Deportation fears prompt Sunday Mass dispensation in US

Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino issued the decree on July 8, joining the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, in dispensing Catholics from the obligation. Such dispensations occur on special occasions and circumstances, such as the global pandemic, but this marks a rare occasion where US government enforcement actions have resulted in such a move.

In January 2025, the US Department of Homeland Security removed places of worship from its sensitive locations list, allowing agents to carry out immigration enforcement procedures. 

Following a lawsuit from a group of 27 religious organisations, a block was imposed in March on deportations in places of worship. However, a federal judge in April found these organisations had no legal standing, thereby allowing operations to continue.

Since June, federal agents have arrested about 2800 undocumented immigrants, according to Department of Homeland Security figures released to The Los Angeles Times.

Bishop Rojas’ decree comes two weeks after federal agents detained migrants on two church properties in parishes in his diocese. Those dispensed from Mass obligations are “encouraged to maintain their spiritual communion with Christ and his Church through acts of personal prayer”.

San Bernardino Diocese has collaborated with local immigrant rights organisations and held workshops in its parishes and online to help parishioners understand how to respond if they encounter an immigration agent. The deportation campaign has reportedly affected Mass attendance in the diocese, with attendance down about 50 per cent since the raids started.

President Donald Trump’s policy of mass deportation has terrified many immigrant populations, including many in the country legally.

“This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes,” Archbishop José Gomez of the Los Angeles Archdiocese wrote in a recent column.

Archbishop Gomez, a Mexican immigrant himself, has long supported immigration reform, but he has become more openly critical of the Trump administration, condemning the raids, as deportation tactics have escalated.

FULL STORY

California bishops scramble to tend to Catholics feeling ‘hunted’ by ICE agents (By Molly Castle Work/National Catholic Reporter)

San Bernardino diocese grants Sunday Mass dispensation to those fearing deportation (Catholic News Agency)