"If the first 20 years can be the basis for prediction, Network in the next 20 years will be ever more influential in the formulation of the policies adopted by Congress. "

From .......... National Catholic Reporter

October 11, 1991

page 22

By [Jesuit "Father"] Robert Drinan

[professor of law at Georgetown University]

NETWORK LOBBIES FOR GOD IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

On Dec. 17, 1971, a group of 47 women religious came together at Trinity College in Washington to plan a new organization to work for the implementation of Catholic social teaching in the United States. Network, now planning its 20th anniversary celebration for April 1992, is unique in the annals of American church history.

Network, a national [Roman] Catholic social-justice lobby, which now has a membership of about 10,000, made up of women religious and an increasing number of laity, has had an extraordinary influence in Washington and across the nation.

Network was clearly a result of Vatican II, which proclaimed that the preaching of faith and the promotion of justice must go hand in hand.

The late Monsignor Geno Baroni was one of the architects of Network. He later became an assistant secretary of housing in the Carter administration,

[Roman Catholic Califano was Carter's Sec. of HEW ..... JP ]

Network annually gives its Monsignor Geno Baroni Award to a person who best exemplifies the dedication to social justice demonstrated in the remarkable career of Baroni, a diocesan priest who gave his whole life to putting the social encyclicals into action.

In early 1972, Carol Coston, an Adrian Dominican sister, set up an office for 'Network' in Washington. Since that time, Network has conducted annual legislation seminars that have brought hundreds of women religious and other interested [Roman] Catholics to the capital, has issued an annual report card on the 535 members of the House and Senate, and conducted hundreds of grass-roots efforts to support or defeat legislation.

From personal experience as a member of Congress from 1971 to 1981, I can relate countless instances where Network by its lobbying made a difference.

A central aspect of Network's "political ministry" is the place of women in the church and world. A Network book, Trouble and Beauty, written by Maria Riley, OP, of the Center of Concern, and Nancy Sylvester, IHM, Network's national coordinator, contains insights both on how women's experience can enlarge and deepen [Roman] Catholic social teaching and on ways by which [Roman] Catholic social teaching can strengthen and enrich the feminist movement.

These same concerns permeate Network's bimonthly magazine, Connection.

For two decades Network has been living and implementing the vision of social justice which the popes since Leo XIII have expounded. The challenge now is to interpret all that teaching for a world totally changed since Network was established. The Cold War has disappeared, South Africa is moving toward democracy and a new moral vision is hopefully arising in the heartd of countless Americans.

If the first 20 years can be the basis for prediction, Network in the next 20 years will be ever more influential in the formulation of the policies adopted by Congress.

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BET YOU NEVER EVEN HEARD OF THIS ROMAN CATHOLIC CULT LOBBY WHICH IS BUSY SERVING THE INTEREST OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CULT AND ITS FORIEGN HEADQUARTERS, THE VATICAN.

[ and its the same on the right-wing side of the political fence ]

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