WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Amid concern about the ability of those detained by immigration enforcement authorities to receive Catholic sacraments, a key U.S. bishop said Trump administration officials have “assured” him the matter is “under careful review.”
His comments came shortly before Pope Leo XIV urged respect for “the spiritual rights” of migrants detained in the U.S. in comments to journalists Nov. 4 at Castel Gandolfo.
Religious Liberty Commission
Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission, said in a Nov. 3 social media post that he and Father Alexei Woltornist, a Melkite Catholic priest and a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, “have been in touch with senior officials in both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security and have brought forward the concerns of the Church regarding detainees’ access to Sacraments.”
Bishop Barron’s post included an OSV News article about a delegation of clergy, religious sisters and laity, and a Chicago auxiliary bishop who were barred for the second time in three weeks from bringing the Eucharist to those being held at an immigration detention center just west of Chicago on the feast of All Saints Nov. 1.
Tense confrontations
The facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, has seen tense confrontations between protesters and federal law enforcement in the last several weeks as the Trump administration ramped up enforcement efforts in and around the Windy City. In a separate incident, reports of immigration authorities near St. Jerome Catholic Church in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood on Oct. 12 prompted warnings of caution from its pastor, although a spokesperson for ICE denied the church was targeted, local media reported.
Catholic bishops are among those who have acknowledged points of tension between the Trump administration’s immigration policy and religious liberty.
In a statement provided to OSV News in response to an inquiry about Bishop Barron’s post, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, said the Broadview facility is “a field office, it is not a detention facility.”
‘Held briefly for processing’
“Illegal aliens are only briefly held there for processing before being transferred to a detention facility. Religious organizations are more than welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities,” McLaughlin said. “Even before the attacks on the Broadview facility, it was not within standard operating procedure for religious services to be provided in a field office, as detainees are continuously brought in, processed, and transferred out.”
McLaughlin argued the facility faces “serious public safety and officer safety threats,” and that
“ICE staff has repeatedly informed religious organizations that due to Broadview’s status as a field office and the ongoing threat to civilians, detainees, and officers” they are “not able to accommodate these requests at this time.”
In his post, Bishop Barron added, “I feel that maintaining open lines of communication and engaging in dialogue with the Administration constitute the most constructive way forward.”
Balancing immigration policies
Catholic social teaching on immigration balances three interrelated principles — the right of persons to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.
In his Nov. 4 comments, Pope Leo added, “The authorities allow pastoral workers to assist with the needs of these people. Many times they have been separated from their families and no one knows what happens”
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
