Two days ago, on Saturday, October 12th:
A delegation of Catholic priests, nuns and lay leaders were among hundreds of people from Chicago and the suburbs who marched from Maywood to Broadview Saturday in hopes of delivering Holy Communion to detainees at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility.
The Chicago Sun-Times further reports that “after approaching Illinois State Police officers standing outside the facility, the group’s communion request was rebuffed.”
There has now been much debate and criticism on social media about this “Eucharistic procession”.
Here are some observations, many or all overlooked by secular outlets:
• Access to detention and restricted government facilities is not “on-demand.” Priests know this. Chaplains know that they need to make prior arrangements to enter such places.
• If, as they allege, priests were denied access to illegal immigrants detained in that Illinois facility through normal processes, what did they expect this act to do? There are procedures to address that denial, including litigation. They cannot have imagined they would be admitted in this fashion, which makes this a case of using the Eucharist as a protest stunt.
• Further evidence why this is a protest stunt and not a serious liturgical action is that, even in Catholic countries where displays of faith in the public square were commonplace, priests brought the Eucharist to those in need (e.g., the sick) in a concealed pyx, often preceded by an altar boy with a candle, not an open monstrance processing through the streets.
• Public processions of the Eucharist in a monstrance through the streets were usually reserved for Corpus Christi, a phenomenon that went into eclipse in the United States in the late 1960s and only lately revived by more tradition-minded priests.
• Public processions of the Eucharist in a monstrance are connected to adoration of the Eucharist, not distribution of Communion.
• The revised “Rite for Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass,” which came into effect in 2024, does not envision distribution of the Eucharist outside Mass alongside roadsides and apart from a liturgical service normally in a liturgical setting (i.e., a church).
• Many of the liturgists commenting on that revised Rite have opined that the disconnect of “Communion services” from Mass is inappropriate, and so we should even consider denying Catholics gathered in churches Communion from the reserved sacrament absent celebration of the Eucharist.
• Today’s priests rarely distribute Communion outside of Mass except in exigent circumstances to reinforce the liturgical connection of Communion and to avoid recollection of the “bad old days” before Vatican II, when priests distributed Communion to the faithful independently of Mass.
• When public processions of the Eucharist were organized throughout the United States in 2024 en route to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, the Archdiocese of Chicago, ironically, was one of the few that objected to such public displays of Eucharistic faith.
• When the Catholic bishops of the United States were asked to address the Eucharistic incoherence of providing the Bread of Life to Culture of Death politicians who were baptized Catholics, the Archbishop of Chicago was among those who claimed such behavior “weaponized” and “politicized” the Eucharist. Since this procession did not result in admission to the Maywood ICE facility nor had any reasonable expectation it would, did this act not constitute a “weaponization” of the Eucharist in pursuit of a “political” end?
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Our Catholic Church is going to Hell in a Handbasket. It all starts at the top, trickles down through heterodox, feminized and homosexual bishops and bishops who remain silent in the face of evil. It then trickles down through the presbyteral clergy who mimic the same personal traits, attitudes and beliefs as the bishops. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ since our clergy have turned their back on Him. We can now fully comprehend how alone and abandoned Christ felt on the cross.
Don’t write them all off. We still have MANY,good, holy, hard working clergy.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are good and holy priests. But far too many clergy are exactly as I describe them – either living sinful lives or else complicit with their sin by their silence.
Ridiculous.
With friends like these . . .
Once again the tenets of the Catholic faith are subordinated to the quest for political power by the left.
The concern of these protesters was not the Eucharist at all. It was to use the Eucharist to try and make the federal authorities look bad.
And so these people in Chicago are actually desecrating our Lord’s Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
Some things never change.
Shame on those pulling this political stunt with the Body of Christ! They need to repent.
This time a case of the left using a wrong means intended to a good end. Shame on them!
No, it’s not a “good end”. Cut the nonsense.
I used to work in the fiscal end of a correction facility. There are policies and procedures that are promulgated and enacted that are the product of hard experience dealing with inmates/detainees that the general public wouldn’t begin to imagine/appreciate/understand. These policies and procedures protect the public/the staff AND the inmates/detainees.
