A delegation of clergy, religious sisters and laity, together with a Chicago auxiliary bishop, were barred for the second time in three weeks from bringing the Eucharist to those being held at an immigration detention center just west of Chicago on the feast of All Saints Nov. 1.
Under a blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds, they walked, with sacred vessels containing the Eucharist in hand, along a path formed by human chains on either side. They walked as a small representative group from a Mass attended by hundreds of people and celebrated in the parking lot of a building next door to the Broadview Processing Center, a brown brick building with boarded up windows. On the street, they met an Illinois State Police trooper who called Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel inside the facility.
Moments later, the trooper gave them the news from ICE. Their answer was, “No.”
“With no additional reasons given over the phone,” according to Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, who spoke with the trooper after ICE personnel hung up. He is the executive director of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a Catholic and Christian-rooted social justice group, which organized the Mass for All Saints Day.
Dominican Sister Christin Tomy said it was not unexpected, but she also experienced the disappointment of being turned away once again.
“This time, I felt a lot of grief,” Sister Christin, 37, told OSV News after the Mass. “Of course, we were praying and hoping that we might be allowed to enter the facility and distribute Communion and when we weren’t, I really was just heartbroken – and I think we all were, for the way that the body of Christ was being ripped apart.”
Okinczyc-Cruz said CSPL sent two formal letters requesting entry. He said the group was told “previously in an email” from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security that they would not allow any delegation to enter for “safety and security reasons and because of the transitory nature of the facility and we’ve repeatedly asked them peacefully for reconsideration.”
The facility in the suburb of Broadview, Illinois, about 12.5 miles west of Chicago, has been a flashpoint of tense confrontations between protesters and federal law enforcement since mid-September. That was when the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” ramped up arrests of migrants in the Chicago area who do not have legal authorization to live in the United States. It is also the location for a weekly rosary where religious sisters, priests and laypeople have gathered for nearly two decades.
Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado celebrated the Mass along with more than a dozen other priests. An immigrant himself from Jalisco, Mexico, the bishop told the faithful in his homily that nowadays – because of the color of his skin and speaking his native Spanish – he too could be picked up by federal agents.
He reminded the faithful in Spanish that Jesus was present “with his loving gaze and mercy” and that all of those at the Mass – nearly 2,000 people, including 50 priests, religious sisters and seminarians, according to organizers – were “hungering for justice.”
“And our detained brothers and sisters also have a hunger, not just for bread and water for the body, but for their dignity as human beings to be recognized,” said Bishop Garcia-Maldonado.
He led the delegation carrying the Eucharist, which Catholics believe to be the Lord Jesus Christ truly present in his body, blood, soul and divinity. After being told he could not give the detained migrants holy Communion, the bishop and the small group with him turned back with the Eucharist and returned to the altar.
Once there, a delegate, 91-year-old Sister JoAnn Persch, a Sister of Mercy who has been going to the Broadview location to pray weekly – and until the pandemic, could enter to give pastoral care to detainees – announced they were not allowed to enter.
A long silence fell on the crowd, as dozens cried softly, wiping away tears and sniffles.
Maria Reynaga, who hails from the nearby Glendale Heights suburb, wept during the minutes-long pause. After the Mass, she told OSV News she felt for the people who were denied holy Communion.
“It was just that it was so unfair,” she said. “Not fair. It’s like, what part of the history is this, you know? What are we doing?”
Reynaga said she personally did not have any loved ones in the detention center, but she said she knows “many undocumented people,” including parents whose children are afraid to go to school and participate in activities there. Reynaga added that, in recent weeks, she has seen very few children when she takes her granddaughter to school and around the neighborhood.
She said that throughout the Mass she was concerned for those in the facility.
“All I thought about is: ‘How are they doing? Are they listening? Are they hearing the Mass? Do they know that we do care? Are they OK? Are their families OK? Are there any kids by themselves, without their parents?’” she said.
Okinczyc-Cruz said CSPL is planning future activities for the migrants at the Broadview detention center.
“Now, in this moment where so many of our fellow people of faith, our sisters and brothers are in desperate need. Communion is one of the signs of hope that we can offer them,” he said.
Eighty percent of those at risk of Trump’s mass deportation effort across the country are Christian, with the largest proportion – 61 percent – being Catholic, according to a joint Catholic-Evangelical report published by World Relief. The report found one in six Catholics (18 percent) are either vulnerable to deportation or live with someone who is.
After the Mass, Bishop Garcia-Maldonado, 46, told OSV News that there was consolation for those detained Catholics.
“Wherever our brothers and sisters are, Jesus wants to be. And not only through me but through the representation and the faith and the kindness of every single person coming this morning, is Jesus coming to our brothers and sisters to let (those detained) know, ‘You are not alone,’” he said.
As for not being able to give the Eucharist, “it is obviously sad,” Bishop Garcia-Maldonado said.
“This is not the end: You know, in the Way of the Cross, when Jesus went to Calvary. Three times, he fell down under the heavy cross. But we learned from him, even in the very challenging times, to ‘Hey, get up! Keep walking,’” the bishop said. “So, my reaction is, in the midst of everything, we remain faithful, and we have hoped that sooner or later, we will be able to get it to more brothers and sisters.”
