PRESS RELEASE: Chicago Catholics to Greet Pope Leo, Meet With Vatican Officials
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Chicago Catholics to Greet Pope Leo, Meet With Vatican Officials
A delegation of 25 Catholic clergy, women religious, and laypeople will bring stories from Broadview detainees to the Chicago-born Pope.
Photos from the past year of the campaign
Holy Resistance: Video about CSPL’s work over the past year
A delegation including Bishop José Maria Garcia Maldonado, Father Paul Keller, Sisters Christin Tomy and Kristin Peters, Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) staff, and members will travel to Rome and the Vatican from October 26–31.
The delegation will attend Pope Leo's general audience on Wednesday, October 28, at the Vatican and take a photo with him. As of this moment, CSPL's plans to greet Pope Leo have not changed in light of his surgery. The CSPL community is praying for his health and a full recovery.
On Tuesday, October 27, the delegation will meet with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Vatican office that oversees the Church's work on social justice, including migration.
"The pilgrimage to Rome is an opportunity to have an encounter with Pope Leo, a beloved Chicagoan, to thank him, and to ask for his ongoing prayers and encouragement,” said CSPL Executive Director Michael N. Okińczyc-Cruz. “The people we are ministering to at the Broadview ICE detention facility are heartbroken mothers and fathers, grandparents and young people who are desperate to remain connected to their loved ones, and that is a message we want to share personally with Pope Leo.”
In September at the Vatican, Okińczyc-Cruz gave Pope Leo letters written by people detained at the Broadview ICE detention facility near Chicago. View photos and read the letters, transcribed in Spanish and English, here.
One of the letters to Pope Leo said (translated from Spanish), "Today they detained me, and I've been here for hours. I'm not afraid of what happens to me; I'm afraid of not being with my family. Please pray for them and for the families of all the other detainees. It saddens me that simply going out to work has brought me to this moment."
For over a year, CSPL's faith and grassroots community leaders have been standing for human, immigrant, and religious rights. They have been organizing to restore pastoral care for detainees at Broadview and are in an active lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. See the full arc of the social justice and legal campaign, and links to news coverage, here.
Daily pastoral visits inside Broadview began in mid-May under a preliminary injunction. Since then, CSPL has not missed a single visit date and has conducted at least 130 visits, providing spiritual and religious care to more than 700 migrants inside Broadview. There have been times Broadview has been closed, but CSPL has been prepared to send ministers every day.
CSPL organizes a rotation of 75 ministers to visit Broadview, who come from diverse professional backgrounds, including lawyers, nurses, secular leaders, and seminarians. They speak a wide range of languages, including Spanish and Polish. The ministry is an interfaith and ecumenical effort of Catholic and Christian ministers across denominations.
“Every time we go, I feel just a profound mix of gratitude and heartbreak, to be able to remind them that they’re not forgotten,” said Sister Christin Tomy, OP, of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa and Dominican University, and a member of the CSPL Women Religious Council. “The fact that CSPL was invited to bring a delegation says to me that our church at its most global levels of governance sees and cares about what’s happening to each person that we visit in Broadview. It really is yet another way to raise up the voices and the experiences of the people that we’ve encountered.”
The preliminary injunction is not yet permanent. Litigation will continue this fall. CSPL hopes to make daily pastoral visits a permanent right that continues as long as ministry is needed.
About the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership: CSPL is a Catholic and Christian-rooted community organizing coalition of over 60 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:
Sarah Rand (traveling to Rome, 6 hours ahead of Chicago), sarah@rand-strategies.com, 312-513-1035 on WhatsApp
Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez (traveling to Rome, 6 hours ahead of Chicago), joanna@csplaction.org, 331-343-7301 on WhatsApp
Gordon Mayer (in Chicago), gordon@gordonmayercommunications.com, 312-307-0133
Spokespeople:
Michael N. Okińczyc-Cruz, CSPL Executive Director
Bishop José Maria Garcia Maldonado
Fr. Paul Keller, CMF, Provincial for the Claretian Missionaries, CSPL Clergy Council
Sister Christin Tomy, OP, Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa and Dominican University, CSPL Women Religious Council
Father Dan Hartnett, SJ, Jesuits and CSPL Clergy Council (*not traveling to Rome)
Delegation
The delegation reflects the diversity of the coalition it represents. Members come from neighborhoods and suburbs, including Back of the Yards, Austin, North Lawndale, Bronzeville, Cicero, Melrose Park, Rogers Park, and Evanston, and they range in age from young people to elders.
Bishop José Maria Garcia Maldonado, Auxiliary Bishop of Vicariate IV of the Archdiocese of Chicago
Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, CSPL Staff
Peter Jones, Loyola University - Institute of Pastoral Studies
Father Paul Keller, Claretian Religious Order
Gabriel Lara, CSPL Staff
Ryan Lents, CSPL Staff
Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez, CSPL Staff
Mia Cornelius, St. Simon of Cyrene Parish
Byron Diggs, Our Lady of Africa Parish
Paloma Garcia-Lopez, University of Notre Dame - Institute of Latino Studies
Irma Hernandez, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Melrose Park & Scalabrinians
Ollie Mamaril, St. James on Wabash Parish
Angelica Montalvo, Our Lady of Charity & Hispanic Deacons Council
Deacon Maximino Montalvo, Our Lady of Charity & Hispanic Deacons Council
Pablo Montalvo, CSPL Staff
Abigail Ortiz Valles, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Melrose Park & Scalabrinians
Sr. Kristin Peters, St. James on Wabash & Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Irma Pineda, St. Oscar Romero Parish
Deacon Javier Pineda, St. Oscar Romero Parish
Jackie Ramirez-Lopez, Student, DePaul University & St. Oscar Romero Parish
Sarah Rand, CSPL Communications
Jeanne Rattenbury, St. Gertrude’s Parish
Sue Ross, Visitation Parish
Juliana Soto, Student, DePaul University
Richard Spearman, St. Simon of Cyrene & Black Deacons Council Candidate
Tiffany Swann-Covington, Our Lady of Africa, St. Ignatius & Loyola University - Institute of Pastoral Studies
Sr. Cristin Tomy, Dominican University - University Ministry & Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa
Anthony Williams, Our Lady of Africa Parish
