chelsea said. “I have learned a lot from them in their leadership.” Four of the Carol Coston Fellows are returning next year, while others are graduating.
Chelsea and Meg are preparing to bring together the next cohort in March. Interested students at colleges and universities connected with NETWORK can apply and are asked to write essays, participate in several interviews, and submit recommendations from faculty and staff.
“We really want to emphasize that this fellowship is open to folks of all backgrounds, including other religious and secular backgrounds,” Chelsea said. “Most importantly, it is open to people who want to do the work to build a beloved community,” a community envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in which “everyone is cared for, free from poverty, hunger, and hate.”
NETWORK recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, but Chelsea and Meg are already looking to future anniversaries. “I hope the next time NETWORK celebrates its big anniversary, this program is part of it,” Chelsea said. “I hope there’s a lot of longevity and that we can develop a new generation of activists working for justice for all.”
Caption for above feature photo: Imani, a Carol Coston Fellow at Barry University in Miami, staffs an information table for National Voter Registration Day at the university. Photo Courtesy of NETWORK
November 21, 2024, Gaylord, Michigan – About 80 people attended Walking the Red Road: Recognizing Ourselves as Individuals and Part of the Whole, a conference held last month for Native and non-Native Catholics in the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan. Sister Susan Gardner, OP, Director of the Native American Apostolate for the diocese, was involved in the conference.
Walking the Red Road gave participants the opportunity to gather, engage in Native rituals, pray, listen to words of apology from the U.S. Catholic bishops, learn to live as Natives and Catholics, and dialogue with the Church.
“This is the fourth conference since I’ve been here … and the first since COVID,” Sister Sue said. The conference drew both Native and non-Native Catholics. “We always have a big group of non-Natives who come because they’re very interested in learning about Native Americans,” she said.
Father Michael Carson, Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, spoke on the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ document, Keeping Christ’s Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry, approved by the bishops at their June 2024 assembly. In the document, the bishops outline the history of the Catholic Church’s policies that harmed the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, including the Doctrine of Discovery, papal bulls that encouraged European nations to invade and conquer lands in which Christians were not living; forced relocation of the native peoples to reservations; and boarding schools in which “Indigenous children were forced to abandon their traditional languages, dress, and customs.”
The bishops further apologized for the role that the Catholic Church played in the trauma experienced by Native Americans and set forth a pastoral plan to walk with them into the future.
The conference also included a talk on Being Native and Catholic by Father Henry Sands, of the Little Traverse Bay Band and Bkejwanong First Nation, Ontario; two sessions of the Talking Circle; and a closing Mass, celebrated by Bishop of Gaylord Jeffrey Walsh.
Featured throughout the conference was a book containing the names of all children who attended Holy Childhood, a boarding school in Harbor Springs, Michigan, which was opened in the 1880s and closed in 1983. At the start of the conference, a Native woman who survived the school lit a candle, which burned all day for the former students, Sister Sue said.
The book listing the names of the boarding school students is one way that the Diocese of Gaylord is reaching out to Native Catholics. “It was a monumental task,” involving the use of a special machine that could take pictures of the school rosters, Sister Sue explained. A bound copy of the book was given to each tribal chairperson, she added.
Another way the diocese reaches out is through the conference. “The people [who] were there did appreciate the efforts and were glad we did it,” Sister Sue said. The diocese will make “any effort we can to let the Native American people know we’re sincere, but it takes a long time to develop that trust. You just keep trying to do what you can and reach out.”
Sister Susan also ministers at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Suttons Bay, Michigan, which serves both Native and non-Native Catholics. She said she tries to bring as much Native tradition to the parish as she can. “For special occasions, we have our Eagle Staff brought in by a veteran,” she said. An Eagle Staff represents a Native tribe or family. Rituals also include smudging – the ceremonial use of burned sacred herbs to cleanse items or people. On Ash Wednesday, the ashes are smudged with sage, she said.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish also offers workshops on making cedar oil, which is used to bless children when they’re born and honors the tradition of Ghost Suppers. During these suppers, which are hosted on the Feast of Holy Souls (November 2), Native Americans walk from place to place honoring those who have died. Rather than providing a ghost supper, however, the parish offers a ghost breakfast.
Along with honoring and celebrating the Native American cultures and celebrations, the diocese and the parish strive to bring healing and reconciliation to Native Catholics. “The big thing they’re asking from the Church is for their stories to be heard and for some type of remuneration” for the trauma caused at boarding schools and places, Sister Sue said.
Feature photo at top: Members of the Spirit Lake Drum Group of the Little Traverse Bay Band provide the Honor Song for the opening of the Walking the Red Road Conference, sponsored by the Diocese of Gaylord.