In July, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice announced that lawyer and human rights activist Laurie Carafone will head up the 53-year old organization founded by Catholic sisters. Perhaps best known for the “Nuns on the Bus” initiative, NETWORK organizes and advocates for systemic policy changes in accordance with the Catholic social justice tradition. 

In addition to having a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, Carafone is a proud Unitarian Universalist (UU). She is a member at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC, where she has been attending services for a decade. Prior to taking the role at NETWORK, she served at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) for 13 years, where she led domestic legal services, overseeing a legal team of more than 270 professionals that managed an active caseload assisting 7,000 unaccompanied children in humanitarian immigration cases, according to her biography.

In Good Faith asked Laurie about this new role, how her UU faith informs the work she is doing, and the important role that women and interfaith cooperation play in these times. Learn more about NETWORK. This interview appears in two parts—part one is below, and you can read part two of the interview. We thank Laurie for spending a few minutes to talk with us.

In Good Faith: Tell us a little bit about what about this role with NETWORK was compelling to you at this point in your career.

Laurie Carafone:

To be honest, when I first saw the opportunity. I thought, this is my dream job. I really did. NETWORK was founded by 47 Catholic sisters in 1971, with the goal of advancing federal policy to promote racial and economic justice, dismantle poverty and promote the common good. And [that] origin story is so compelling to me.

The sisters had a few dollars to pull together, and they made it happen, and the organization has really been on fire doing this holy work ever, ever since then. So, it’s been 53 years of justice work, which is amazing.

One of the underlying reason that the sisters came to this communal decision to start this justice mission is … so much deeper, and it really speaks to me. The sisters were doing their work, living their mission each and every day, serving the poor and marginalized.

And they were so wise and prescient to see that even in the midst of that daily, potentially soul-crushing work of seeing and trying to ameliorate so much earthly suffering. They were able to look beyond and see [that] one of the prime movers of the particular sufferings that they were witnessing is federal policy decisions, including how lawmakers decided to allocate federal monies, which had a monumental effect on the daily realities of those that they were serving. And they saw that policy change means a structural change that could preempt hunger, prevent sickness, and set up mothers and infants for safe and secure beginnings.

In my career as a human rights lawyer, I’ve been moving through a similar trajectory of holding the sacred, in particular, and also looking to these impactful, systemic [solutions]. I don’t believe that we can just look at one or the other. I don’t believe that one can fully exist without the other, so…

For example, in my early career as a human rights lawyer, I represented individual asylum seekers, torture survivors, and others fleeing persecution. Then I moved from that to direct service, direct representation, to mentoring and training other attorneys, and then eventually to leading a U.S. domestic legal services program of over 250 legal professionals representing unaccompanied minor children in their humanitarian immigration cases.

The team did such incredible work for so many children. And it was done hand-in-hand with my colleagues who were experts in policy and advocacy Seeing what we were doing right, as legal services providers, [we then used] that information to advocate for change on a larger scale on behalf of the children that we served.

So, for me, the opportunity to move into this work of shaping policy for the common good in a faith-based organization was just such a serendipitous opportunity — and such a good fit for me at this point in my career. I’ve long been a spiritual seeker, and attended divinity school, so it all came together in such a serendipitous way.

In Good Faith: How do you think your Unitarian Universalist identity is informing your thinking and the work that you’re doing in this role, and helping NETWORK with its advocacy work?

Laurie Carafone:

I didn’t grow up in a religious tradition. And I searched a long time before I found my spiritual home at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC. One of the reasons that the UU faith in particular has been such a good fit for me is that the core values of justice-seeking — what I call love in action — is core to everything that you use, believe, and do. There’s a long arc of tradition there, of justice-seeking and justice-doing. And it’s sustained and held up by an endless pot of golden, faithful sustenance.

For me, that deep history really lightens your load, and you learn from it, and you’re humbled, and you’re carried by all those who came before, and the wisdom of elders, and then also the younger folks who are on fire for caring for our sacred home and speaking out for what’s right.

In my own experience in the UU tradition, I’ve seen bold and unflinching commitment to dismantling white supremacy, acknowledging harm, saying hard things, and operationalizing the work for racial and economic justice. [We’re] starting with a look at ourselves and the institutions in which we live and work and worship.

NETWORK, likewise, is an organization whose explicit aim is to advance federal policies that promote racial and economic justice. And NETWORK itself was founded with a bold and prophetic commitment and has really embodied that original courage of the 47 sisters speaking truth to power, to the structures that enable them and enable much of the inequities in our society.

For me, also, NETWORK’s advocacy work that’s based in Catholic social teaching is so compelling. The advocacy work is explicitly centered in those teachings. The dignity of every person is paramount — prioritizing what we call the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, standing up for the rights of workers, and holding community and care for our Earth as sacred.

Pope Francis has called upon all people to be in solidarity with one another. So there’s that endless pot of golden faithful sustenance again, the hope that surpasses all understanding. But I hope that also draws from the deep roots of Catholic Social Justice and gospel values of being for one another and living that out.

So I think for me to be able to serve in this role, leading this organization at this moment in time in our country is such an honor. And I can come to work every day and lead every day with the knowledge that there’s this deep well of hope, love, and sacred commitment.

My approach to leadership is to ensure that we are operationalizing these values. In our work, at every turn, [we seek] to use our resources and networks and partnerships to [work] for structural change and also to ensure that we are living out those values in how we work with one another every day.

Part Two: Read part two of our conversation with Laurie Carafone.