There was a facility I went to once that housed a former high school class and teammate who was a “lifer” after torturing and killing a counterparty in a drug deal. He was moved out of my sight even though we hadn’t had contact for a couple decades. The reason was incidental sightings of pre-incarceration acquaintances is known to prove inmates, especially when that individual is a violent sociopath whose impulses are so uncontrolled he was in single occupancy housing.
In the system I worked in, there was a professional Chaplaincy staff that went through a six week training for “contact” (with inmates) and scheduled and supervised the folks that were engaged in prison ministry. NOBODY just “showed up” and inmates were limited in the number of services they could attend, because EXPERIENCE showed that the ones that always wanted to go to multiple services were using them as a place to exchange information and contraband-including improvised weapons aka “shanks”.
These people are apparently ignorant of these sorts of things, or they think their need for sanctimonious moral preening overrides the good order and discipline of the facility.
I know this would come as a shock to Cupich and his fellow travelers, but there are things other than happily sweating out the annual indignity of the 1040 involved in render to Caesar.
The neophiliac exhibitionism of Francis trying to prove superior compassion has had and will continue to have a long-lasting effect. Inspiration for actual ideologues from the pope who, without irony, disparaged those loyal to the faith as ideologues.
The AD-of-Chicago-Archbishop-and-Clergy just profaned the Holy Eucharist, using it as their stage prop to demonstrate their devotion to the-only-god-they-serve: their political ideology.
“…although they knew God, they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened….” (St. Paul to the Romans, Ch 1)
“Their minds were darkened.”
It’s been a while since the word ‘stunt’ was used to describe such actions, but in my opinion it is fitting in this case.
Which of course begs the question – did the ‘detainees’ request that the Eucharist be brought to them?
One more question – did Cardinal Cupich have prior knowledge of this?
I was born and raised in the Prairie State, in a small city near Chicago.
Illinois is a political disaster, run by liberal Democrats (not just “Democrats”) who have taxed Illinoisians to the point where many folks have moved away from the state–and many who aren’t able to move wish they could!
Five of the state’s governors have been sent to prison in my lifetime (I’m 68!)–talk about corrupt!
What’s sad is that the state elections for governor are decided not by the entire state, but by the City of Chicago and all the lifelong Democrats who still remember all the good that Pres. Franklin Roosevelt did during The Great Depression and cite the Democratic Party’s “care for the poor and disenfranchised” as their reason for continuing to vote Democratic–personally, I don’t think allowing the poor to abort their children is “care”–it’s “extermination.”
The other city that always votes Democratic is Champaign-Urbana, the location of University of Illinois and 40,000 naive students, along with the liberal professors and administrators of the university.
During elections, EVERY other county in the state except for City of Chicago and a few of the wealthiest suburbs and except for the city of Champaign-Urbana, votes Democratic. These two areas of Illinois have enough population to override ALL THE OTHER COUNTIES in the state who generally vote Republican.
Many of the communities in these counties consist of tiny towns with only a few hundred people, mainly rural, church-going farm families. All of these little towns combined along with the smaller industrial cities like Peoria (many of which are suffering increased poverty due to the closing down of the industries and the incredibly high taxes and prices in Illinois, especially gasoline) cannot muster enough votes to defeat Chicago and Champaign-Urbana!
A while back, there was a rather humorous, but secretly serious, campaign to “give Chicago to another state that it borders”–but none of these states wanted Chicago!
I love the Prairie State, but…I’m glad I now live in a pro-life state that has a fairly-good balance between Democratic and Republican parties and office holders. Anytime a party dominates, there is bound to be corruption and a “royalty complex” that results in questionable or just plain evil policies like open abortion.
No, what I saw from the news piece was that earlier in the day, the normal process of visiting the detained, had been prohibited.
Next, they then took the Eucharist along with their open protestation which actions had the incidental result of troopers in real time conveying questions from them and returning answers answers to them, absolutely proving what they had claimed had happened.
Even if you have a day & time reserved to visit an inmate at a correctional facility that can be canceled if there’s a general lockdown or an infraction of the rules occurs.
Visits are not something guaranteed.
The Eucharist is not a protest prop.
In 452 A.D. Pope Leo the Great marched out from Rome to the Mincio River to meet Attila the Hun, and to successfully jawbone him into not sacking Rome. Leo came in a procession led by a monstrance and the Real Presence. He was reasonably certain that a few of the barbarians were not behind his back wearing red hats.
