ADELANTO, Calif. — A group of California bishops walked through the barbed wire gates of the ICE Processing Center and offered the Eucharist to the men locked inside.
This moment of the Mass, celebrated Dec. 10 outside the town of Adelanto in the Mojave Desert, was deeply emotional for both the bishops and the roughly 300 detainees present.
“To see their faces, to see how they were impacted, was very powerful for me,” Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Brian A. Nunes said. “So many times we think of migrants, refugees as a category. And a category is very impersonal, but seeing them one by one with faces, with voices, that are very memorable, is something that I’ll take with me.”
Seven bishops celebrated the Mass, which sought to bring faith and hope to undocumented immigrants who are awaiting legal proceedings. The visit was inspired by the “special message” on immigration issued by the U.S. bishops in November. It criticized the Trump administration’s policy of mass deportations and called for humane treatment at detention facilities, while acknowledging the right of nations to protect their borders.
The main celebrant Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, which includes Adelanto, was also joined by retired Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose and Auxiliary Bishop Rey Bersabal of Sacramento. The other participants from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles were Auxiliary Bishops Matthew G. Elshoff and Marc V. Trudeau.
Bishop Cantú preached to the detainees as they watched from guarded, fenced recreational areas on either side of the altar. During the homily, given in both English and Spanish, the bishop assured them that God’s grace can reach them even in the ICE facility.
“No matter where we are, if we’re on this side of the fence or on that side of the fence, for God there are no barriers, there are no fences, there are no walls,” proclaimed Cantú, who currently serves as president of the California Catholic Conference. “His love penetrates everywhere and anywhere in the world where the human heart is open to His love.”
The west wing of the facility houses some 1,600 men who were taken into custody not just locally, but throughout the U.S. Their countries of origin range from Mexico to Turkey to China. At the start of Mass, Bishop Rojas told the detainees that the Church had not forgotten them.
“You are not alone,” said Bishop Rojas, who was recently appointed to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration. “We support you, we pray for you and your families. We want to see how you are doing.”
At a press conference following the Mass at Adelanto’s Christ the Good Shepherd Catholic Church nearby, the bishops said that while the visit was “pastoral” in nature, it was important to insist on comprehensive immigration reform that recognizes the dignity of the human person. Bishop Cantú called out both congressional Republicans and Democrats for not fixing the “broken” system “that fails families.”
“No matter who they are, no matter what their color is, and no matter what mistakes they have made, justice must always be tempered with mercy and mercy must always be tempered with justice,” said Bishop Elshoff. “That comes from the heart of our loving God.”
