Network was founded in December 1971 when 47 Catholic sisters involved in education, healthcare, and other direct service activities gathered from across the U.S. at
Trinity College in Washington, D.C., with the intent to form a new type of justice ministry. The Catholic Church was undergoing dramatic changes in response to
Vatican II reforms and calls from the Vatican and U.S. Bishops to seek "Justice in the World". Individual women
religious orders had already become involved in the
Civil Rights Movement, and
anti-war activism. They sponsored legislative seminars that attracted many notable participants and presenters including prominent Members of Congress (e.g., Senators
Ted Kennedy,
Adlai Stevenson,
Barbara Mikulski,
Walter Mondale and
Joseph Biden) and Catholic notables such as Fr. Bryan Hehir. signed a letter to congress urging passage. Network circulated the letter to the various heads of the orders and asked them to sign. President
Barack Obama invited Campbell to the ceremony celebrating the bill being signed into law. The Network group was credited with being a significant force in the passage of the bill into law.
Pope Benedict XVI On April 18, 2012, the Vatican's
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under
Pope Benedict XVI issued a report criticizing the
Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group that represents the vast majority of the 57,000 nuns in the U.S. The report explicitly cited NETWORK as being a particularly negative influence. In response to the criticism,
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic, defended NETWORK and its activism. The report, which specifically accused NETWORK of focusing too much on the
social justice mission of the church, was released without NETWORK being notified in advance that anything was amiss. Noted Campbell: "The sweeping condemnation came like a bolt out of the blue--it even took the American bishops by surprise--and it came without the courtesy of input or a response from our organization." However, unlike LCWR, NETWORK is independent of the Vatican and was thus able to continue its mission unencumbered. In response to the "blistering critique" they received, NETWORK created the "
Nuns on the Bus" program, which
The New York Times called a "spirited retort to the Vatican." ==Nuns on the Bus==