US Bishops travel to the Deep South to discuss the legacy of racism and impacts on society, the legal system

 

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Moved by pastoral letter against racism, US Bishops journey to Deep South

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, director of a U.S. organization working to end the death penalty, accompanies several Bishops in their exploration of the connections between the legacy of racism in the United States and its impacts on the criminal legal system today.

By Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network*

Eight years ago, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) authored a pastoral letter against racism. Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love explores the questions “what is racism?” and “how do we overcome this evil?”

“Racism,” the bishops write, “is a life issue,” and “a perversion of the Lord’s will for men and women, all of whom were made in God’s image and likeness.” For a society to move on from the “social structures of injustice and violence that make us all accomplices in racism,” the way forward, the bishops said in their letter, must include meaningful, personal encounters:

“To work at ending racism, we need to engage the world and encounter others—to see, maybe for the first time, those who are on the peripheries of our own limited view.” (Open Wide Our Hearts)

Fast forward to just a few weeks ago. In March 2026, I had the privilege of traveling to the Deep South for such an “encounter” with six U.S. bishops, as well as staff and consultors from the USCCB’s Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation. This Lenten Experience in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama was the second collaboration between Catholic Mobilizing Network and the USCCB to bring U.S. bishops to Alabama. In the 19th century, Montgomery was one of the most prominent slave-trading locations in the United States. In the 20th century, it became the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement.

The trip provided an opportunity to explore how the legacy of 400 years of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation continues to shape our justice system, and to engage in the restorative work of truth-telling and reconciliation in the United States.

I felt privileged to walk alongside these episcopal leaders as they lived out what they committed to eight years ago. Our experience in Alabama was a journey of truth-telling and an exploration into what is required of the Church, its leadership, and its faithful in order to be ministers of hope and reconciliation in the face of systemic racism in the United States.

Lenten Journey Reveals the Promise of Easter

It was no coincidence that this trip fell during the season of Lent. Our sojourn would be one of head and heart, of remembrance, repentance, prayer, and preparation for Easter’s renewal.

The first day of our journey included an unforgettable meeting with Bryan Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama whose decades of inspiring work has provided legal representation to people who have been wrongfully convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. EJI has become a lifeline for marginalized people in Alabama and a trailblazer in its effective legal and narrative change efforts. Through the development of “Legacy Sites” across the city of Montgomery, EJI elevates the connections between mass incarceration and excessive punishment and the entrenched challenges of racial and economic injustice.

As he expanded on issues of racism and injustice embedded within our criminal legal system, Mr. Stevenson explained how one of the most insidious consequences of the “cancer” of racism is the narrative of racial hierarchy and of Black inferiority. More specifically, he stated that the suspicion of dangerousness and guilt assigned to Black and Brown people is what drives over sentencing and overincarceration of people of color to this day. Just as Lent invites us to reflect on Jesus’ temptation by the devil while fasting in the desert, so too did our Lenten encounter with Mr. Stevenson bring to light how we face temptation today of racism’s social sin.

Against this backdrop, he spoke of Church leaders as key “facilitators of transformation” for society, because they know that confessing the truth and repenting from sin are what opens hearts to redemption and reconciliation. As the United States struggles to reckon with the legacy of slavery and the manifestations of racial injustice today, Mr. Stevenson encouraged us to help society to be set free from silence and engage in truth-telling, while always holding on to hope.

Our meeting with Mr. Stevenson was one of a dozen encounters on a 48-hour journey through Montgomery and Selma. We anchored ourselves throughout these encounters by praying the Stations of the Cross as we visited key sites of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s — such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s parsonage — met with local leaders, and deepened our understanding of the realities of capital punishment today. With our eyes, ears, and our hearts, we contemplated Christ’s journey toward Calvary and reflected on the nearness of our Savior to the suffering we bore witness to.

As Catholics, we understand it is through the witness of the suffering of Christ’s passion that the light of Easter morning comes. The same is true about our Lenten experience in Montgomery and Selma.

Bishop Joseph Kopacz, Bishop of the Diocese of Jackson Mississippi shared, “We have to get to the truth, as Sister Thea Bowman would say, the truth of what the reality was, so that there can be reconciliation.”

