Rows of bunk beds line the interior of the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in the Florida Everglades, a repurposed training center now designated for holding immigrants. President Donald Trump appears in the background during a July 1, 2025, visit to the site. / Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 4, 2025 / 13:52 pm (CNA).
As part of a new Catholic ministry, the Archdiocese of Miami celebrated its first Mass at the Florida detention center for unauthorized immigrants known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“I am pleased that our request to provide for the pastoral care of the detainees has been accommodated,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski said in an Aug. 3 statement. “Also, we were able to respond to a request to provide similar service to the staff who reside at the facility.”
In a July interview with “EWTN News In Depth,” Wenski said his “greatest concern” was the “health and care of the people that are being detained” at Alligator Alcatraz. He and other advocates were calling for “a minimum of standards” and said that “one of those standards should be access to pastoral care.”
At the time, Wenski explained his archdiocese was having difficulty arranging Masses and spiritual care for the immigrants being held because the Florida state government and the federal government were “arguing among themselves who is accountable” for the detention center.
After months of discussions between Florida bishops, archdiocesan leadership, and state correctional authorities, an agreement was finally reached. Chaplains and pastoral ministers from the Archdiocese of Miami will have “full access” to the facility to offer liturgical Masses for detainees and staff.
The first Mass was held on Aug. 2 and is just the start of the regular liturgical celebrations expected at the center. The archdiocese reported that it will continue the ministry “following the facility’s guidelines and the pastoral availability of our clergy.”
The archdiocese plans “to have a successful and consistent Catholic presence at Alligator Alcatraz that will depend on effective ordination and coordination.” The goal is to “ensure a stable schedule of sacramental care and pastoral ministry that meets the spiritual needs of both attendees and staff, with the support of clergy and committed lay volunteers.”
“The Church has ‘no borders,’ for we all are members of one human family,” Wenski said. “Our ‘agenda’ was always to announce the ‘good news’ to the poor.”
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Catholic Land Movement co-founders Andrew Ewell (top left) and Michael Guidice (top right), pictured here on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Andrew Ewell
Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dec 30, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Going b… […]
A Catholic cathedral in California was defaced overnight, with swastikas, an upside-down cross, and other messages spray-painted on the church’s doors and entryways.
Religious sisters of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, sing as the process with the body of their late foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, on May 29, 2023, at their abbey near Gower, Missouri. The sisters exhumed the nun’s body on May 18 and discovered that it was apparently intact, four years after her death and burial in a simple wooden coffin. / Joe Bukuras/CNA
Gower, Missouri, May 29, 2023 / 20:02 pm (CNA).
The body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, an African American nun whose surprisingly intact remains have created a sensation at a remote Missouri abbey, was placed inside a glass display case Monday after a solemn procession led by members of the community she founded.
About 5 p.m., dozens of religious sisters of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, carried their foundress on a platform around the property of the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus, reciting the rosary and singing hymns. Some of the thousands of pilgrims who visited the abbey over the three-day Memorial Day weekend followed behind.
Beautiful procession of the remains of Sr. Wilhelmina Lancaster, a Benedictine nun who died in 2019 and now appears to be in an unexpected state of preservation. Her new resting place is inside the church at the sisters’ monastery in Gower, MO. pic.twitter.com/Ax9uYPKXYv
The procession, held in bright, late-afternoon sunshine, culminated inside the abbey’s church, where the nun’s body was placed into a specially made glass case. Flowers surrounded her body and decorated the top of the case, where there is an image of St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus. The church was filled with pilgrims, including many priests and religious sisters from other orders.
Sister Wilhelmina, who founded the Benedictine order in 1995 when she was 70 years old, died in 2019. Expecting to find only bones, her fellow sisters exhumed her remains on May 18 intending to reinter them in a newly completed St. Joseph’s Shrine, only to discover that her body appeared astonishingly well-preserved.
