An open letter to Pope Francis:

I invite you to visit Selma, Alabama, during your visit to the United States in September of this year.

I realize that your coming to Selma at the invitation of a Baptist State Senator is a real long shot with so many invitations from Catholics and others.

However, miracles do happen. In fact, I believe your papacy is a miracle.

I greatly appreciate your efforts to shift all Christianity from a religion focused against certain things to a religion focused for certain things. I believe that this is in the truest tradition of the Jesus I see in the New Testament. I also see profound evidence of Jesus Christ in how you live your life and how you call us to live our lives.

Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge are worldwide symbols of non-violent resistance to oppression even in the face of extreme violence. We need greater non-violent resistance to oppression in its many forms.

We need greater non-violent resistance to violence in all its forms.

Your visit to Selma would send a powerful message of active non-violent resistance to oppression and violence in all their varied forms. We invite you to join the people of Selma and others on the bridge as we pray together with you to overcome violence, racism and other afflictions that divide humanity. It would be a powerful message that the entire world would hear.

Because Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge are already worldwide symbols, your visiting message would be magnified many times over. I have faith that your message, combined with the symbolism of Selma, would be touched by God and produce a positive impact beyond what we can foresee or imagine.

Pope Francis, please find a way to come to Selma in September of this year.