Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 10, 2025 /
17:55 pm
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.”
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
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.”
Madalaine Elhabbal is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency based at EWTN’s Washington, D.C., bureau.
