For Immediate Release: Jun 17, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA) have made a landmark $2 million commitment to the Franciscan Action Network (FAN) supporting the collective Franciscan voice FAN brings to public policy issues including environmental justice, immigration, and peacebuilding. The FSPA transformative gift significantly expands FAN’s capacity to build an intergenerational movement to respond to the moral imperatives of our time and strengthen the Franciscans’ long-standing witness to gospel nonviolence.
“We are giving this gift because the movement FAN is building reflects our commitment to justice, peace, and integral ecology. We believe the movement will help to accomplish our community’s goals,” said Sr. Sue Ernster, FSPA President. “In Franciscan Action Network, we see a partner grounded in our deepest values and doing exciting grassroots work with young and older adults.”
FAN is a faith-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that informs, connects, and mobilizes a diverse network of Franciscan communities and lay allies across the United States. Through grassroots organizing, education, and advocacy, FAN has long promoted faithful civic engagement grounded in Franciscan values and Catholic social teaching.
This new collaboration with FSPA marks a pivotal moment in FAN’s evolution. The FSPA gift will enable FAN to support the expansion of its grassroots groups–Franciscan Justice Circles–as well as its annual Franciscan Justice Leadership Conference. The Circles and Conference are among the tools FAN is using to build an intergenerational movement that speaks with a unified Franciscan voice on pressing public policy issues including environmental justice as well as the treatment of migrants and refugees.
This generous donation comes at a particularly meaningful moment, as the Catholic world commemorates the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical Laudato Si’ and begins a new chapter under the leadership of Pope Leo XIV. This gift affirms the FSPA commitment to care for our common home, the earth, and to stand in solidarity with all our vulnerable sisters and brothers.
“We are humbled and energized by the trust that the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration have placed in our mission,” said Michele Dunne, OFS, FAN Executive Director. “We are deeply grateful for this new partnership. It will help us meet the demands from our growing network, which includes vowed and professed Franciscans as well as Franciscan-hearted people, all seeking to take loving action in the world rooted in gospel values and Franciscan spirituality.”
“As we approach our 20th anniversary, FAN is more committed than ever to embodying the Franciscan vision in the public square,” said Fr. Jim Gannon, OFM, FAN Board Vice President. “This extraordinary support allows us to walk forward in hope, with the tools we need to respond to the signs of the times,” he added. Derek Nolan, FAN Board President, commented, “We are thrilled with this very generous catalytic gift. It kicks off our three-year campaign to build FAN’s Growth and Sustainability Fund, which will underwrite our hope-filled vision for the future of the Franciscan movement.”
This partnership represents a convergence of mission and vision. FSPA and FAN are grounded in Franciscan spirituality and Catholic social teaching, animated by a shared commitment to community and the common good. Together, they are cultivating a compassionate, faith-driven response to the intertwined crises of our day—environmental, social, and spiritual—through prophetic witness and peaceful collective action.
About Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration is a community of vowed Franciscan women engaged in furthering the work of the Gospel and the Catholic church. FSPA partners in mission on staff, affiliates, and prayer partners, join the sisters in service of God’s mission. Together, they collaborate in areas of greatest need, living the Gospel through contemplation and action. Visit fspa.org to learn more.
About Franciscan Action Network
Founded in 2007, the Franciscan Action Network is a collective Franciscan voice in the public sphere, working to transform U.S. public policies related to justice, peace, creation, and human dignity. With members across the country and in partnership with Franciscan communities, FAN advances a vision of justice and care for creation grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the lives of St. Francis and St. Clare, and Catholic Social Teaching. Learn more at www.franciscanaction.org
Media Contacts:
Rosie Davila
Communications and Development Coordinator
Franciscan Action Network
Phone: (202) 527-7575
Email: rdavila@franciscanaction.org
Jen Pick
Communications Team
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Phone: (608) 799-8021 Email: jpick@fspa.org