Earlier this month, hundreds of Catholic laypeople, nuns, and clergy processed from St. Eulalia Church in Maywood, IL, to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in nearby Broadview. The clergy donned their vestments and processed the Eucharist from the church to the outside of the ICE facility to provide the sacrament for detained immigrants. After an exchange with local police stationed there, the procession was denied entry into the facility. After remaining outside the facility, singing hymns and platforming speakers, the Eucharistic protest disbanded peacefully.
The Catholic press broadly rallied behind the protestors, demanding that the religious rights of illegal immigrants be respected, many of whom are Catholic. This sentiment also derives from the spirit of Pope Leo’s recent letter, Dilexi te, which offers that “in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”
Much of the American Catholic mainstream saw ICE’s refusal to admit the procession on October 11 as a sign of callousness, following the words of one of the event’s organizers, that “Jesus was knocking at the federal agents’ door, and they would not let him in.”
Despite this polemic, ICE agents regularly invite Catholic priests to serve migrant communities. Although the right to do so has been challenged at specific sites, Catholic priests have worked to establish consistent chaplaincies at detention facilities. Even at the South Florida Detention Center, or as the President prefers, “Alligator Alcatraz,” a team of four to five priests visits the site to hear confessions and offer Mass weekly. This model has been replicated at several other ICE installations nationwide, which often rely on volunteers to provide religious services for staff and detainees alike.
At Broadview, the priests involved did not clear the event with ICE in advance, as chaplaincies regularly do, and could not have reasonably expected to gain access to the facility. The liturgical stunt pulled by the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL), the progressive organizers of the event, not only cheapens the Eucharist but also does a disservice to the migrants interred at Broadview. This demonstration still left them without access to the Eucharist, as going through the work to establish a permanent chaplaincy would be far less provocative than what the CSPL seems to prefer.
Even more unlike other Catholic outreach efforts to ICE detainees, this initiative lacked any attention to Confession. At Alligator Alcatraz, the priests there have heard thousands of confessions from detainees, many of whom are indeed criminals of various stripes beyond their immigration status. Providing the Mass and the opportunity to atone for one’s sins is the way to treat illegal immigrants as spiritually mature souls in need of saving, not just as political props. To exercise a genuine Christian love for migrants, the idea that the consequence of their immigration status expunges their sins must be wholly dismissed.
This erroneous perspective on immigration has infected much of the Catholic and Protestant churches. As the Catechism states, the virtue of hospitality obliges nations to accept foreigners in search of security or the means of living. Still, the migrant must also “obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens,” subject to the juridical qualifications set by their host country. This mutual relationship, grounded in Christian affection for the downtrodden, requires a heart of generosity in the nation and a bond of gratitude on behalf of the migrant.
Yet the Church’s advocacy in this regard often fails to capture this sentiment.
Priests for Justice for Immigrants, a pro-migration installation in the Diocese of Chicago, lists its mission as “to influence the public conversation regarding immigration policy and to promote the basic human rights and well-being of immigrants and their families living in our communities.”
This formulation, befitting a secular NGO, makes no mention of the spiritual needs of migrants. It does not take seriously the fact that migrants are sinners like the rest of us and require opportunities to repent and come closer to Christ. This progressive mindset only conceives of migrants as victims of state violence and fails to capture the ensouled dimension of their humanity, fixating on their utility as a political lever.
The struggle over immigration is an ongoing one and will remain a constant source of friction between conservative politics and the social witness of the Catholic Church. Regardless of the state’s immigration policy, the Church’s mission remains fixed, to accompany the migrant as an icon of Christ’s hospitality, and bring them to the fullness of the faith. Anything else would see the Church reduced to one of dozens of other pro-migration secular organizations.
More from IRD:
How Should Christians Respond to the Los Angeles ICE Riots?
Is it morally right to deport millions of people?
Catholic and Evangelical Panel Alleges Bad Theology Among Immigration Skeptics
Comment by Qohelet on October 28, 2025 at 6:43 am
This article does not represent Christian or even specifically Catholic belief.
The duty to care for a foreigner who lives among us is among the most basic commands in the Judeo Christian canon. There’s nothing to justify the cruel and inhumane behavior of ICE in our faith. The priests and eucharistic ministers marching were marching for a point: those people being detained are people and need to be cared for as such. This too is basic Christianity.
