(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Commonweal Magazine [1]

[]

Date: 2025-12 

As more than two hundred attendees at a People’s Mass for Justice and Peace marched toward the Great Lakes Naval Base outside Chicago—reportedly a hub for National Guard and ICE agents sent by the Trump administration—one verse of the popular protest hymn “We Shall Overcome” had particular resonance.

“We are not afraid,” sang the clergy, parishioners, activists, and family and friends of immigrants. The September 13 bilingual Mass and procession, organized by the Coalition of Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL), was billed as a way to pray for peace and justice and demonstrate against the militarization and deportations in Chicago.

“We are here to represent those who did not come to Mass today because they are in fear,” Scalabrini Fr. Leandro Fossá said in his homily, referencing the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows federal agents to use racial profiling in immigration raids and sweeps. “This is not America, and this is not the Gospel, because the Gospel, we heard, speaks of a God who stands with the oppressed.”

Emcee Fr. David Inczauskis, SJ, a doctoral student at Loyola University Chicago, told the crowd that God would be “our rock and fortress as we confront the chaos and oppression of the current regime.”

Since the administration’s mass deportations began in January, many immigrants have been fearful about leaving their homes. In July, Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, California, offered a dispensation from the obligation of weekly Mass for Catholics afraid of being caught in immigration raids. The Diocese of Nashville had issued a similar decree in May. Churches in Washington D.C. reported a drop in attendance after Trump deployed National Guard troops there.

Organizers of the People’s Mass—and some participants—admitted they, too, were nervous. Trump has threatened to send National Guard troops to the city and ramped up immigration raids in the frighteningly named “Operation Midway Blitz,” which already resulted in ICE agents fatally shooting an immigrant father in a Chicago suburb. The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk just three days earlier and the subsequent threats of retaliation against those on the left only added to the apprehension. Protesters outside an ICE facility in suburban Broadview a week later clashed with ICE agents, who used mace, tear gas, and rubber bullets and tackled demonstrators to the ground. Several protesters were arrested.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/chicago-ice-immigration-peoples-mass-schlumpf-trump#:~:text=We%20felt%20it%20was%20important,you%20too%20were%20once%20foreigners.%E2%80%9D

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/