In remembering the deep harm and raw pain of racial terror and structural racism, we also heard testimonies of the movement of the Holy Spirit and in the light of faith, resistance, and resilience.

“Despite all the struggles that people have faced in their lives, despite their sufferings and pains of the past,” reflected Bishop Felipe Pulido, Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego, “they still have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that truly gave them hope and resilience to continue their lives.”

Surely, the Cross reveals the depth of God’s love and the empty tomb offers a sign of God’s saving power. Our faith rests in the assurance that life will always have its victory over death. Indeed, the commitment to make this truth-telling journey marked a profound act of Easter hope.

Steps of the Journey

In addition to meeting with EJI founder Bryan Stevenson, we visited all three Legacy Sites established by the organization: The Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which honors the lives and memories of the 10 million Black people who were enslaved in the United States between 1619 and 1865.

Bishops on the Lenten experience celebrate Mass with Bishop Steven J. Raica of Birmingham, Alabama and pastor of Resurrection Catholic Parish.

Together we celebrated Mass in Catholic parishes and shared meals with pastors and local leaders — including individuals who have been active in the community since the Civil Rights Movement.

Fr. Manuel Williams, C.R., a Montgomery native and pastor of Resurrection Catholic Missions of the South shared his rich experiences of resilience and hope as a leader of a vibrant Catholic parish engaged in the ministries of education, evangelization, healthcare, social services, and advocacy. Fr. Andrew Jones, pastor of The City of Saint Jude — which was the final stop for the Selma to Montgomery marchers before arriving at the State Capitol on March 24, 1965 — told the history of his parish’s efforts to preserve the Church’s key role in the Civil Rights Movement and shared stories of how the parish expresses its commitment to human rights and social justice today.

These profoundly moving personal encounters were not easy. Bishop William Wack, Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee described it this way:

“Some the things that really affected me were seeing the sculptures and the art and the photographs of the true reality of slavery and racism and how that's led to a continuation through lynching and mass incarceration. Just seeing that and then talking to some people who were part of the Civil Rights Movement, you know, in the 50s and 60s, and hearing their voices, that was really important for me as well.”

What the Lord Requires

On the final morning of our trip, we stood at the base of hundreds of hanging steel columns, at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The columns stand as a visual reminder of the bodies left hanging in the horrific violence of 4,400 documented racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950. Again, we turned to the Passion, concluding with the final Station of the Cross.

We prayed together, recalling the inspiration provided in Open Wide Our Hearts:

“You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Bishop William A. Wack leads the Stations of the Cross at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the infamous 1965 “Bloody Sunday,” when voting rights marchers traveling from Selma to Montgomery were attacked by police.

As we work to “do justice,” the pastoral letter reminds us that justice is defined “where we are in right relationship with God, with one another, and with the rest of God’s creation.” Integral to this relational justice commitment is listening to the stories of those who are personally impacted by the sin of racism.

In the effort to “love goodness,” the letter invites us to consider the example of Christ’s suffering on the cross: “It is through his Cross that we learn the greatest lesson about love.” Reflecting on Christ’s own execution at the hands of the state offers an expansive understanding of love that seeks unity and restoration in the face of racial injustice, dehumanization, and division.

And in the effort to “walk humbly with God,” the letter encourages those in positions of Church leadership to “make formal visits to institutions of culture and learning” and to engage in meaningful experiences that deepen understanding of our nation’s complex racial history.

We are an Easter people living in the promise of the Holy Spirit. That is why we accompany one another in Alabama — in a prayerful posture of openness, encounter — and ask for God’s grace to become reconcilers in our wounded world. Our Lenten journey created a profound opportunity to remember our country’s deep wounds of racism. This time together helped us all see more clearly how systemic racism has given way to a pervasive narrative of revenge and retribution that marks our current criminal legal system.

With each Station of the Cross that we prayed throughout our journey, we recited: “Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” This simple prayer reveals the depth of God’s love and His abundant mercy. And through it, our appreciation for this restorative truth-telling work grew within us. 

Gratefully, the light of the Resurrection illuminates our path to understanding the depths of suffering in a new way, so that we can spread the Good News of Easter as facilitators of transformation and of restoration, wherever the ravages of systemic racism persist today.

* Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy is the Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, a national organization in the United States that mobilizes Catholics and people of goodwill to end the death penalty, advance justice solutions in alignment with Catholic values and promote healing through restorative justice approaches and practices. For more information and to join the movement, visit catholicsmobilizing.org.

Former President Trump takes stand on IVF; opposes position of the Catholic Church

 

Trump Calls On GOP To Protect IVF

In All 50 States, A Move Opposed

By The Catholic Church

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Former President Donald Trump on Feb. 23 responded to the Alabama Supreme Court’s in vitro fertilization ruling in a statement saying he supports the “availability of IVF” and calling on the state’s Legislature to “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to preserve access to fertility treatment in the state.

IVF is an artificial form of fertility treatment opposed by the Catholic Church on the grounds that it often involves the destruction of human embryos and violates their human dignity in multiple other ways.

Trump, who is in the midst of his third bid for the White House and is the clear frontrunner poised to receive his party’s nomination for president, joined several other Republican lawmakers or candidates for office who condemned the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling.

“Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families,” Trump said in a statement. “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every State in America.”

Trump added in his statement, “Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby.”

“Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama,” Trump said. “The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life — and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies. IVF is an important part of that, and our Great Republican Party will always be with you, in your quest, for the ULTIMATE JOY IN LIFE!”

A Feb. 16 ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court found that embryos are children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, a statute that allows parents of a deceased child to recover punitive damages for their child’s death. That ruling came in response to appeals brought by couples whose embryos were destroyed in 2020, when a hospital patient removed frozen embryos from storage equipment, which they argued constituted a wrongful death. The judges found that under the law, parents’ ability to sue over the wrongful death of a minor child applies to unborn children, without an exception for “extrauterine children.”

The Alabama legal ruling, while limited in scope, aligns more with the position the Catholic Church has staked out against the legalization of IVF.

The 1987 document from the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith known as “Donum Vitae” (“The Gift of Life”) states the church opposes in vitro fertilization and related practices, including gestational surrogacy, in part because “the connection between in vitro fertilization and the voluntary destruction of human embryos occurs too often.”

Issued by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, the teaching named the “right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death” and “the child’s right to be conceived, brought into the world and brought up by his parents” as behind the church’s moral objections to artificial methods of human reproduction. It emphasized, “The political authority consequently cannot give approval to the calling of human beings into existence through procedures which would expose them to those very grave risks noted previously.”

The teaching warned further, “The possible recognition by positive law and the political authorities of techniques of artificial transmission of life and the experimentation connected with it would widen the breach already opened by the legalization of abortion.”

However, the Alabama high court’s limited ruling was met with backlash, as multiple Alabama IVF providers paused treatment in the state following the ruling, as questions were raised about legal implications for the practice. 

Republican candidates for office distanced themselves from the ruling.

“As someone who struggled to get pregnant, I believe all life is a gift. IVF allowed me, as it has so many others, to start my family,” Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., who represents a district carried by Biden, wrote on X. “I believe there is nothing more pro-life than helping families have children, and I do not support federal restrictions on IVF.”

CNN reported the National Republican Senatorial Campaign sent a memo to their candidates suggesting they “clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF.” The memo included a recent poll showing the popularity of IVF even among conservatives.

“Campaign on increasing access,” the memo said. “Advocate for policies that increase access to fertility treatments including insurance coverage and support services. Position this stance as part of a broader commitment to health care accessibility and family support.”

Nikki Haley, a former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor, said that while she personally believes a frozen embryo is a baby, she disagrees with the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling. Asked by NBC News whether she agreed that embryos are children after that ruling, Haley said, “Embryos, to me, are babies.” Haley added that she underwent fertility treatments.

“I had artificial insemination. That’s how I had my son,” Haley said. “One thing is to save sperm or to save eggs. But when you talk about an embryo, you are talking about, to me, that’s a life. So, I do see where that’s coming from when they talk about that.”

Haley later told CNN that while she believed Alabama’s highest state court ruled on the letter of the law, the state’s Legislature should “go back and look at the law” to protect access.

The Biden campaign said the ruling was tied to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

“American women couldn’t care less what Donald Trump posts on Truth Social, they care that they can’t access fertility treatment because of him,” Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Let’s be clear: Alabama families losing access to IVF is a direct result of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justices overturning Roe v. Wade. Trump is responsible for 20 plus abortion bans, restrictions on women’s ability to decide if and when to grow a family, and attacks on contraception. He proudly overturned Roe, and brags about it on the campaign trail — as recently as last night.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 238,126 patients underwent IVF treatment in 2021, resulting in 112,088 clinical pregnancies and 91,906 live births.