The sisters say they intended to keep their discovery quiet, but the news got out anyway, prompting worldwide media coverage and a flood of pilgrims arriving at the abbey in Gower, a city of 1,500 residents about an hour’s drive from Kansas City, Missouri. A volunteer told CNA that more than 1,000 vehicles came onto the property on Monday but no official count was available.
There has been no official declaration that Sister Wilhelmina’s remains are “incorrupt,” a possible sign of sanctity, nor is there a formal cause underway for her canonization, a rigorous process that can take many years. The local ordinary, Bishop Vann Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, has said that a “thorough investigation” is needed to answer “important questions” raised by the state of her body, but there has been no word on if or when such an analysis will take place.
Sister Wilhelmina’s body was reinterred in a glass display case inside the church of the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus in Gower, Missouri, on May 29, 2023. Joe Bukuras/CNA
Before Monday’s procession, pilgrims again waited in line throughout the day for an opportunity to see and touch Sister Wilhelmina’s body before its placement in the glass case, where it will remain accessible for public viewing.
Among those who came on Monday were Tonya and William Kattner, of Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
“You’ve got to experience the magic and the miracle of it,” Tonya Kattner said.
“It’s a modern-day miracle and it was just something we had to come to,” William Kattner said. “Especially with everything going on in the world today, something like this brings hope.”
Kate and Peteh Jalloh of Kansas City, Missouri, said it was a “blessing” to view the apparently well-preserved body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster at her abbey in Gower, Missouri, on May 29, 2023. Joe Bukuras/CNA
Kate and Peteh Jalloh, of Kansas City, Missouri, also didn’t want to pass up the chance to see Sister Wilhelmina.
“I strongly believe in the Catholic faith. I believe in miracles and I have never seen anything like this before. I’ve got a lot going on in my life and this is the best time to get that message from a nun,” Kate Jalloh said.
“It could take another hundred years for us to see something like this,” she added.
Janie Bruck came with her cousins, Kristy Cook and Halle Cook, all from Omaha, Nebraska.
“I came to witness the miracle. I believe we’re in a Jesus revolution and he’s sending us lots of signs,” Bruck said. Kristy Cook, a former Omaha police officer, said she was surprised that Sister Wilhelmina’s body had no odor of decay.
The body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB, lies in the basement of the church of the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus outside Gower, Missouri, on May 28, 2023. Joe Bukuras/CNA
The sisters have publicly thanked the many local law enforcement officers, medical personnel, and volunteers who helped manage the influx of pilgrims over the holiday weekend.
Among the volunteers was Lucas Boddicker, of Kearney, Missouri, who joined members of his Knights of Columbus council based at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in nearby Plattsburgh, Missouri, to guide visiting vehicles to a makeshift parking lot in an open field. Other knights from local parishes helped set up tents and handed out free hamburgers, fruit, and bottles of water.
“That’s one thing the Knights do pretty well,” Boddicker said. “They get the word out when we need manpower.”
Priests heard confessions in a large grass field for hours, some using trees for shade, as young children played on the abbey grounds.
Three religious sisters from the Poor of Jesus Christ order, based in Kansas City, Kansas, said they were inspired by seeing Sister Wilhelmina’s body.
One of the religious, Sister Azucena, said she “wanted to cry,” while praying at the nun’s side. “I just had this feeling of peace and love. We share a vocation. Her fidelity to the Lord and her love, I could feel that there,” she said.
Jason and Jessica Ewell were excited to coincidentally be in town visiting Trish Bachicha (far right) when they heard about the discovery of Sister Wilhelmina’s surprisingly intact remains. Joe Bukuras/CNA
A married couple, Jason and Jessica Ewell, both of whom are blind, were visiting Kansas City, Missouri, from Pennsylvania when they heard Monday morning about Sister Wilhelmina’s body.
“It’s just kind of a neat thing to be a part of the beginning of this story,” Jessica Ewell said.
