Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 10, 2025 / 17:55 pm (CNA).
Bishop Alberto Rojas of the diocese of San Bernardino, California, has granted a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for those within the diocese who fear deportation.
The bishop said all of the faithful within the diocese who possess “genuine fear” of arrest while attending Mass are dispensed from the obligation until further notice, and are “encouraged to maintain their spiritual communion with Christ and His Church through acts of personal prayer.”
In a July 8 statement, Rojas said the decision to grant the dispensation came after he recognized that “fear of immigration enforcement raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may deter some members of our diocese from fulfilling the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.”
According to John Andrews, the director of communications for the diocese, attendance for Spanish language Masses across the diocese has been “down about 50 percent,” since around the time raids began in Southern California last month.
Andrews told CNA the diocese is aware of two recent instances of ICE enforcement actions on church properties, with both taking place on June 20.
One of the instances, he said, occurred at St. Adelaide Church in Highland and “involved several men who had been working in the neighborhood where the church is located.” The men were chased into the church parking lot and detained, according to Andrews, who said “we do not know whether these men were actually arrested.”
The second instance occurred at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Montclair, and “involved the apprehension and arrest of one man who was on parish property to do landscaping work,” Andrews told CNA, adding: “He and his family are longtime parishioners there and we know that he was arrested and ultimately sent to a detention facility in Texas.”
“There is real fear gripping many in our parish communities,” said Rojas in a separate statement to CNA. “I want our immigrant communities to know that their Church stands with them and walks with them through this trying time.”
A bishop is enabled under the Code of Canon Law to provide dispensations for the faithful under his care “whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good.”
“I know that they would be in church if not for this threat to their safety and their family unity,” the bishop added. “With all the worry and anxiety that they are feeling, I wanted to take away, for a time, the burden they may be feeling from not being able to fulfill this commitment to which our Catholic faithful are called.”
In the July 8 announcement, which was also signed by Vicar General Msgr. Gerard López, Rojas stipulated that priests within the diocese must seek ways to provide support to those affected, and that parishes must also “explore alternative means of catechesis and sacramental preparation for those unable to attend regularly.”
“In issuing this decree, I am guided by the Church’s mission to care for the spiritual welfare of all entrusted to my care, particularly those who face fear or hardship,” the bishop declared.
This past May, the Diocese of Nashville also granted a Sunday Mass dispensation to “those in our diocese [who] are concerned about the possibility of being confronted or detained while attending Mass or other parish events.”
ICE: agency ‘does not indiscriminately take enforcement actions’ at churches
An ICE spokesperson told CNA, “While ICE is not subject to previous restrictions on immigration operations at sensitive locations, to include schools, churches and courthouses, ICE does not indiscriminately take enforcement actions at these locations.”
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” the spokesperson noted, adding: “All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removed from the United States.”
In January 2025, the Department of Homeland Security removed places of worship from its sensitive locations list, allowing ICE agents to carry out immigration enforcement procedures.
Following a lawsuit from a group of 27 religious organizations, ICE was temporarily blocked in March from carrying out deportations in places of worship. However, a federal judge in April found the organizations did not have legal standing, thereby allowing operations to continue.
In an interview with CNA last week, Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and current fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, expressed doubt that ICE would carry out extensive raids in Catholic churches.
He noted that while it’s possible a dangerous criminal could be targeted for enforcement at a church, “it’s not like they’re going to sweep through Sunday Mass looking for people.”
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Totally misguided and wrong action by the bishop. Fear of the law being rightly enforced against you does not excuse you from Mass attendance. Those who are hiding from ICE are guilty of being in the country illegally; they are guilty of violating immigration law. How is that possibly understood as an excuse not to attend Mass? The bishop is pandering. The bishop would not excuse people who are guilty of other crimes from Mass attendance because they didn’t want to venture outside their homes lest law enforcement apprehend them.
Let’s get this straight: is the bishop condoning violating immigration laws? He seems to think it’s wrong for law enforcement to apprehend and prosecute for immigration crimes. I have no respect for any bishop who cannot bring himself to use the word “illegal” in conjunction with “immigration” or “alien”. This bishop is an example of such.
The bishop is emoting about “standing with immigrant communities” without acknowledging that illegal aliens have brought this on themselves by attempting to evade immigration laws and/or not regularizing their legal residency, thinking that the law does not apply to them.
I voted for this enforcement. I voted for Trump. These actions by ICE are exactly what I voted for. Illegal aliens have their willful violations of immigration law and the Democrat Party’s open border, sanctuary city, and lax enforcement policies to blame. It’s now time to face reality under a law and order administration.
What a bunch of political horse manure. Bishop Rojas ought to be ashamed of himself.
As if criminals, gang members, and cartel guys are going to be at Mass on Sundays.
With guys like Bishop Rojas leading our dioceses, no wonder weekly Mass attendance is at an all time low.
These bishops used to be laughable. They’re no longer even funny. Pitiable, yes; funny, no.
The bishop bespeaks a “Covid-Stay-at-Home” mentality.
Let us pray: O Lord, give us worthy shepherds.
How ironic (but very understandable given the nature of our fallen nature) that the very ones who championed “religious freedom “ are at the same time selectively denying it. Oh what fools we mortals be.
Whether the Bishop agrees or not, these individuals are being arrested for an illegal act – illegal entry into this country. He clearly disagrees and is free to make his case as vigorously as he chooses, but facilitation of illegality crosses the line, and in itself becomes illegal, and this also clearly is his intention.
Too mush haste leads to overstep and I think this is not good. Illegals have a lot of useful background information that would stabilize law enforcement and show better who among them could be legitimized the more easily and quickly. The authorities have to go on trust with the legal interlocutors/intermediations; and anyway in this process will learn even more.
Two contrasting movies might bear out some of the issues.
In The Lineup with Eli Wallach, you see well-organized crime chasing a lucrative criminal trade mixed into legitimate trade and travel; smuggling needing in-depth and committed long-term investigation to uncover what is deeply hidden, a lot of it out of reach. The detective/police work is hard-nosed, matter-of-fact and relentless.
In Border Blues with Gary Busey, you have multiple disparate intersecting character lines involved in more or less innocent pursuit incidentally complicating the search for a serial bomber. Some of the detective/police work is a bit fly-by-night for which L.A. got a notoriety; albeit everyone is on board, consistent and persistent.
Please note Border Blues is a basically “clean” movie as I saw it on YOUTUBE with an instance of verbal profanity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lineup_(film)
https://www.thefilmcatalogue.com/films/border-blues
The bishop quotes canon law having to do with “Spiritual Goods” but actually seems to be dispensing them from the Sunday Mass obligation for their temporal good of not being arrested for the crime of being in the United States illegally.
What part about they are here illegally, against the law, does this Bishop not understand.