Posted on 07/10/2025 9:51:08 AM PDT by ebb tide
Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino issued a dispensation from Sunday Mass and holy days of obligation July 8, citing “genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions” among parishioners.
In his letter to the faithful, Bishop Rojas cited Canon 87 §1, which allows diocesan bishops to exempt parishioners from universal norms “whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good.”
“All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions,” he wrote, “are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation.”
He pointed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “raids” as a deterrent for Catholics. He also urged those excused from attending to remain spiritually engaged through prayer, spiritual reading, or livestreamed Mass.
The dispensation remains in effect until further notice or until the “circumstances necessitating this decree are sufficiently resolved.”
Bishop Rojas criticized ICE’s activity in June after agents detained individuals in the parking lots of two California parish properties. The diocese also released guidance for churches facing potential ICE visits.
Reaction to the decree was swift on social media.
Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, wrote on X, “While American bishops dispense Catholics from the Sunday obligation due to the potential of being (legitimately) arrested, African Catholics in our day are attending Mass in spite of the potential of being killed by Muslims.”
Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino issued a dispensation from Sunday Mass and holy days of obligation July 8, citing “genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions” among parishioners.
In his letter to the faithful, Bishop Rojas cited Canon 87 §1, which allows diocesan bishops to exempt parishioners from universal norms “whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good.”
“All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions,” he wrote, “are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation.”
He pointed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “raids” as a deterrent for Catholics. He also urged those excused from attending to remain spiritually engaged through prayer, spiritual reading, or livestreamed Mass.
The dispensation remains in effect until further notice or until the “circumstances necessitating this decree are sufficiently resolved.”
Bishop Rojas criticized ICE’s activity in June after agents detained individuals in the parking lots of two California parish properties. The diocese also released guidance for churches facing potential ICE visits.
Reaction to the decree was swift on social media.
Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, wrote on X, “While American bishops dispense Catholics from the Sunday obligation due to the potential of being (legitimately) arrested, African Catholics in our day are attending Mass in spite of the potential of being killed by Muslims.”
In May, the Diocese of Nashville issued a similar statement, noting that many parishioners “are concerned about possibly being confronted or detained while attending Mass or other parish events.”
“[N]o Catholic is obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk,” the diocese said.
These PC bishops are encouraging Catholics to break God's Commandment in order to violate the State's legitimate laws.
Just the opposite of:
Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God, the things that are God's. Matthew 22:21
Ping
‘Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, wrote on X, “While American bishops dispense Catholics from the Sunday obligation due to the potential of being (legitimately) arrested, African Catholics in our day are attending Mass in spite of the potential of being killed by Muslims.”’
In my book, these African Catholics are more faithful to Jesus than their American counterparts.
What hubris it must take for someone to believe that he has the authority to decide if someone is obligated or not to attend church.
All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions,” he wrote, “are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation.”
......
Immigration enforcement brings out the Fear of ICE in Home Depot assemblies, too.
Look for funds to dry up going to “Catholic Charities”.
The Vatican approved of this on the idea it would bring more donations into the west coast Catholic churches.
This was a Ponzi scheme of moving money around to make it appear that they were solvent.
I expect to see church closures in CA in a couple years if not sooner.
The Mission at Carmel by the Sea is one of the better funded locations and I saw a future collapse coming 25 years ago when I last visited it.
While Bishop Rojas may be able to dispense from the obligation to attend Mass, he cannot dispense from the obligations to obey the laws of the land. He needs to remind his faithful of this obligation and to return to their home countries.
“Render unto Cesar that which is Cesar's and render unto God that which is HIS.
America has pay to play politics. It’s time for the churches to start paying taxes if they want to play.
The bishop should encourage those in the congregation to return to their countries and be counted in the census there.
Albert the Roj Ass?
I'm pretty sure Catholics don't believe the eucharist is a necessary element of salvation. So is there something else about it that makes it required to be done weekly (plus a few other days throughout the year)? And, if so, is it required that it be done at the church building and with the elements blessed by official clergy? Like is the eucharist considered so integral in a Christian's ability to live holy lives for the Lord that it's practically mandatory to do it weekly?
Or perhaps I'm over-reading into words like "obligation" and "dispensation". And I speak as someone who's attended church (Protestant) on average well over once per week (often Sunday morning + Sunday evening + Wednesday evening or some other weekly evening service or small group). So I promise you that I'm not anti organized church. I'm thinking of all the times I've encouraged others to attend church or been encouraged myself to attend church, there was never an element of it being so required that we had to have a church leader's permission to miss a Sunday.
