National Catholic Ministry Leaders Experience to Montgomery & Selma, AL
Join Catholic Mobilizing Network on November 5-7, 2025, for a life-changing experience in Alabama to reflect on the legacy of racial injustice in the U.S. criminal legal system and discern how the Church is called to advance truth-telling and healing.
Journeying as Pilgrims of Hope: A Special 2025 Jubilee Year Experience
November 5-7, 2025
Every 25 years, the Catholic Church recognizes a special Jubilee Year, a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God by proclaiming liberation, conversion, and reconciliation. In this 2025 Jubilee Year, Pope Francis has called each of us to be Pilgrims of Hope: the Jubilee “calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of our world,” especially “for all those who are in bondage to forms of slavery, old and new.”
On this Jubilee Year, CMN invites National Catholic Ministry Leaders to a life-changing experience in Montgomery & Selma, Alabama.
Why join?
Since 2022, CMN has led 10 delegations and more than 270 Catholic leaders—Bishops, parishioners, men and women religious, Catholic nonprofit leadership, and others—to historic sites in Alabama. Montgomery and Selma are the cradle of the domestic slave trade and the Confederacy, the birthplace of the modern Civil Rights Movement, and the headquarters of the Equal Justice Initiative, founded by Bryan Stevenson.
This formational experience confronts the deep-rooted structural racism embedded in the criminal legal system and invites participants to reckon with the enduring legacy of slavery and racial terror that continues to shape today’s systems of capital punishment and mass incarceration.
In a spirit of prayerful fellowship, delegation members visit truth-telling sites and engage in restorative encounters with Civil Rights witnesses and Catholic ministries deeply rooted in serving communities across the Deep South. These experiences offer profound wisdom for upholding human dignity and teaching both our Church and our country how to heal from the sin of racism as we pursue a hope-filled justice.
Who is it for?
This Jubilee Experience is designed for Catholic ministry leaders:
- Individuals who lead diocesan ministries
- Staff of national Catholic non-profit organizations or networks
- Priests, deacons and seminarians; men and women religious
- Leaders within a Catholic ministry, parish, or educational institution, center or community, and emergent leaders
Several members of the same institution or network are invited to participate.
If you’re unsure whether this applies to you, feel free to contact Lucie Martinot-Lagarde, CMN’s Restorative Justice Program Manager, at lucie@catholicsmobilizing.org.
There aren’t words to adequately describe how powerful the excursion was. I have heard many things about the Deep South over the years but seeing, hearing, and feeling it first-hand has left indelible impressions on me.
Most Rev. Joseph N. Perry, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Chicago, Chairman of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee against Racism
This is a trip every American should take. While often heartbreaking, it is structured around hope, faith, and justice, with multiple opportunities for reflection, discussion and prayer. I left more determined than ever to pursue restorative justice.
Alena Murguia, Nazareth Academy, Berwyn, IL
It will inform how I show up doing the work of justice. By not shrinking, blaming or teaching, but by listening, encouraging and sharing my personal story.
Lori Stanley, Loyola Institute for Spirituality, Orange, CA
Our Guiding Questions
What is the relationship between the nation’s past and modern-day systems of oppression, particularly related to the criminal legal system?
What is required of the Church, its leadership, and its faithful in order to be ministers of hope and reconciliation?
How can the Church and its members play a more active role in truth-telling and meaningful efforts that move our ministries, Church and country forward?
On this trip you will…
Trip Details
Dates
Trip Begins: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 12 p.m. CT in Montgomery, AL
Trip Concludes: Friday, November 7, 2025 at 12 p.m. CT in Montgomery, AL
Registration Fee
Trip registration is $650 which includes all meals, ground transportation, museum entrance fees, speaker honorarium, virtual prep and debrief calls, historical interpretation, and trip facilitation.
Does not include travel or lodging.
Scholarships available!
Lodging
All participants stay at a hotel in downtown Montgomery where the group meetings also take place. A room block will be secured at a discounted rate.
Travel
Participants are responsible for arranging their flights and transportation from the airport to and from downtown Montgomery.
The preferred option is Montgomery Regional Airport (MGM), with alternatives including Atlanta (ATL) and Birmingham (BHM).
Registration Process
Registration is now open!
Step 1: Submit your Request to Participate by filling out the short form.
Step 2: We’ll review your submission and get back to you shortly with steps to finalize your registration.
Stories from previous attendees
Why CMN invited 33 national ministry leaders to Montgomery, AL (Catholic Mobilizing Network)
Bishops visit Selma, Montgomery in ‘powerful encounter’ with legacy of racism (Detroit Catholic)
“Infinite Dignity” in Selma, Alabama, by William M. Joensen, Bishop of Des Moines
Racism, genocide, and more: Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, by Greg Erlandson (Angelus News)
CMN hosts your group
Since 2022, CMN has hosted ten delegations of National Catholic Leaders, including a diocese, a religious congregation’s ministry network, a parish, and a Catholic foundation. In March 2024, CMN hosted a group of U.S. bishops in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism.
- Program duration: 48 hours. One afternoon, one full day, one morning.
- Delegation: The delegation must consist of a minimum of 20 participants.
- Cost: $5,000 base fee to be paid by the convening institution + individual registration fees ($600-650)
To request more information, please email lucie@catholicsmobilizing.org.