San Bernardino Bishop Dispenses Diocese From Mass Obligations Over ICE Raids
I want to remind everyone that early Christians risked their lives to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist.
Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino has dispensed his Diocese from Sunday Mass obligation over ICE raids in California.
“All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions, are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation, as provided for in Canon 1247, until such time as this decree is revoked or amended,” Rojas wrote.
NEW: Bishop Rojas of San Bernardino has dispensed his Diocese from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass due to ongoing ICE raids. pic.twitter.com/VOdKp1HKqJ
— Rich Raho (@RichRaho) July 9, 2025
“This dispensation applies to all affected faithful within the territorial boundaries of the Diocese of San Bernardino and remains in effect until further notice or until such time as the circumstances necessitating this decree are sufficiently resolved,” added Rojas.
Rojas encouraged people to participate in personal prayer, reading the Bible, praying the Rosary, and watching Mass.
I want to remind everyone that early Christians risked their lives to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist.
Additionally, the ability to inform people that they don’t have to attend Mass is minimal. Breaking the law is not a permissible reason. Being physically unable to do so due to age, illness, or other factors is the main one.
Rojas claimed that federal agents detained illegal aliens at two parishes on June 20 in a letter on June 23:
While we surely respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals, we are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings. We have experienced at least one case of ICE agents entering a parish property and seizing several people. It should be no surprise that this is creating a tremendous amount of fear, confusion and anxiety for many. It is not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – which guides us in all that we do.
DHS said the arrests did not happen inside the church:
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin disputed what she said were news reports that agents had entered the church hall.
“The accusation that ICE entered a church to make an arrest are FALSE,” she stated in an email to CalMatters. “ICE conducted a traffic stop on an illegal alien on June 20 in the general proximity of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Montclair, California. The illegal alien chose to pull into the church parking lot. Officers then safely made the arrest.”
The agents detained the man at Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair while he was landscaping, with no one else around.
Diocese spokesman John Andrews admitted that the man arrested at St. Adelaide Church in Highland “didn’t appear to have a connection to the parish.”
These people need to stop acting like agents broke down the door during Mass and demanded to see everyone’s papers.
So who is instilling the fear in people, Rojas? Maybe stop with the lies and hyperbole.
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Comments
It’s completely reasonable to fear arrest when you break the law. I’m sure robbers, rapists and car jackers occasionally worry about it.
I don’t think the Church considers THEM no longer obliged to attend Mass, particularly since the whole “arresting illegals when they come out the church doors after the 9 am” is a fantasy of the Woke.
But, it’s important to maintain The Narrative™.
The Catholic church (disclaimer: I was raised Catholic) is an active participant in the illegal immigration problem.
It is still your flock if they are in their home country. What ever happened to missionaries?
Besides, the church provides the Eucharist to heathens like Pelosi and Biden, to name a few, so they should encourage the illegals to come in to Mass, and counsel them to take the self deportation offer.
Anything less is aiding and abetting.
If only the Catholics existed in some type of hierarchical organizational structure that could guide and correct the various levels of the hierarchy.
If only the Catholic Church had a Pope that wasn’t simply a Bergoglio clone to guide and correct the clergy that has gone astray.
give unto americans
what is america
the vatican is more walled-off than a lefty hollywood compound
It is the original gated community; high walls and no illegals inside.
But plenty of preaching and guilt trips outside.
“It should be no surprise that this is creating a tremendous amount of fear, confusion and anxiety for many.”
So then go home. Many infiltrators come from Mexico, the richest country in Latin America. Currently Mexico does not suffer from war, famine, or revolution. They are here to enjoy the largesse of America. Moreover, we do not have a theocracy in America. As such we can arrest criminals no matter where they are. Even in church.
Apparently, Mexico has too many White Ns in Mexico City, so illegal Mexican invaders are afraid to return home to such a racist place.
Or something….
Mexico is apparently having a real issue with all those people they freely let in their southern border, planning to make money during their passage through and out the northern border. Now the northern border isn’t so easy and many are “stuck” in Mexico.
Good. Mexico deserved it for being so willing and eager to be a conduit. They don’t even try to patrol their border with Guatemala or Belize. There’s really just a short stretch near Tapachula that they should watch, and that would stop almost all the illegal traffic.
Ironic, isn’t it? They were happy to pass through, and fleece, the hordes of the Biden Border invasion, yet balk when the outlet is closed. Suck it up, Mexican buttercups!
And has anyone figured out who was paying to bus (c’mon, man; nobody walked thousands of miles to the border) the illegals to Mexico?
Rojas has accepted The Democratic Party of the United States as his Lord and Savior.
May he burn in h ell.
The Bishop is gonna be very upset to learn that San Bernardino is within the ‘Border Search Exception Zone’ (100 miles from the border which includes the coastline) and ICE doesn’t need a warrant or probable cause to stop, briefly detain, question and in some circumstances conduct warrantless search/seizure.