Thank you for your thought out questions. I will answer as best as I can.
Words like “obligation” and “dispensation” are proper words in the context, and do have specific, legal meanings. Catholics are only obliged to receive the Eucharist once per year during Easter season, and are obliged NOT to for a number of reasons (aware they are in a state of Mortal Sin, consumed food or drink within the last hour without a dispensation, have a medical condition that might lead to vomiting, etc.)
Catholics DO believe that the Eucharist is central to our Faith, with Baptism (in some form) being utterly essential, and Confessionnecessary for those who have reached the age of reason, but the Eucharist is Food for the Soul, and a fountain of badly needed Grace. (cf. John 6:54-55, “54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. 55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.”)
What is required by Church discpline is to make the Lord’s Day (Sundays and proscribed Holy Days of Obligation, such as Christmas) Holy. And besides avoiding menial labor, that includes attending the Mass. Even if you do not partake in the actual Eucharist, you can always make what is called a “spiritual Communion” in the presence of God Himself, Angels and saints, and fellow worshippers.
Besides the Mass of the Faithful, in the earlier part of the Mass, we confess our sinfulness (confiteor) and plead for forgiveness and redemption. We also pray for each other, hear the Word of God, may receive a homily from the priest, and share in prayers and sometimes hymns praising Our Lord.
If you are sick or tending to someone who is sick, or are involved in necessary travel and cannot get to a church, or are on a job in a remote location, special dispensation is not necessary. The condition provides the dispensation. This requires you to be honest with yourself. If you say, “I have a headache”, and then go play golf, there is a problem.
I believe I get it now. The "obligation" is mainly centered around focusing on holiness for at least one day a week, including attending church. It's not so much about the process, though that's strongly encouraged. If I'm processing what you're saying, it's really about having a Sabbath type mindset over all (as you said it's not just about avoiding work, though doing so probably helps you focus on holiness, especially if it's to attend church). So of course, the eucharist is part of that, as is the regular sayings and sermon and other aspects of a church service. But by and large it's all about trying to encourage a day of holiness.
And, I may argue, it's needed all the more so in this perverted 21st century western world we live in.
And the more I think about it, I should probably adjust my theology fact-checker to cut the Catholic church some slack for having some processes and terminology in place that were all the more necessary during the centuries of illiteracy. Basically, many of these were set up and discussed with terminology of a rules mindset (i.e. "obligation") when an uneducated populace needed to hear even worship habits described as a list of do's and don'ts. Contrasted with my Protestant non-denominational church not only heavily promoting the five Solas (which inherently encourage a less top-down hierarchical type of clergy-to-laity relationship), the terminology used is more modern.
I.e., when I lead a small group I might use "required" (similar to "obligation" I guess) when talking about prayer and living holy lives, even though we don't believe works are part of salvation. We're still obligated to honor God with our lives. But when I talk about Sunday worship, I encourage it because none of us can operate effectively like Lone Rangers --- we all ought to worship God corporately and spiritually feed each other corporately to further God's kingdom in this perverted world. But notice that I say "ought" to worship corporately, I don't say "required", doing so because our five solas belief means that the person I'm talking to could theoretically know all the truth of God by reading the Bible himself (scripture alone). The same for the other 4 solas (I say "ought" to learn from our leaders, but always with a hint of trust but verify -- see tagline -- so that none of us are mislead by the leaders, or abused by the leaders in some way). I'm not saying my leaders are bad. I'm just saying that the five solas, at least as we believe them, help keep the leaders on the straight and narrow in their teachings because they know that some of us are Bible geeks and will hold them to what they teach and how they relate to people. And that's probably part of my perception of Catholics using the word "obligation" for corporate worship.
Maybe it's the Protestant in me that's uncomfortable telling someone they "have to" attend worship corporately at our church, if I'm also encouraging the five solas with the inherent trust-but-verify nature of the five solas regarding all teachings about God, even if it comes from our leaders on Sunday morning.
Nice discussion. FR occasionally changes for the better. Back when I first signed up, I was told that the Religion Forum is the least charitable of all Forums—and that is mostly true—discussions like yours are good to see.
If ICE is targeting illegal aliens who have committed crimes, those people are probably not attending Mass anyway.
Or if you think you might get the flu from somebody maybe....stay home, if trump makes you mad, stay home, stay home....the mass is a scary thing
Meanwhile, the bishops ponder deep subjects like climate change
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