MY TURN: On Pope Francis’ visit and change for South Carolina

By Catherine Fleming Bruce  |  Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States today includes a presentation of his message to heads of state at the United Nations building in New York City.

Yesterday morning, he was the first pontiff ever invited to speak to a joint session of Congress. His address was not only heard by our South Carolina congressional delegation, but by South Carolinians here at home, who tuned in via public television or radio, by internet streaming, local or cable stations, or by using smartphones. Though our state is not a majority Catholic one, the issues and questions that the pope raised to our politicians resounded.

South Carolina will elect new local government public servants in November of this year, with a special election taking place in October to fill the vacant Senate seat formerly held by the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the church leader and reformer  gunned down in June in the basement of the church he led, barely two months after he championed gun reform in the wake of the Walter Scott killing.

In 2016, the nation will choose a new president, and South Carolina will have a first-in-the-South role in choosing the final contenders.

Finally, a new legislative session will begin in January.  South Carolina’s House and Senate members,  whose most recent times together were spent saying farewell to Senator Pinckney, debating the removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, witnessing the signing of that bill into law, and witnessing its implementation — all under the watchful eye of the country, will meet and wrangle once more.

All of this flowed through my mind as I listened to Pope Francis address Congress.  Like him, I express my hope to my leaders. I hope that my South Carolina political leaders — local, state and national — will forget neither their decades-old history in this state nor their recent experiences in the fires of June and July, the horror and the victory, in the glare of the national and global media. I hope that each will look in the mirror and confront the enemy of hope and healing, of peace and justice that is within.

I hope they will honor Abraham Lincoln on the 150^th anniversary of his assassination by maintaining the same cooperation that held for the removal of the Confederate flag legislation, by summoning the courage to form, support and pass policy that will bring hope, peace, justice and healing to our environment.

I hope they will recognize the sacrifices of those who died during the Selma-to-Montgomery march, led 50 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Amelia Boynton-Robinson and others, by dismantling unjust structures and policies that have a disproportionate impact on black and brown communities in education, jobs, immigration and economic opportunity.

I hope they will hold high the social justice work of Dorothy Day by supporting and passing legislation that will help women by meeting their need for equal pay, by addressing the domestic violence and murder that makes South Carolina number one in the country, and protecting health care and reproductive rights.

I hope they will remember the contemplative power of Thomas Merton, by seeing the faces and listening to the stories of the marginalized, the poor, the refugee and the outsider.

I believe that the people of this state are ready to rise to the challenge of fundamental change in public policy. The eyes of the nation will continue to rest on South Carolina, as PBS, The New Yorker and others continue to explore our direction. Conferences and gatherings continue to bring activists together to stoke the fires of change.

Pope Francis’ words can merge with those efforts for some, and blaze a new trail for others.  The challenge rests in the people of South Carolina and their leaders, and they must not fail.

Catherine Fleming Bruce of Columbia is the author of the forthcoming book:  “The Sustainers: Being, Building and Doing Good Through Activism in the Sacred Spaces of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Social Movements,” due this fall. She serves as secretary and vice chair, Sixth Congressional District, of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Labor/Progressive Caucus.