"Giving Up Billionaires for Lent”
A Conversation with Sister Emily TeKolste
This piece originally appeared on Fran Quigley’s Substack We Can Do Better: Ending Poverty in Our Time on June 11, 2026.
This week’s episode of the We Can Do Better podcast features a conversation with Sister Emily TeKolste, an organizer for NETWORK Advocates for Catholic Social Justice and NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice.
Sister Emily tells us about her journey through activism and service to become a Sister of Providence and organizer for economic justice. She tells us how “Giving Up Billionaires for Lent” is part of a program linking multi-faith values to direct advocacy to lawmakers, an agenda that was a key part of the abolition movement, the civil rights movement, and creating and defending the Affordable Care Act.
We learn how progressive organizing today can take a lesson from conservative movements, which have nurtured activism by emphasizing relationships and community first. Which leads Sister Emily and colleagues to be nurturing “squad goals” in the push for higher wages, paid family leave, and healthcare for all.
You can listen to the podcast here:
A Preview:
Sister Emily on faith communities and working for justice: “Faith communities have been on the ground doing the work. In doing direct service, they’re close to and connected with some of these issues that our structural injustices are creating. They know the people who are forced to live in poverty by the systems that we have. They know the struggles and they can see in a real way. We’re not just creating policy in a vacuum, right? It has impact on the real lives of people, and so being that connection I think is a really important piece.”
Sister Emily on responding to Christian nationalism: “It is incumbent on faith communities to be an alternative voice and to say that, actually, Christian nationalism is not the Gospel. We need to prove that by being vocal and being faith-first in our messaging. We need to provide that alternate narrative so that folks for whom faith matters know that there’s another way to practice faith, that Christianity is rooted in generosity and justice and human dignity.”
Sister Emily on “Giving Up Billionaires for Lent”: ‘Sin is not just a personal thing. It is structural and systemic. And the Catholic Church has long taught that hoarding wealth, and societies that allow the hoarding of wealth, is sinful. We all deserve decent child care, a home that is safe, a neighborhood that is safe, the ability to put food on the table, to afford utilities, to have affordable, high quality health care that’s not going to put us in bankruptcy. And we can have those things, but instead we just have billionaires hoarding a whole bunch of wealth and continuously getting tax breaks.”
For more reading:
Past articles on faith communities organizing for justice, including access to healthcare
Ziad Munson on lessons from conservative organizing
Thank you for reading and listening!
