Chicago Migrant Advocates Greet Pope After Audience
After attending the General Audience, about 30 members of a Chicago coalition presented the Holy Father with detainees' letters and photos of their work.
On October 28, 2026, about thirty members of Chicago’s Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) attended the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square and greeted Pope Leo XIV afterward.
Priests, deacons, students, and Catholic leaders wore yellow T-shirts bearing an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and carried a banner reading “The Church… needs your holy rebellion.” They presented the Pope with photographs of CSPL initiatives and letters from migrants addressed directly to him. The letters describe how the writers keep going “thanks to the hope of a better future, the help of Our Lord, and the work of movements like this one.”
Voices From Broadview and Chicago
Abigail Ortiz Valles, a Mexican migrant and Scalabrinian laywoman, told the Pope: “I told him that every time I visit Broadview, I encounter Jesus and His Passion… Forgive me, but I’m very emotional right now.” Tiffany Swann-Covington, of Our Lady of Africa Parish and Loyola University Chicago, thanked him “for your statements emphasizing the importance of pastoral care for our brothers and sisters detained at Broadview,” adding: “You have inspired us and countless Bishops to carry on this work across the country.”
The Pope appeared moved by the gifts, greeted those present, and posed for a photograph with the group.
CSPL provides daily support to hundreds of Central and South American migrants in Chicago’s suburbs. Since May 2026, after obtaining temporary authorization to enter, the coalition has made more than 135 visits to 725 detained immigrants at Broadview, an ICE facility about 15 kilometers from downtown Chicago.
Auxiliary Bishop José María García Maldonado of Chicago has described the group as “a force within the Church in the service of goodness and justice,” noting that its work has the support of Cardinal Blase Cupich. The encounter underscored the Church’s pastoral concern for migrants and those held in detention, expressed in concrete charity and the voices brought to the Successor of Peter.