National Catholic Ministry Leaders Experiences to Montgomery & Selma, AL
Join CMN for a transformative 3-day trip to reflect on the racist roots of capital punishment and mass incarceration, and discern how the Church can advance truth-telling and healing.
Journeying as Pilgrims of Hope: A Special 2025 Jubilee Year Experience
CMN invites National Catholic Ministry Leaders to a transformative experience in Montgomery & Selma, AL, from November 5-7, 2025.
Why we do it
Since 2022, CMN has hosted 8 delegations of national Catholic ministry leaders in Montgomery and Selma, AL. During three days, participants witness landmarks of racial violence and resilience in Montgomery and Selma — the cradle of the domestic slave trade, of the Confederacy, and of the Civil Rights movement.
Participants unpack how the legacy of our nation’s history of slavery, lynching, and segregation is manifest in contemporary injustices, such as mass incarceration, capital punishment, and the racial disparities embedded in them. Through encounter, prayer, and dialogue, participants discern how Catholic leaders are called to answer these 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 reconciliation and hope?
- How can the Church and its members play a more active role in truth-telling and meaningful efforts that move our ministries, communities, Church and country forward?
On this trip you will…
Further your knowledge of the history of the Civil Rights Movement where key events happened, with community members who were present.
Sites of the 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Dexter Parsonage—Young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the congregation from 1954 to 1960 and coordinated the bus boycott from the basement of the church.
Sites of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Marches for Voting Rights
- Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
- The Catholic City of St Jude that welcomed the 2,000 marchers on their last night before reaching the Montgomery State Capitol.
- Meet with a “Foot Soldier” who shares her first-hand experience of participating in the March in 1965
Through the work of the Equal Justice Initiative, understand the connection between the history of slavery and racial terror, and the modern-day systems of mass incarceration and capital punishment.
- The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration
- The National Memorial for Peace and Justice: A sacred space for truth telling and reflection about lynching and its legacy
- The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park: Honoring the legacy of emancipated people
- Meet with an senior staff from Equal Justice Initiative
Pray and discern how Catholic ministry leaders can play a more active role in truth-telling to move our nation towards justice and healing.
- Encounters with local Catholic ministries, Resurrection Catholic Missions of the South and the Edmundite Missions in Selma, to learn about their long history and ongoing commitment to serving African American populations in the Deep South
- Mass, group prayer and meditation times
- In-depth sharing times with fellow national Catholic ministers, using the restorative practice of circle process
How to participate?
Individual Participation
CMN hosts an annual delegation of National Catholic Leaders to Montgomery & Selma, AL. All Catholic Ministry Leaders are welcome to apply.
CMN hosts your group
Since 2022, CMN has hosted multiple delegations of National Catholic Leaders, including a diocese, a religious congregation’s ministry network, and a parish. 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)
“These encounters will help open our minds and hearts more fully and continue the healing needed in our communities and our nation.”
—U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Open Wide Our Hearts, A Pastoral Letter Against Racism
