ICE Bars Catholic Bishop From Holding All Saints Day Mass For Detainees

A delegation of priests, nuns, and laity, including a Chicago auxiliary bishop, were barred for the second time in three weeks from bringing Communion to detainees at an immigration detention center outside Chicago. By the way, this took place on the Catholic feast of All Saints, Nov. 1. Imagine the sheer audacity of those self-important thugs. Via OSVNews:

Under a blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds, they walked, with sacred vessels containing the Eucharist in hand, along a path formed by human chains on either side. They walked as a small representative group from a Mass attended by hundreds of people and celebrated in the parking lot of a building next door to the Broadview Processing Center, a brown brick building with boarded up windows. On the street, they met an Illinois State Police trooper who called Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel inside the facility.

Moments later, the trooper gave them the news from ICE. Their answer was, “No.”

“With no additional reasons given over the phone,” according to Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, who spoke with the trooper after ICE personnel hung up. He is the executive director of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a Catholic and Christian-rooted social justice group, which organized the Mass for All Saints Day.

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