Video - Vatican Media: ‘Spiritual rights’ of migrant detainees must be respected

Pope Leo stresses the importance of protecting the “spiritual rights” of migrant detainees. “I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs” of detained migrants, he said. “Many times they've been separated from their families for a good amount of time, no one knows what's happening … but their own spiritual needs should be attended to.”

Speaking briefly with reporters late Nov. 4 outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo was asked about a detention facility in Broadview denying access Nov. 1 to a Chicago auxiliary bishop and a delegation of clergy, religious sisters and laity, participating in a People’s Mass organized by CSPL, to make a second attempt bring Communion to Catholics detained there.