Pope defends ‘spiritual rights’ of detained migrants

Elliot Hartly • November 7, 2025

Pope Leo has urged US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to consider the “spiritual rights” of detained migrants after ICE agents refused entry to priests attempting to give Holy Communion to migrants during a Mass held outside an Illinois facility.

An estimated 2,000 people attended the Mass next to the Broadview ICE centre, according to the Chicago-based nonprofit Coalition for Spiritual & Public Leadership (CSPL), which organised the Mass on 1 November.

Speaking to reporters in Castel Gandolfo, the papal retreat outside of Rome, the Chicago-born Pope said: “I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of those people."

He added: “Many people who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what is going on right now.

“Many times, they’ve been separated from their families for an amount of time no one knows what’s happening, but their own spiritual needs should be attended to.

“Just a couple days ago we heard Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 25 [in which] Jesus says very clearly at the end of the world we’re going to be asked, ‘How did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?’, and I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening.”

A CSPL spokesperson said in a social media post: “We thank Pope Leo for raising this moral and spiritual scandal publicly and voicing his support that our sisters and brothers detained in Broadview deserve Holy Communion and pastoral care!”

Father David Inczauskis, SJ, a member of the CSPL Clergy Council who served as master of ceremonies for the special Mass, said: “We attempted for a second time to bring Communion to migrants detained there. ICE turned us away. They told us they needed one week's notice. We let them know ten days in advance.”

He added: “Perhaps they don’t want to allow us in because they know the conditions inside are inhumane and they know we would denounce that."

Speaking to the Catholic Herald, the Department for Homeland Security's assistant secretary for public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, said: “ICE staff has repeatedly informed religious organisations that due to Broadview’s status as a field office and the ongoing threat to civilians, detainees and officers ... for safety [reasons], they are not able to accommodate these requests at this time."

She explained: “The facility in Broadview, Illinois, is a field office, it is not a detention facility. Illegal aliens are only briefly held there for processing before being transferred to a detention facility ... it was not within standard operating procedure for religious services to be provided in a field office, as detainees are continuously brought in, processed and transferred out.”

McLaughlin added: "Religious organisations are more than welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities."

These latest comments from the Pope come on the back of previous criticisms he has made of the Trump administration, after describing “inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States” last month.

The Pope's most recent comments also come after his brother Louis Prevost said he had different views on migration from the Pope.

Pope Leo spent much of his life as a missionary in Peru, an experience fundamental to his views on migration.

Speaking to the press in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo also gave his thoughts about the recent US military attacks on suspected drug traffickers off Venezuela, saying it was “increasing tension”.

"I read some news saying that they are getting closer and closer to the coast of Venezuela. I think that with violence, we do not win.

“The thing to do is to seek dialogue, to look for a just way to find solutions to the problems that may exist in a country.

"A country has the right to have its own military to defend peace, to build peace," the Pope said.

‍Photo: Pope Leo speaks to reporters in Castel Gandolfo, 4 November 2025 (screenshot from video)