Milwaukee archbishop open to granting Mass dispensation for migrants

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 3, 2025 / 17:16 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee said he would consider granting dispensation from Mass obligations to migrants fearing deportation if the situation worsens in his archdiocese, according to a spokesperson. 

Sunday Mass dispensations for migrants became a “discussion point” with Grob and south side pastors in Milwaukee, the archbishop said at the Milwaukee Press Club’s Oct. 2 Newsmaker Luncheon, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. 

Sandra Peterson, spokesperson for Grob, said “at this point there are no plans to make that decision” regarding lifting the Sunday Mass obligation. The Nashville Diocese was the first to lift the obligation in May, while the Diocese of San Bernardino lifted the obligation in July following immigration enforcement activities. 

Peterson said there have not been reported incidents of ICE enforcement on church grounds in Milwaukee, telling CNA “there have not been any incidents that we are aware of” and that the archdiocese “will continue to monitor the situation and pray that [a dispensation] does not become necessary.”  

During the Newsmaker Luncheon, Grob said “things have continued to deteriorate” since February, when the Wisconsin bishops released a letter calling for human dignity to be upheld regarding immigration enforcement. As a result, Grob said pastors began discussing dispensations and are waiting “to see if the situation escalates,” the Journal Sentinel reported.

“In U.S law, every person, regardless of immigration status, has certain fundamental human rights, which can never be infringed,” the bishops said in the February letter. “All people have the right to religious freedom to attend church services and to receive sacraments and pastoral care.” The bishops further acknowledged that “while the Catholic Church always welcomes the stranger, she also recognizes the right of nations to regulate immigration for the sake of the common good.”

Earlier Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, California, granted a dispensation from Sunday Mass to members of his flock who possess “genuine fear” of deportation. 

The move by Rojas came after attendance for Spanish-language Masses across the diocese had been “down about 50%” since immigration enforcement raids began to escalate in Southern California in June, according to the diocese. 

John Andrews, director of communications for the diocese, told CNA at the time that the diocese was aware of two instances of ICE enforcement actions on church properties, which both took place on June 20. 

One of the instances, he said, occurred at St. Adelaide Church in Highland and “involved several men who had been working in the neighborhood where the church is located.” The men were chased into the church parking lot and detained, according to Andrews, who said “we do not know whether these men were actually arrested.”

The second instance occurred at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Montclair and “involved the apprehension and arrest of one man who was on parish property to do landscaping work,” Andrews told CNA, adding: “He and his family are longtime parishioners there and we know that he was arrested and ultimately sent to a detention facility in Texas.”