In 1954 the Universal International film “Sign of the Pagan” starred Jack Palance as Attila. A spectacle not to be exceeded until the apparent theatrics in Chicago with street demonstrators posturing as Pope Leo the Great?
I doubt that monstrances existed in the Fifth Century.
As soon as they wished to make their “visit” a public spectacle, the facility staff will prudently suspend visitation.
The first priority of any facility is security, not acceding to some outside group’s disruptive sanctimony.
If you don’t understand how this works-and your implication of some sort caprice here shows that you do not, then don’t engage in rash judgement.
God help us our bishops are jokes.
Father James Altman, Formerly of James the Less parish in Lacrosse WI said in August of 2020, “you cannot be a Catholic and a Democrat, period”. He was removed from active ministry in July of 2021 by Bishop Callahan of Lacrosse.Every day it becomes more difficult to find the faith in the Catholic Church. Our mass has degraded to a JR High Musical with leftover opera singers and out of tune musicians caterwauling the people’s responses to the mass.
“Access to detention and restricted government facilities is not “on-demand.” Priests know this. Chaplains know that they need to make prior arrangements to enter such places.”
******
Exactly.
Do these folks understand how difficult it can be for incarcerated US citizens to receive the Sacraments? It’s never “on demand”. You have to set up everything in advance & go through a security screening process to be eligible to visit those in prison. Then you have to reserve a visitation date & time through the Dept. of Correction’s system.
For goodness sake…
Mrs. Whitlock above (6:11 a.m.) – I appreciate your explanations of Illinois politics (naive Canadian here).
4th last para. – I suspect you mean every other county votes Republican.
Thanks, Cleo! Typo! Trying to rush out the door for a dentist appointment!
Stuntman in pectore Archbishop of Chicago Cdl Cupich may have wanted to be a stuntman as a boy but decided instead to be Church, as is now said, a noble profession that allows for multiple forms of communication. One is a mime. What Marcel Marceau called the art of silence.
We’ve seen this artform recently when the Cardinal sought to award his protege Senator Dick Durbin for his outstanding witness [one wonders to whom]. There was outrage among the faithful, Pope Leo came to the rescue with a certain dash announcing there’s more than one way to witness to Christ. Witness to the plight of the poor, exemplified in the wounded migrant. Despite Durbin’s somewhat fanatical opposition to the right to life of the infant. Outside the womb as well as out.
During the verbal melee His eminence remained silent on that score, the right to life issue. Although His Holiness is also somewhat of a mime on the issue.
More Kabuki theater from leftist priests. One cannot just walk into a detainee facility on demand, even under the pretense of offering spiritual counsel. How about offering the sacrament of penance instead of the eucharist? That would be more fitting and appropriate given the fact that those who are being detained have violated federal law.
When will the Catholic clergy emerge from the sixties?
When the last one who lived in the 1960’s turns off the lights.
🙂
(Maybe the 1970’s also.)
80’s too, sadly
Yes, Mrs. Hess that can apply, too but I think things began to take a turn for the better in the 1980’s. At least that was my experience.
Not likely ever. The silly sixties established patterns of phoniness that have become enculturated. Minds devoid of moral principles and religious faith, even if they be prelates, take refuge in symbolism, much like hippies. This is all they have to isolate themselves from facing their faithlessness or unwillingness for the actual sacrifice necessary for corporal works of mercy.
Thank You for this article as I was shocked and appalled after reading the Jesuit magazine America and made me wonder about my Catholic faith if my Church behaves in such a manner. At least the National Catholic Report made me realize there are Catholics out there with common sense.
To Byron: “At least the National Catholic Report made me realize there are Catholics out there with common sense.”
Hoping the above was a mistake. There is this Catholic World Report and the National Catholic Register. Both are solid Catholic publications. The other NCR is National ‘Catholic’ Reporter (scare marks mine) …not so
Onward Christian soldiers. Reviewing again Grondelski’s expose of the march of the tin soldiers into battle with ICE. His Excellency revealed a mime, a stuntman, a theatrical impresario.
