From our executive directoR
Dear CMN friends,
As we enter into a new fiscal year, our 2022 Impact Report shows the strides we’ve made as a CMN community toward ending the death penalty and promoting restorative justice — momentum that we’ll carry forward into the challenging year ahead.
Fiscal Year 2022 began for CMN with the launch of a bold three-year strategic plan. Set forth in August 2021 by CMN’s Board of Directors, the plan named clear priorities for the organization like expanding our reach with young people, integrating an anti-racism approach to our work, and engaging new networks and collaborators.
In the report, you’ll see examples of how CMN worked to advance these priorities in Fiscal Year 2022, most notably with creative new initiatives like our Justice & Mercy Poetry Contest for Young Catholics, our Lenten racial justice pilgrimage for national ministry leaders to Montgomery, Alabama, and our podcast on restorative justice, Encounters With Dignity. You’ll also see CMN’s impact reflected in our growing staff and supporter base.
More than anything, I hope what you take away from this report is how strongly the past year has positioned CMN to begin Fiscal Year 2023. We’re going to need every ounce of the momentum that you helped us create, especially given recent efforts to ramp up executions in states like Oklahoma, Arizona, and South Carolina.
Despite the challenges before us, I continue to be amazed and humbled by the willingness of CMN allies like you who continue to give of their time, talent, and treasure. Thanks to your faithful support, we have much to look forward to in the year ahead.
Ending the Death Penalty
Advocating for Abolition
CMN’s fiscal year began on a high note in July 2021, with the Biden administration announcing the United States’ first official moratorium on federal executions. Though the execution ban is temporary, it provided a crucial jumping-off point for CMN to mobilize Catholics to advocate for the full abolition of the federal death penalty. Over the course of the year, thousands of CMN supporters urged President Biden to take the next step in this direction: commuting the sentences of those on the federal death row.
CMN also released a congressional advocacy tool designed to help people of faith contact their lawmakers in support of The Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act (H.R. 262/S. 582), which would fully outlaw capital punishment at the federal level.
Meanwhile, CMN worked to mobilize Catholics in states considering legislation that would abolish or limit the use of capital punishment. In April, Kentucky became the second state to successfully pass a law prohibiting the execution of individuals with severe mental illness, thanks in part to this Catholic advocacy. CMN’s repeal efforts in states like Ohio and Utah, which are on the cusp of abolition, will continue into next year.
CMN’s network spoke out strongly and consistently against executions this year, especially in high-profile innocence cases like Julius Jones’ in Oklahoma and Melissa Lucio’s in Texas. CMN advocates took more than 18,000 actions to oppose 22 scheduled executions; nine were ultimately halted by stay or reprieve.
I am privileged to work with clergy throughout the state of Ohio in working to abolish the death penalty. Catholic Mobilizing Network brings a national perspective to our statewide abolition initiative. It has been critical to our efforts to have CMN present." - Deacon Paul, Ohio
Empowering Young Catholics
In March 2022, CMN inaugurated its Justice & Mercy Poetry Contest for Young Catholics as part of the organization’s deepening commitment to engaging young people of faith in anti-death penalty witness.
The contest invited Catholics ages 18-30 to submit original poems about the injustice of capital punishment for the chance to win a cash prize. Dozens of poems were submitted, and the winners were announced in June 2022.
Educating and Story-Sharing
Alongside CMN’s work to catalyze strong Catholic advocacy against the death penalty are its efforts to raise Catholic awareness about the injustices of our modern capital punishment system through education and story-sharing.
This year, these efforts included a host of well-attended webinars and virtual events, as well as blog posts and educational resources featuring the voices of death row exonerees, murder victims’ family members, prison chaplains, and more.
CMN’s programs are so inspiring. Together we WILL stop the death penalty and we WILL make the changes in our legal system necessary to bring about restorative justice for the common good of all.” - Sr. Kathy, Kentucky
PROMOTING RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
Preparing for Implementation
In addition to educating Catholics about how restorative justice aligns with Catholic Social Teaching and helps us live out our faith, CMN is committed to equipping people of good will to put this transformative approach into practice in their communities and ministries.
This year, CMN rolled out new resources and experiential events for Catholics in various stages of restorative justice implementation, including the digital and in-print Paths of Renewed Encounter: A Restorative Justice Engagement Guide for Catholic Communities and “Intro to Restorative Circles: A First Experience” virtual events.
This experience of circle process gave me renewed hope that there are powerful and nonviolent ways to help heal conflicts and harm in the suffering of our world and planet today.” - Marie, California
Sharing Stories and Wisdom
CMN’s restorative justice work is rooted in the wisdom of people who have been impacted by crime, who have pursued restorative responses, and who are creatively bringing restorative justice to life in their communities and ministries.
In January 2022, CMN launched our first podcast, Encounters With Dignity, to further amplify these inspiring stories, garnering more than 2,000 unique listeners to date.
I appreciate hearing from people from across the country who are using restorative justice in really cool ways.” - Rose, Washington, DC
Amplifying Catholic Teachings and Witness
Through our expanding presence in the media, online, at national conferences, and on the ground in the states, CMN continues to widen the reach of the Church’s life-affirming teachings against the death penalty and the call for restorative justice.
As Seen In:
This year, our staff presented at 34 Catholic parishes, schools, conferences, and ministry convenings, and organized 16 virtual and in-person events of our own.
Restorative Practices and the Synod on Synodality
CMN’s most popular webinar of 2022, “Five Lessons from Restorative Practices for the Synod on Synodality,” showcased how restorative practices can enrich the listening processes taking place in Catholic parishes and dioceses nationwide as part of the Catholic Church’s three-year Synod on Synodality.
"The breaking open of restorative practices and showing their application in synodal spaces was EVERYTHING. This event should be replicated time and again, for as many audiences as possible, for as long as it takes." - Don, Washington, DC
Expanding a Culture of Prayer
Supporting all CMN’s efforts to end the death penalty and promote restorative justice is a commitment to prayer and fervent witness. In the past year, CMN organized 13 virtual prayer vigils for 2,000 people of faith to lament upcoming executions and bear witness to the sanctity of all human life.
I am grateful for CMN’s prayer vigils. It reminds me each month of the pain of lives lost — both victims and perpetrators — and how broken our criminal justice system is. We have a lot to pray for.” - Anonymous
Addressing the Sin of Racism
In Lent 2022, CMN convened a group of more than 30 national Catholic ministry leaders (pictured below) in Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, leading them on a journey of prayerful reflection and discernment for racial justice, truth-telling, and healing.
Celebrating Our Supporters
The St. Maximilian Kolbe Giving Society
CMN's Saint Maximilian Kolbe Giving Society recognizes those committed supporters who have invested in the ministry of Catholic Mobilizing Network for three or more consecutive years. Their generosity enables the sustained growth and expansion of CMN's life-affirming mission to end the death penalty and promote restorative justice. Saint Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of prisoners, families, and the pro-life movement.
My small but regular contributions to Catholic Mobilizing Network are my effort to stand with the Magisterium as it teaches that EVERY human life is of infinite value and only natural death can end it.” - Deacon Gerry, Missouri
FY 2022 FINANCIALS
CMN's mission is made possible through a diverse array of revenue streams: a widening base of support, a faithful and growing Monthly Steward Circle, income generated from events, generous major donors, loyal support from men and women religious, diocesan gifts, and an increasing number of family foundations.
Thank you, CMN, for being a place where my faith and my values can intersect." - Jeff, Wisconsin
