Mission to Selma, Montgomery honors Catholics who marched with MLK for civil rights on Bloody Sunday

By Gina Christian, OSV News

(OSV News) -- As the nation marked the 58th anniversary of a key civil rights demonstration, members of an Illinois parish traveled to two Alabama cities to honor that history, and to reinvigorate their own work for justice in society faithful to the Gospel.

Father Terry Keehan, pastor of Holy Family Church in Inverness, Illinois, joined parish staffers Sue Geegan and Eric Kramp for a March 8-10 trip to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. The two cities were the endpoints of a five-day, 54-mile nonviolent march led by civil rights leader and pastor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in support of voting rights for Black Americans. At its March 25, 1965, conclusion on the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery, Rev. King told the 25,000 participants, "There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring."

The Holy Family Church delegation's trip was sponsored by Catholic Extension, a Chicago-based nonprofit founded in 1905 that organizes support for some 15 million faithful whose Catholic communities are in the nation's poorest regions, including its offshore territories.

So far, Catholic Extension has coordinated 45 such mission immersion trips for more than 330 clergy and pastoral leaders. Holy Family, which hosts a thriving social justice ministry, was "one of the original parishes" that inspired the program, said Joseph Boland, Catholic Extension's vice president of mission.

Father Keehan said walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma was particularly moving, as the site was where state and local law enforcement had attacked peaceful civil rights marchers -- including future Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020) -- who were attempting to cross on March 7, 1965. The event would be known as "Bloody Sunday."

"I was thinking the journey these people went on was like the Via Dolorosa, the bloody walk Jesus (made to the crucifixion)," he told OSV News. "There were a lot of similarities. And I also felt a kind of sadness that we haven't advanced further (in race relations) since then."

At the same time, Father Keehan said he and his fellow travelers were inspired to learn that the Catholic clergy and religious marched with civil rights advocates, while the City of St. Jude Parish in Montgomery welcomed some 25,000 participants during the march, hosting campers and a March 24, 1965, "Stars for Freedom Rally" led by actor and activist Harry Belafonte.

Founded by Passionist Father Harold Purcell as part of what he called "a long-cherished ambition" to work directly among Southern Black communities, the City of St. Jude Parish complex's now-closed hospital treated those injured during the Bloody Sunday clashes, and tried to save the life of activist Viola Liuzzo, who was killed on the final day of the Selma to Montgomery march by Ku Klux Klan members.

"I didn't realize the depths of the Catholic Church's role (in the civil rights movement)," said Father Keehan. "It made me one step prouder of being a Catholic."

The Holy Family team also visited the Selma-based Edmundite Missions. Founded in 1937 by two Society of St. Edmund priests, the missions serve the area's most impoverished communities by providing meals, education, youth and senior services. Catholic Extension, Holy Family and the Edmundite Missions are now partnering to renovate a house in Selma as the Casey Center for Faith and Community Service, which will host college interns, seminarians and clergy for service trips.

"We know that connection to the Catholic social justice network … is the key to reigniting the faith of the next generation," Edmundite Missions president and CEO Chad McEachern told OSV News.

Many young people believe they "have no need for the church, but they're really generous toward good causes," Father Keehan explained. He said they can be evangelized by undertaking social justice work through Catholic ministries.

Encountering those on the front lines of missionary work can be "emotional" and inspiring, said Geegan, Holy Family's human concerns director.

"These trips can be a roller coaster," Geegan told OSV News, noting that Selma was still cleaning up from tornado damage it sustained in mid-January. "You can be so low, and then you meet the people and they give you so much hope, because their faith is incredibly deep."

Kramp, Holy Family's operations manager, told OSV News the mission trip "emphasized who and what we are as Catholics," and challenged him to find new ways of living out his missionary discipleship in his own area.

"We're currently looking at different ministries and thinking about how we can implement (insights from the trip)," he said. "We need to do a better job of identifying and helping those folks who are marginalized and on the fringes of society. You don't have to go to Selma to make a difference. There are people in your own backyard."