“I was asking for her intercession for children for our marriage,” she said. “A lot of people think ‘Oh, it’s the blindness,’ but no, it’s not that at all,’” she said.
“Yesterday I was kind of in a place where I said, ‘God, I need something right now,’” she said. “We always hear about these miracles. But they’re long ago and far away and always happen to other people.”
Trish Bachicha, Jessica’s mother, said she believes that God is sending a message.
“He saying ‘I’m alive and well and I haven’t forgotten you,’” she said.
I’m guessing the folks detained in Florida are more hard-core law breakers but I’d like to see their US enablers and money launderers get some religion too.
I actually don’t know another name besides Alligator Alcratraz.
Perhaps liturgical was meant to distinguish between a Communion Service and a Mass?
Unless one visits US correctional facilities and talks to inmates it’s harder to understand how difficult it’s been for incarcerated Catholics to receive the Sacraments since Covid. Our local jail still only allows video visitation which is really sad.
Other facilities really do try to bring faith based activities and clergy to the inmates. So it varies.
I’m glad the Florida detainees are getting the spiritual benefits they need now.
From the article:
*
“The Church has ‘no borders,’ for we all are members of one human family,”
*
But the American bishops have a nearly insatiable appetite for the tax dollars of the USA nation state and dumping immigrants on USA communities without considering the strains that this puts on what can be already strained community social welfare resources. It’s easy to talk when someone else is footing the bill for their largess.
GregB: Precisely. Let the bishops foot the entire cost of supporting illegals and soon they’ll show their true colors. Talk is cheap when you’re spending other people’s money. Let’s remember: No bishop works for his living. All the money at his disposal – salary and otherwise – comes from contributions to the Church made by people who DO work for their living. If they don’t work, they don’t eat.
Further to Mrs. Crackers’ comment above (5:32 a.m.) –
It seems the correct name is Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. Not as catchy as Alligator Alcatraz, granted, but not quite as inflammatory.
Unless I am mistaken, a Mass is by definition liturgical. I suppose a Communion service might be liturgical but it is not a Mass.
I agree that the detainees’ religious rights need to be respected.
Nice to see these lawbreakers getting religion.
I’m guessing the folks detained in Florida are more hard-core law breakers but I’d like to see their US enablers and money launderers get some religion too.
mrscracker: ain’t that the truth. At least with the criminals in jail there is no pretense of having lived a virtuous life.
What is the proper name of this detention centre?
What is a liturgical Mass?
I actually don’t know another name besides Alligator Alcratraz.
Perhaps liturgical was meant to distinguish between a Communion Service and a Mass?
Unless one visits US correctional facilities and talks to inmates it’s harder to understand how difficult it’s been for incarcerated Catholics to receive the Sacraments since Covid. Our local jail still only allows video visitation which is really sad.
Other facilities really do try to bring faith based activities and clergy to the inmates. So it varies.
I’m glad the Florida detainees are getting the spiritual benefits they need now.
From the article:
*
“The Church has ‘no borders,’ for we all are members of one human family,”
*
But the American bishops have a nearly insatiable appetite for the tax dollars of the USA nation state and dumping immigrants on USA communities without considering the strains that this puts on what can be already strained community social welfare resources. It’s easy to talk when someone else is footing the bill for their largess.
GregB: Precisely. Let the bishops foot the entire cost of supporting illegals and soon they’ll show their true colors. Talk is cheap when you’re spending other people’s money. Let’s remember: No bishop works for his living. All the money at his disposal – salary and otherwise – comes from contributions to the Church made by people who DO work for their living. If they don’t work, they don’t eat.
Further to Mrs. Crackers’ comment above (5:32 a.m.) –
It seems the correct name is Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. Not as catchy as Alligator Alcatraz, granted, but not quite as inflammatory.
Unless I am mistaken, a Mass is by definition liturgical. I suppose a Communion service might be liturgical but it is not a Mass.
I agree that the detainees’ religious rights need to be respected.
Thank you for sharing that info Miss Cleo.