He comes across as a devotee of ‘liberation theology’ and open borders globalism. Though I suspect, like most globalist goons, he would probably not be willing to give up the prerogatives and privileges of his Bishopric.
The last time anyone cared about this was 1965.
early christians were in fear b/c of “thought police”
the bishops support of criminals is not even in the same pew
I wonder what Bishop Alberto Rojas own immigration status is. Not enough to find out though.
The Catholic church does not have any meaningful territorial boundaries within the US. We are a secular government not beholden to or divvied up by any church,
No one in the US is risking their life to attend mass unless they are accosted by illegal alien gang bangers during their passage to and from a church.
We encourage the Biship to obey and support all laws of the US especially those pertaining to illegal immigration and to not give any aid or succor to any fugitives from the law regardless of which law they have broken. The life he saves may well be his own.
Probably legal. I imagine the church would have organized a visa for him, and eventually naturalization.
True that.
I wonder if Bishop Alberto Rojas is aware that there can be repressions for violating canon law? It is not proper or acceptable to employ Canon 1247 (or any canon) to obstruct or thwart legitimate law enforcement, whether in matters related to religious practice or otherwise.
Good luck getting the church hierarchy to do anything. They think we should have open borders while being perfectly happy with their huge vatican walls and their draconian penalty for violating them.
Rojas is doubtlessly in status. The RC church probably filed all the necessary paperwork long ago; and I would not be surprised if Rojas is a naturalized citizen by now.
And what if they had? Is there some kind of reason why it’s less OK to make an arrest in a church than in a Walmart?
Churches are generally considered to be a sanctuary for at least some wrong-doers; this is from customs in the earliest days. No force of law, of course, but bad optics to march into a church to arrest someone.
I think that on the contrary, it’s bad optics to respect such things. There are no sanctuaries.
Agreed. Arrest criminals and detain subjects wherever they are found and definitely arrest anyone who interferes, obstructs impedes much less prevents, LEO performance of their lawful actions.
Only white people get arrested in Churches. They are safe havens for every one else. .
Note that the dispensation is only for those in “genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions”.
So any diocese members who suddenly stop attending mass are either “undocumented immigrants”….or just “C & E” Catholics?
I suppose he could release those who have lusty feelings for children from the obligation……..but then who would officiate Mass?
(I kid, I kid……)
Molesting children is now the territory of female public school teachers and politicians.
Not to be rude but the claim “early Christians risked their lives to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist” only holds true if you believe Roman Catholicism existed at the time of the Early Church.
For those who hold it was invented several centuries later, there is a large temporal divide.
Yes the Early Church did risk their lives via following Christ, of having an identity that at times was a capital crime within parts of the Roman Empire, but being Christian and doing mass or the Roman Catholic eucharist are not the same thing.
That’s perfectly legal except that now their charitable contributions are no longer tax exempt.
I like it.
Would be interesting to know whether there is a gun-free policy at the churches in this diocese. If so, it would make logical sense to apprehend illegal immigrants leaving a place where they are self-disarmed. That is a solid reason to apprehend them leaving courthouses as well, because they are forcibly disarmed.
It’s California, so you can assume all law-abiding people are disarmed. Unfortunately you can never assume that for criminals…
With each passing day, the Catholic Church provides me with additional rationale for my leaving.
Yah he can’t do this….meaningless… performative
Many parishioners will be grateful that their churches are no longer overrun by illegals. But now the fundraising and “outreach” expectations will probably double again.
I have family that endured that for years at their church in Chicago. The whole place and work of the white people attending day mass became devoted to serving the hispanics that had night mass in Spanish in the same building.
They broke the law – JC destroyed what he could with the money changers and the sales people on Temple property. They broke Moses’ law. Are people who are illegal any different from those abusing Temple grounds?
Then there are the 7th (thou shalt not steal – illegals in effect are stealing from those who came legally); the 8th (Thou shalt not bear false witness) how many, in addition to coming illegally, are lying about their conditions.
I admire the church for reaching out but the church is foolish to assume every illegal is being honest in their descriptions of why they broke the law.
Don’t forget coveting; they want what you have and are quite willing to break the law(s) to get it. This despite the overly generous US legal pathways to enter our Nation under a visa work program, gain skill sets, earn some $ and eventually apply for a green card in good faith.
Trolley Problem #72534: Armed, violent cartel members invade Rojas’ basilica, taking him and four mantilla-wearing octogenarian widows hostage…
A part of me wonders what the RC church’s stance on illegal immigration would have been had the Latin American countries undergone a mass conversion to North of Ireland-style Presbyterianism back in the 19th century. Then again, had that happened, they might have made a better go of their own countries had that happened; and we might still be on a no quota system for Western Hemisphere immigrants and seen ourselves as becoming more “swarthy” rather than “brown”.
S**t-head.