Two Catholic dioceses in the United States have excused illegal immigrants from attending Sunday mass over fears of immigration raids amid President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportations.
Citing the “pastoral needs of our diocese,” the Diocese of San Bernardino in Southern California has announced that worshipers who have a “fear of possible anti-immigrant activity” can be dispensed from attending mass on Sundays “until further notice or until such time as the circumstances necessitating this decree are sufficiently resolved.”
“All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions, are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation, as provided for in Canon 1247, until such time as this decree is revoked or amended,” the decree from Bishop of San Bernadino Alberto Rojas states.
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The diocese urges those excused from mass to “maintain their spiritual communication with Christ and His Church” through prayer, Bible reading, watching televised mass and devotions.
The diocese joins the Diocese of Nashville, which issued a similar exemption in May as it faced decreased attendance at Spanish-speaking churches amid a rise in immigration enforcement activity in the metropolitan area.
“[M]any of those in our diocese are concerned about possibly being confronted or detained while attending Mass or other parish events,” a statement from the Nashville diocese reads. “Our churches remain open to welcome and serve our parish communities, but no Catholic is obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk.”
The Sunday after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 200 people in an early May operation, the Diocese of Nashville reported that attendance fell by 50%, according to WPLN.
In early June, the bishops of Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville issued a statement appreciating law enforcement’s efforts to detain criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers. However, they questioned the government’s figures, stressing that “as many as 100 of those detained, while undocumented, apparently had no previous criminal issues.”
“That brings into question whether the enforcement activity was principally targeted at those who should have no place in our communities because of their own illegal activity,” the bishops wrote in the statement released by the Tennessee Catholic Conference.
“The fact that so many people without documentation could quietly live under the radar, often for decades, clearly points to the need for broad reform of the immigration system.”
The bishops called for “efforts to address decades long shortcomings in immigration enforcement respect due process and the dignity of every person.”
Shortly after taking office in January, the Trump administration altered a “Sensitive Locations Protections” policy that limited federal immigration law enforcement action in or near “sensitive” areas.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement at the time.
In June, Bishop Rojas claimed federal agents entered a San Bernardino parish property to detain several people. ICE agents reportedly chased multiple people who were neither employees nor parishioners onto the parking lot of the St. Adelaide Church in Highland, where they were detained, according to the Diocese of San Bernardino Director of Communications John Andrews.
The Mexican-born bishop sent a letter to parishioners discussing the “change and increase in immigration enforcement in our region and specifically our diocese.”
“Authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God,” he wrote.
“While we surely respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals, we are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings,” he continued. “We have experienced at least one case of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents entering a parish property and seizing several people.”
Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, who heads the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and pastors New Season Church in Sacramento, told The Christian Post earlier this year that he “received multiple assurances and clarification regarding the motivation behind” the Trump administration’s policy change.
“Under no circumstance in the past 250 years of American history has there ever been a moment where federal troops have come in guns blazing into a church. And it will not happen under the Trump administration,” Rodriguez, who prayed at Trump’s first inauguration, said. “I do not foresee any circumstance where [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies go guns a-blazing on a Sunday morning service.”