Forward boys, hold our Lord on High [regardless of the insult to Our Lord being used for fakery] into the teeth of the enemy. Damn the rubber bullets, saltball shots. We’re making a statement that will ingratiate His Holiness. Never mind that our effort is pure show, that we cannot be admitted by forceful entry to, to do what? Feed downtrodden migrants? No. Rather to demonstrate that Christ’s presbyter servants can readily submit themselves to stoogery.
On a more serious plane it does seem an egregious insult to the Real Presence of Christ to be used for a political self-ingratiating statement.
Fr. Peter: Brilliantly said!
Honestly can’t tell, from where I am, who in there shouldn’t receive the sacraments or if considering Cupich in an equation is the way to find that. The authorities got a letter on it by Eucharist -as it went; but now the diocese has to get in and do the ordinary lodging of complaint and demanding explanation.
I wonder how many of these bishops, priests and lay people take
Communion to nursing homes and hospitals.
They all do. Every Catholic parish has a Ministry of Care team that brings Holy Communion to the sick.
As one who regularly takes Communion to the hospitalized and homebound since they cannot come to church, seems like many of these comments are much ado about nothing. The formality is minimal. Taking Christ to those confined would be a great comfort to believers.
You are describing a different situation. I assume you are part of a parish group that takes the Eucharist to homebound parishioners and patients at a nearby hospital. All of that is normally arranged and scheduled in advance, which minimizes the formality. For the hospital, there’s probably also a staff member that coordinates these visits, and over time, the parish develops a relationship with the hospital staff.
What this group did was entirely different. They made no prior arrangements and just showed up as a group. They would not have been admitted to any secure federal installation under those conditions, let alone a federal detention center that has tougher security requirements. (You can’t even get into many federal buildings without security screening and sometimes a scheduled apppointment.)
Does the Illinois law being cited apply to ICE detention facilities?
The law they are citing refers to facilities in the Department of Corrections not Homeland Security. If there is no equivalent law for ICE detention facilities, well, it now is coming to light. It would have to be addressed on those terms.
But from what I can tell they knew beforehand they would get denied entry and they made cause to have it come into the open in a way they consider emphatic.
Actually they should be given the reason for denial not just the decision.
There is a big melee going on outside that Broadview facility, what LIFESITE reported on is a small part. It’s not just to do with Catholicism. The Catholics who feature in the Catholic news could actually have innocent intentions to do with letting those inside Catholic and non-Catholic know the extent of their commitment.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholic-priests-blocked-from-distributing-holy-communion-at-ice-facility-in-illinois/
https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chicago-news-crews-dismantle-fence-surrounding-broadview-facility-meet-judges-order/18010395/
I asked AI (Grok)
“how much money has the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops received from the federal government for immigrant resettlement since 2010”
Because money doesn’t talk, it screams bloody murder.
I would lose my license if I audited on a company’s financial statements if I received a penny. How much is the USCCB’s independence impaired by a BILLION dollars?
Year
Amount
Key Programs Funded (Examples)
2010
$69,377,785
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Cuban/Haitian Entrant Program
2011
$67,862,160
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Anti-Trafficking
2012
$65,768,244
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Cuban/Haitian Entrant Program
2013
$73,715,703
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Discretionary Grants
2014
$79,590,512
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Voluntary Agency Programs
2015
$80,733,062
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Cuban/Haitian Entrant Program
2016
$95,256,272
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Discretionary Grants
2017
$72,321,885
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Afghan/SIV Resettlement
2018
$48,482,684
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Anti-Trafficking
2019
$52,712,944
Refugee Admissions, Unaccompanied Children, Voluntary Agency Programs
2020
$47,811,795
Unaccompanied Children (surge due to border arrivals), Refugee Admissions
2021
$67,536,834
Unaccompanied Children, Afghan Resettlement (post-withdrawal surge)
2022
$122,574,428
Unaccompanied Children, Afghan/SIV, Refugee Admissions
2023 (latest available year)
$129,626,673
Unaccompanied Children, Refugee Admissions, Voluntary Agency Programs
Total (2010–2023)
$1,073,370,981
For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:10 (Douay Rheims)
–
Respectfully Mr Thompson, it’s an entirely different process at correctional or detention facilities.
If you Google your state department of corrections site online you can read about the process required for visitations.
Have these Chicago Catholics made the same procession and demnd for access attheir local publicly funded abortion clinics?