Conservative Catholics love to weaponize the Eucharist. Pope Leo gently rebuked you last month when you came after Senator Durbin, who’s lifetime care for migrants aligns with an actual Vatican policy. This may be the first time I’ve heard of weaponizing confession. That said, the argument is garbage. Catholics have long ministered the Eucharist in prisons without doing confession as part of the meeting. The assumption is that the prisoner only takes the host if properly prepared. Here is a link to the Diocese of Santa Fe guidelines for eucharistic ministers, who are servants of God, not politicians
https://archdiosf.org/guidelines-for-the-distribution-of-holy-communion-to-the-incarcerated
Comment by Td on October 28, 2025 at 12:07 pm
FYI- Catholics did not rally around these activist protesters who knew full well beforehand that they wouldn’t be admitted because they were informed of this beforehand. The real give away about this group’s lack of authenticity is when one of the sisters referred to the consecrated hosts as sacred bread. This is not catholic belief. A consecrated host is not sacred bread, it is the body, soul, and divinity of Jesus.
Comment by Qohelet on October 28, 2025 at 9:38 pm
There’s no lack of authenticity to this group. Clergy included several Jesuits and the local parish priest.
As much as y’all want to muddy the waters here, the protesters are entirely in line with Catholic social teaching on this issue. Here is a direct quote with the link to the full USCCB statement:
Undocumented immigrants present a special concern. Often their presence is considered criminal since they arrive without legal permission. Under the harshest view, undocumented people may be regarded as undeserving of rights or services. This is not the view of Catholic social teaching. The Catholic Church teaches that every person has basic human rights and is entitled to have basic human needs met—food, shelter, clothing, education, and health care.”
https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/immigration/catholic-teaching-on-immigration-and-the-movement-of-peoples
“
Comment by DanW on October 29, 2025 at 12:07 pm
“Jesus was knocking at the federal agents’ door, and they would not let him in.”
As of May 27, 2025, even Jesus will need a REAL I.D. (has a star in the upper right hand corner,) or other acceptable identification.
Comment by Wilson R. on October 30, 2025 at 10:35 am
This piece represents, at best, a very poor understanding of both Catholic teaching and the facts of the law. I say “at best” because that is the charitable view. A less charitable view is that the young writer here is deliberately misrepresenting the facts when he suggests that the detainees are here illegally. As we have seen in case after case, a large number of the detainees followed our law in making asylum appeals and were rounded up while their legal cases were pending, or even when they followed the law in coming to required check-ins or to hear their cases heard. To represent all of these people as scofflaws and criminals is simply false witness.
Comment by Different Steve on October 30, 2025 at 10:46 am
Ai generated:
Tone is everything with “y’all.” In informal speech it’s friendly and inclusive, but in writing—especially in a context that’s supposed to be serious or argumentative—it can come across as condescending or dismissive, like the speaker is putting themselves above the audience.
Your “y’all aren’t a horse” analogy nails it: it’s the same construction that can imply the group is naive, mistaken, or needing guidance, even if it’s just grammar. In your poster’s example, “as much as y’all want to muddy the waters” has a subtle “you’re wrong and I’m going to set you straight” flavor.
So depending on the context, “y’all” can flip from folksy charm to a rhetorical tool for distancing or slight insult.
Comment by Wilson R. on October 30, 2025 at 12:04 pm
At least his post was generated by a human.
Comment by Different Steve on October 30, 2025 at 1:09 pm
The comment, “At least his post was generated by a human,” is doing a few things at once:
1. Undermining your shared excerpt – They’re subtly implying that my (diplomatic) response is overly cautious, robotic, or formulaic.
2. Highlighting performative “human-ness” – In other words, they’re valorizing a blunt, possibly snarky, or opinionated style over careful, reasoned explanation.
3. Tone policing – It’s a way of signaling, “Your measured tone is less real, less authentic, or less ‘fun’ than mine.”
In context of the “y’all aren’t a horse” discussion, it’s ironically fitting—he’s embracing the same folksy, dismissive, somewhat condescending energy that the original tweet had, while framing your thoughtful, nuanced post as “overly polished.”