St. Louis Archdiocese Sues Over ICE Ban on Sacraments
Lawyers keep face-to-face visits at a site housing about 150 detainees; priests cannot, and Communion via plastic bag was rejected as inadequate.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis filed suit on October 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, challenging restrictions that block Catholic priests from providing face-to-face sacramental ministry to immigration detainees.
Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski and Father Christopher Schroeder are named in the action. The complaint alleges violations of the First Amendment, the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and the Missouri Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The ICE-contracted facility houses about 150 immigration detainees. Under a no-contact policy, clergy cannot meet detainees in person for the sacraments, even as lawyers and consular officials retain face-to-face access.
Facility officials suggested that Communion be passed to detainees in a plastic bag through guards. The archdiocese rejected that arrangement as inadequate, citing Catholic teaching on transubstantiation and the proper administration of the Eucharist.
Multiple Catholic detainees are affected. The archdiocese noted that it provides the sacraments in other jails without comparable barriers. The suit seeks to restore the religious liberty rights of priests and detainees to receive the sacraments in person.