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."
