Religious sisters demonstrate on Capitol Hill as U.S. senators consider budget bill

 

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 25, 2025 / 16:07 pm (CNA).

Sisters from 60 congregations gathered in Washington, D.C., on June 24 to urge lawmakers not to cut government programs that support immigrants and people with low incomes.

The event, called “Sisters Speak Out,” was held in the nation’s capital while approximately 40 “echo events” took place across the country. Around 300 sisters and supporters attended the D.C. gathering for “immigrants and a just economy” in anticipation of the Senate voting on the reconciliation bill this week.

According to a press release from the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the sisters were gathered to speak out against budget cuts they believe will “gut health care and food assistance, inflicting serious harm on families, children, the elderly, and disabled.”

Sister Eilis McCulloh, a Humility of Mary sister and grassroots education and organizing coordinator for the justice organization Network, told CNA the idea for the demonstration came from “a desire for some action.”

“In March, there was a conference of a bunch of justice promoters for women’s religious communities … we began meeting every single week … to plan something that we could do together and that could take place across the country as well,” she said.

From these meetings the group decided to plan the Sisters Speak Out event because they believe the reconciliation bill affects the communities that they are “intertwined” with in their ministries.

McCulloh told CNA that “one of the really cool things” about the day was how much participation there was across the nation.

“So many people are saying, ‘Physically, I can no longer participate in events’ … And so we collected rosaries for it, one of the co-planners helped collect them and we received over 300 rosaries for people to use.”

The event “had five different speakers” and the group gathered to pray a decade of the rosary together.

“We used the sorrowful mysteries,” McCulloh said. “And each of the mysteries was connected to one of the issues that we were talking about.” The five speakers specifically discussed Medicaid, immigration, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Sister Mary Haddad of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas spoke about how health care is a “human right” and said passing the budget bill “would harm critical health and social safety-net programs that millions of Americans rely on to live with health, dignity, and security.”

“Medicaid is not just a health program — it is a lifeline,” she said.

Sister Patty Chappell, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, explained at the event that 13% of the population relies on $230 a month to feed their families. “That covers only a subsistence diet,” she said, and then asked: “How would you be able to feed your family on a SNAP budget of just $6.20 per day, per person?”

Sister Terry Saetta, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas who works with immigrants, discussed border issues. “No child should leave the house traumatized, fearing they may never see their mother or father again,” she said.

The budget, she said, “is a moral document. It shows what we value.”

After the sisters had gathered, some met with senators including Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland; Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina; Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia; Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois; Dick Durbin, D-Illinois; and John Cornyn, R-Texas, to discuss the bill and how they believe it will affect vulnerable groups.

The group also sent a letter to senators that was signed by approximately 2,500 sisters that said the bill “would be the most harmful legislation for American families in our lifetimes, and it goes against the principles and teaching of our Catholic faith.”

“I think we’re still just beginning to see this ripple effect of what this event meant, not just for the world but for everyone who took part in it and how we’re going to take the energy that we had yesterday and bring it back to our own congregations, our own communities where we live,” McCulloh said Wednesday.

The reconciliation bill was passed by House Republicans in May, and Trump has called for the Senate to also pass it as soon as July 4.

Many Catholic and pro-life agencies have supported the bill from the start as it would defund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform abortions, but many Catholic organizations are also wary of how other government cuts will affect U.S. families and programs that assist the poor.

The United States Conference of Bishops recently released its stance on the bill, stating that it “supports certain provisions” but similarly to the sisters is “concerned with other inclusions that will negatively impact millions of people,” such as Medicaid and SNAP.