500 Nuns March in Atlanta for Migrants, Racial Justice, and the Earth

At last week's gathering of women religious in Atlanta, hundreds of nuns took a prayerful stand for migrants, the planet and racial equality — a witness deeply in tune with the American pope.

Last week, nearly 500 nuns in habits took to the streets of Atlanta to march for the dignity of migrants, protecting God’s creation, and racial justice.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the nuns trekked 1.2 miles through downtown Atlanta, singing hymns and pausing three times to pray in unison.

Here’s more from NCR:

Sr. Susan Francois of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace in New York has participated in the LCWR assembly since 2015. On Thursday morning in Georgia, she posted two TikTok videos on the account @sistersusanfrancoiscsjp, showing the overcast walk featuring "hundreds of Catholic sisters and friends" praying in unison.

One TikTok user commented "This is true Christianity" on the video, and another wrote "I'm not religious in anyway but this moved me with such faith for humanity."

For Francois, the walk felt personal. In recent months, Francois and a few other Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace have been gathering at a privately run immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey, to stand alongside families who face harassment and other obstacles while trying to visit detained loved ones.

"I met a 7-year-old girl last Saturday who was trying to visit her dad before he was deported to Ecuador," Francois said. "Their faces were in front of me, and I was just holding them especially in prayer and sending them love."

This “Outdoor Pilgrimage of Hope” was part of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) assembly, a four-day meeting of U.S. women’s religious leaders.

The highest-ranking woman in Pope Leo’s cabinet, Sr. Simona Brambilla, the prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life, addressed the nearly 900 participants.

That would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

In 2012, the Vatican placed LCWR under investigation for alleged doctrinal shortcomings. The process concluded in 2014 under Pope Francis, who affirmed the conference’s vital role in American Catholic life.

Brambilla’s participation in this year’s gathering marked a striking reversal — evidence that the Vatican now recognizes the sisters’ witness on social justice and care for creation as central to the Church’s mission.

The pilgrimage itself carried a spiritual and political charge. “It was a very powerful experience,” said Sr. Annmarie Sanders, LCWR’s communications director, told NCR.

She pointed to the poverty and diversity visible along the route, calling the walk “a public expression of our commitment to migrants, to racial justice, and to the Earth itself.”

From across the Atlantic, it’s hard to imagine Pope Leo — a fellow American Catholic — doing anything other than cheering these sisters on.

Letters from Leo exists for moments like this.

When hundreds of Catholic sisters take to the streets for migrants, for the Earth, and for racial justice, their witness can’t be drowned out by the noise of our politics.

This newsletter is here to amplify that good news and spread in a world desperate for signs of hope.

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Thank you for reading. I’ll see you on the road.