IVF, frozen embryos, Alabama ruling and what is Catholic teaching

 

What Christian Traditions Say About I.V.F. Treatments

While Catholic teaching expressly forbids in vitro fertilization, Protestants tend to be more open.

By Elizabeth Dias

The Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos should be considered children has forced Americans to grapple with a mess of complicated realities about law, infertility, medicine and politics.

At the heart of the decision, there is also Christian theology. “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God,” the court’s chief justice, Tom Parker, wrote in his decision.

Among conservative Christians, the belief that life begins at conception has been a driving force behind anti-abortion policies for years. Among the most ardent abortion opponents, that thinking has also led to uncompromising opposition to in vitro fertilization.

“That is the fundamental premise of our entire movement,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, which opposes abortion. I.V.F., she said, “is literally a business model built on disposable children and treating children as commodities.”

But on the morality of I.V.F., there is a more noticeable divide between Catholics and Protestants. Catholic teaching expressly forbids it. Protestants tend to be more open, in part because there is no similar top-down authority structure requiring a shared doctrine.

Evangelical tradition has built a public identity around being pro-family and pro-children, and many adherents are inclined to see I.V.F. positively because it creates more children. Pastors rarely preach on fertility, though they may on abortion.

But the Alabama decision “is a very morally honest opinion,” said Andrew T. Walker, associate professor of Christian ethics and public theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The ruling, he said, shows the direct line of reasoning between belief that life begins at conception, and opposition to abortion and I.V.F.

“It’s going to force conservative Christians to reckon with potentially their own complicity in the in vitro fertilization industry,” he said.

The Roman Catholic Church is perhaps the largest institution in the world that opposes I.V.F. Nearly all modern fertility interventions are morally forbidden.

The I.V.F. process typically includes many elements that the Catholic Church opposes. There’s masturbation — an “offense against chastity,” according to the catechism, or teaching — often required to collect sperm. There’s the fertilization of an egg and sperm outside a woman’s body — outside the sacramental “conjugal act” of sex between a husband and wife. And there is the creation of multiple embryos that are often destroyed or not implanted — an “abortive practice.”

The church’s first major statement opposing I.V.F. came in response to the world’s first “test tube baby,” born in England in 1978. Written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who went on to become Pope Benedict XVI, the document addressed a variety of fertility technologies, like artificial insemination, I.V.F. and surrogacy.

Last month, Pope Francis condemned surrogacy as “despicable” and called for a global ban on the practice. An unborn child should not be “turned into an object of trafficking,” he said.

Many Catholics use contraception and I.V.F. treatment in violation of church teaching. But for observant Catholics, opposition to I.V.F. is part of an ecosystem of beliefs about marriage, family and especially sex.

The marital act of sex must be performed in conception and the embryo must not be subject to “different indignities, being poked and prodded” by scientists, said Joseph Meaney, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

In cases of infertility, some “assistive” technologies might be OK, he said, but not “replacement” ones like I.V.F. That distinction may seem immaterial, but it stresses the importance of sex in Catholicism as holy act exclusively for a husband and wife who want children.

For instance, Mr. Meaney said, he and his wife faced fertility challenges and used methods to conceive that included an operation to address scar tissue and deep tissue massages. “Assisting means there has to be sex,” he said. “Replacing means there is no sexual act taking place.”

But the bioethics of I.V.F. is not a subject most conservative Christians have on their radar. Evangelicals typically rely on literal readings of the Bible, not centuries of Catholic social philosophy and anthropology. And the Bible, an ancient text, of course does not mention I.V.F.

Mr. Walker said that when he had considered introducing a resolution about artificial reproductive technology at the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, friends and colleagues reacted with hesitation.

But evangelical and Catholic communities have increasingly blended together over shared conservative political beliefs. Now the unavoidable politics on fertility in America may shape evangelical belief and practice on I.V.F.

