(RNS) — Two Catholic bishops who sit on or advise President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission are voicing criticism of the administration, arguing immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should have access to religious services such as Communion.
“It is important that our Catholic detainees are able to receive pastoral care and have access to the sacraments,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who oversees the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese in Indiana, told Religion News Service in an email on Monday (Nov. 3). “Their religious liberty, part of their human dignity, needs to be respected.”
The comments from Rhoades, who serves as an adviser to the president’s Religious Liberty Commission, were in response to an RNS inquiry about a pair of religious freedom concerns emerging at an ICE detention center in Broadview, Illinois. Last week, attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of detainees at the facility, such as denial of their religious rights, citing testimony from faith leaders who have “provided religious services at Broadview for years but are now denied the ability to provide pastoral care under Defendants’ command.” At least three public efforts to offer Communion to detainees have been denied by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in recent weeks, including two Catholic-led efforts, one of which occurred this past Saturday and featured participation from Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado.
The lawsuit cites testimony from Sister JoAnn Persch, a Sisters of Mercy nun. She told RNS in …