Ash Wednesday Marks Solidarity with Detainees as Faith Leaders Granted Access to Broadview Facility
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 19, 2026
ASH WEDNESDAY MASS MARKS SOLIDARITY WITH DETAINEES AS FAITH LEADERS GRANTED ACCESS TO BROADVIEW FACILITY
Two priests, nun offered 4 detainees ashes and Communion Wednesday
Cardinal Cupich: ‘God does not need papers to know where you are or who you are—when you cry alone, He sees you.’
Please credit photos as: by Derek Carter courtesy of Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership
“This is a day that speaks to those who live in the shadows,” Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, told more than 3,500 faithful at a Mass attended by members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership. Some 2,000 sat and stood in the courtyard outside Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, with 1,500 more inside the Sanctuary on Wednesday evening.
“Our immigrant friends know the fear of the knock at the door or the traffic stop. God does not need papers to know where you are or who you are—when you cry alone, He sees you,” Cardinal Cupich said in his homily. Families with loved ones who had been deported or detained were the first to receive ashes and process alongside Cardinal Cupich.
Just an hour before the service, faith leaders finally entered the Department of Homeland Security ICE facility in Broadview at 3 p.m. — one week after a judicial injunction requiring DHS permit clergy access on Ash Wednesday and negotiate with CSPL to allow faith leaders ongoing access to provide detainees with pastoral care. The decision came a couple months after CSPL filed its lawsuit, shortly after an All Saint’s Day Mass held at the Broadview site.
“Today, they said ‘yes’,” Sister Jeremy Midura, CSSF, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and member of CSPL’s Women Religious Council. She recalled that the late Sister JoAnn Persch, RSM who regularly provided pastoral care and prayers at Broadview for years, always with the late Sister Patricia Murphy, RSM led a delegation as recently as November 1 seeking entry.
“I and the rest of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership and the many other faith communities here on this Ash Wednesday are encouraged by today’s pastoral visit and now we look forward to establishing a process for regular pastoral care to be offered to detainees at the Broadview ICE facility on an ongoing basis as ordered by Judge Gettleman last week,” Midura said.
Inside the ICE facility
Father Leandro Fossá, CS, pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, CSPL Clergy Council, Sister Alicia Gutierrez, Society of Helpers, CSPL Women’s Religious Council and Claretian Missionary and CSPL Clergy Council member Father Provincial Paul Keller, CMF entered the ICE Facility at 3 p.m. providing pastoral care, ashes and Communion to four detainees who arrived at 4 p.m. at the otherwise empty facility. They had been detained that same day.
“This is the body of Christ, bringing the body of Christ, to the body of Christ and in this moment that body is broken and it’s hurting,” an emotional Father Keller said after emerging from the Broadview ICE facility.
The detainees — three men and a woman — were not able to exchange more than a few words with the faith leaders inside, Sister Gutierrez said. All four received ashes and took Communion, she said.
“You saw the crying eyes, confusion, uncertainty,” Father Fossá said, speaking to the state of the mind of the detainees who had just arrived at Broadview. “You could also see they were responsive, so they felt the hope of the moment they could see the church was there with them.”
Three guards also received ashes, which is part of the beginning of the season of Lent.
At the end of Ash Wednesday, Cardinal Cupich and CSPL leaders expressed hope that this marks a move toward a more humane and respectful approach from the federal government—particularly in ensuring regular pastoral care and access to Communion inside these facilities.
“Religious freedom is a cornerstone of our democracy – and the right of incarcerated persons to pastoral care is recognized nationwide,” Cardinal Cupich said in a statement. “We are grateful that the courts have acknowledged this reality and allowed these detainees the comfort of their faith on Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season. We view this as a time of prayer and preparation for the miracle of Easter. Let us pray that the human dignity of all persons be respected in our nation which was founded to achieve liberty and, as Lincoln said, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Father Fossá echoed some of those comments: “The most important thing that happened today is that we were given the right to accompany people and provide them their religious rights,” he said Wednesday evening. “Everyone has the right to receive the visit of your pastor or spiritual advisor, whatever your religion may be. For immigrants especially, I know how important the Lord is. Today we represented their community.”
About the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership: CSPL is a Catholic and Christian rooted community organizing coalition of over 55 parishes, universities and community organizations that labors to transform racial, economic, social and environmental systemic structures through grassroots coalition building, community organizing, and liberative formation. More at csplaction.org.
Media Contacts:
Yesenia Rivera, yeseniamrivera24@gmail.com, 773-934-7042
Sarah Rand, sarah@rand-strategies.com, 312-513-1035
Gordon Mayer, gordon@gordonmayercommunications.com, 312-307-0133
Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez, joanna@csplaction.org, 331-343-7301