Emma Waters, a research associate at the Heritage Foundation, hopes evangelical pastors will work to train their churches about the theological reasons to oppose I.V.F., as Catholics have. She sees potential openings with Gen Z evangelicals who are opposed to hormonal birth control and the broad ways technology has infiltrated their lives.

“I.V.F. is just the very beginning of reproductive technologies,” she said. “We are just woefully unprepared to address the onslaught of issues that are coming.”

Frozen embryos are children per Alabama Supreme Court

 

Warnings of the impact of fertility treatments in Alabama rush in after frozen embryo ruling

BY KIM CHANDLER

February 21, 2024

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state.

The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

“Unborn children are ‘children’ ... without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in Friday’s majority ruling by the all-Republican court.

Mitchell said the court had previously ruled that fetuses killed while a woman is pregnant are covered under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and nothing excludes “extrauterine children from the Act’s coverage.”

The ruling brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.

“This ruling is stating that a fertilized egg, which is a clump of cells, is now a person. It really puts into question, the practice of IVF,” Barbara Collura, CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, told The Associated Press Tuesday. The group called the decision a “terrifying development for the 1-in-6 people impacted by infertility” who need in-vitro fertilization.

She said it raises questions for providers and patients, including if they can freeze future embryos created during fertility treatment or if patients could ever donate or destroy unused embryos.

Sean Tipton, a spokesman with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said at least one Alabama fertility clinic has been instructed by their affiliated hospital to pause IVF treatment in the immediate wake of the decision.

Dr. Paula Amato, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said a decision to treat frozen fertilized egg as the legal equivalent of a child or gestating fetus could limit the availability of modern health care.

“By insisting that these very different biological entities are legally equivalent, the best state-of-the-art fertility care will be made unavailable to the people of Alabama. No health care provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,” Amato said.

Gabby Goidel, 26, who is pursuing IVF treatment in Alabama after three miscarriages, said the court ruling came down on the same day she began daily injections ahead of egg retrieval.

“It just kind of took me by by storm. It was like all I could think about and it was just a very stressful thing to hear. I immediately messaged my clinic and asked if this could potentially halt us. They said we have to take it one day at a time,” Goidel said.

She said her clinic is continuing to provide treatment for now, but said it will let her know if they have to change course.

Goidel said she turned to IVF and preimplantation genetic testing after the multiple miscarriages related to genetic issues.

“Without IVF, I would have to probably go through several more miscarriages before I even had an option of having a baby that is my own,” she said.

The plaintiffs in the Alabama case had undergone IVF treatments that led to the creation of several embryos, some of which were implanted and resulted in healthy births. The couples paid to keep others frozen in a storage facility at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center. A patient in 2020 wandered into the area and removed several embryos, dropping them on the floor and “killing them,” the ruling said.

The justices ruled that wrongful death lawsuits by the couples could proceed. The clinic and hospital that are defendants in the case could ask the court to reconsider its decision.

Michael Upchurch, a lawyer for the fertility clinic in the lawsuit, Center for Reproductive Medicine, said they are “evaluating the consequences of the decision and have no further comment at this time.”

An anti-abortion group cheered the decision. “Each person, from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life, has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection,” Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action said in a statement.

Chief Justice Tom Parker issued a concurring opinion in which he quoted the Bible in discussing the meaning of the phrase “the sanctity of unborn life” in the Alabama Constitution.

“Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” Parker said.

Justice Greg Cook, who filed the only full dissent to the majority opinion, said the 1872 law did not define “minor child” and was being stretched from the original intent to cover frozen embryos.

“No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches,” he wrote, adding the ruling “almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama.”

The Alabama Supreme Court decision partly hinged on anti-abortion language added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018, stating it is the “policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.”

Supporters at the time said it would have no impact unless states gained more control over abortion access. States gained control of abortion access in 2022.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Alabama decision reflected the consequences of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and blamed Republican elected officials from blocking access to reproductive and emergency care to women.

“This president and this vice president will continue to fight to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state,” Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

___

Aamer Madhani aboard Air Force One contributed to this repor

Tornadoes hit Selma Alabama, Catholic Church and Catholic Charities are there

‘God’s Grace Protected Us’: Alabama Catholics Turn To Prayer, Outreach After Deadly Tornadoes

 By Gina Christian

(OSV News) — Katelee Hagan imagined Jan. 14 would be just another ordinary day at the Selma, Alabama, child care center where she works.

