by Due to concerns about federal immigration raids, the Diocese of San Bernardino has informed its parishioners that they are not required to attend Mass.
In a letter on Tuesday, Bishop Alberto Rojas, the head of the Roman Catholic community in Southern California, which has 1.6 million members, stated that members who genuinely fear immigration enforcement action if they attend Mass on Sundays or holidays are exempt from this requirement.
Catholics are rarely exempt from the responsibility, which is typically saved for extreme situations like the COVID-19 epidemic.
As the Trump administration ramps up Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country, the diocese in San Bernardino, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, is at least the second to excuse its people from Mass.
People have been arrested by ICE officers, who are frequently masked, in parking lots of shopping centers, car washes, bus stops, and other public locations. In what pastors thought was an immigration sweep, armed men with face coverings arrested a Latino man outside a church in the Downey, California, suburb in May.
Following immigration raids in May, the diocese of Nashville issued a statement stating that no Catholic is required to attend Sunday Mass if doing so would jeopardize their safety.
The content of the article is not being retrieved.
Please make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.
We appreciate your patience as we check access. Please log out of Reader mode and sign in to your Times account, or subscribe to The Times in its entirety.
We appreciate your patience as we check access.
Are you a subscriber already?Sign in.
Do you want to read every Times article?Sign up.