But moments after the 21-year-old walked through the doors, a colleague told her, “We’ve got to go. A tornado is heading straight for us.”

Hagan, a member of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Selma, began bundling up the eight babies at the center, part of Crosspoint Christian Church. Along with her coworkers and some 70 kids, ranging in age from seven weeks to four years old, she hunkered down in a concrete area of the building.

“We were all praying, just continuously praying. All of us,” Hagan told OSV news.

Ten minutes later, “the lights went out, and you could hear a noise like a train,” she said.

Striking the building, the tornado sent air pressure plummeting, leaving Hagan breathless as she and her coworkers flung themselves over the children.

Having survived, Hagan, and other Catholics in Alabama are turning to prayer and outreach after the Jan. 14 disaster, during which nine tornadoes killed nine people as they tore across Georgia and Alabama, including the historic town of Selma, from which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led an historic 1965 civil rights march. The deadliest tornado claimed seven lives in Alabama’s Autauga County while notching 150 mile-per-hour winds and traveling 76 miles, according to the National Weather Service.

“The tornado was absolutely devastating in the city of Selma,” Chad McEachern, president and CEO of the Edmundite Missions, told OSV News in a Jan. 16 email. “Homes ripped apart, roofs strewn into the street, trees predating our nation’s founding ripped up by the roots.”

Founded in 1937 by two Society of St. Edmund priests, the Selma-based missions serve the area’s most impoverished communities by providing meals, education, youth and senior services.

After the fierce winds left streets “war torn,” McEachern said he “firmly grasped (his) rosary beads” and began walking “block by block, checking those entrusted to the care of the (Edmundite) Missions.”

The seven Dominican nuns at the Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury, Alabama, also turned to prayer as one tornado came within three miles of their community.

“Typically, in the face of a storm, we light a blessed candle and pray hard,” the nuns said in a Jan. 17 email to OSV News. “We pray not only for our own safety, but for all in the path of the storm.”

The nuns also took shelter as alarms sounded, noting that “with today’s alert systems, it is possible to know clearly when we need to gather the sisters in the safest location.”

The monastery and its surrounding neighborhood were spared the storms’ worst effects, the nuns said, adding their property “didn’t even experience damaging winds,” although they “did find some insulation hanging from a tree in our woods, which we presume to be debris picked up by the tornado.”

Residents of Selma were less fortunate, with the storm’s immediate effects compounded by fires from ruptured gas lines, said McEachern.

A few other parishioners of Our Lady, Queen of Peace Church also lost their homes, according to Gabe Stabosz Norton, director of religious education. The church building was spared, and the pastor’s residence sustained only minor damage, with downed trees on the property.

“Our church is located right in downtown Selma where there is a lot of damage and destruction,” Norton said. “God’s grace protected us.”

At the same time, Norton acknowledged the work left to be done. “Selma is an extremely poor area, and this tornado made a bad situation worse,” she said.

Despite the lack of power in several of its buildings, the Edmundite Missions have been able to provide food assistance, teaming up with the Selma Police Department “to deliver meals to those still trapped on their blocks by tornado debris,” said McEachern.

Mission staff and volunteers have been “distributing clothes, blankets, hygiene products, temporary housing and more to those who lost everything,” while also offering shower and laundry services, said McEachern.

In addition, the mission’s social workers have set up an office to help clients, many of whom have low levels of literacy, complete online federal assistance applications, he said.

One man —- whose granddaughter had been with family elsewhere in the state during the storms — came to the missions to advise his shack had been “completely destroyed,” McEachern said. The storm had thrown the man into a tree, to which he clung until the winds subsided. The mission is “committed to helping (him), and many more just like him, rebuild their lives after this disaster,” McEachern said.

The Dominican nuns also plan to continue interceding for storm victims, particularly in praying for them through the rosary and Eucharistic adoration.

“We have been praying for all those affected: those who died and for their families, those who were injured or whose homes were destroyed, and for all those who are helping them,” they said.

Although the tornado badly damaged the Selma child care center, Hagan said, none of the children or teachers were injured. She added surviving the experience “has definitely changed (her) faith in God.”

“I had pulled away from the church,” Hagan said. “But there was no way that storm just picked itself up and moved away from us in the center.”