More than 3,000 people, including family members of people who have been detained and deported, stood in solidarity with vulnerable immigrants and migrants at an outdoor Ash Wednesday Mass celebrated by Cardinal Cupich in Melrose Park Feb. 18.
The bilingual Mass was followed by a candlelight procession through the streets around Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish on an unseasonably mild evening.
In his homily, Cardinal Cupich connected the God of Matthew’s Gospel “who sees in secret” with the plight of people who have become afraid in the wake of immigration enforcement actions that saw many immigrants swept up in raids and detained.
“Our new immigrant friends know what it means to live in secret,” he said. “You know the anxiety of the shadows. You know the silent fear of a knock at the door or a traffic stop. You know the quiet pain of weeping for family members far away whom you cannot visit.
“Jesus is telling you this night, ‘I am here with you in the secret places.’ God does not need papers to know where you are or who you are. When you cry in secret, he sees you. When you work hard for your children, while no one is watching, he sees you. When you sacrifice your own comfort, to send money back home, when you sacrifice to give alms in secret, he sees you,” he said. “The world may look at your legal status, but God looks at your heart.”
The Mass and procession were organized by the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a non-profit organization based on the principals of Catholic social teaching. The coalition’s members include dozens of parishes, women’s and men’s religious communities, Catholic universities and other institutions, among others.
At noon Feb. 18, CSPL leaders learned that the Department of Homeland Security would allow representatives into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Center in Broadview to offer Communion, ashes and pastoral care to detainees at 3 p.m., just hours before the Mass.
The decision was in compliance with a Feb. 12 preliminary injunction issued by federal district court Judge Robert Gettleman in a lawsuit filed by CSPL after DHS refused to allow ministers into the facility during Operation Midway Blitz, a period of increased detentions in the Chicago area that took place in fall 2025.
Detainees from that period report dozens, sometimes more than 100, detainees held in the center for days at a time, with no beds, no privacy and inadequate food.
CSPL filed the lawsuit after attempting to bring Communion to detainees during a Eucharistic procession Oct. 11 and an All Saints Day Mass celebrated outside the center Nov. 1. Both attempts were preceded by efforts to get permission from DHS officials, but their overtures were either ignored or denied.
Scalabrinian Father Leandro Fossá, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was one of the three ministers allowed into the facility while a few dozen others stayed outside, praying and singing. Those who entered reported that when they got inside, no detainees were present, but a few were brought in while they were there.
In addition, Fossá said, some of the officers present took Communion from the ministers.
“We were well received,” he told the congregation gathered outside his church as dusk fell.
Fossá, the son of immigrants, noted that migration is part of almost every family’s history, and very much a part of the history of Melrose Park.
“We have done this because it’s our mandate to serve our brothers and sisters and to accompany them in all the instances of their lives,” he said. “So, yes, today, we accompany the people that are in need to know that God walks with them. The people we saw inside were young people. Young people who now have to dream and to start over. But they know they will not dream alone.”
The Broadview center, less than a 10-minute drive from Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the detainees that have been held there were much on the minds of those who attended the Mass.
Anthony Williams, president of CSPL’s board, said the organization puts its faith into action.
“Through Operation Midway Blitz and our pastoral care ministry at the Broadview ICE facility, we are living at our commitment to God’s justice, standing with those whose dignity is too often denied,” said Williams, a member of Our Lady of Africa Parish. “And tonight, this beautiful and diverse gathering is testimony, and reminds us that we are strongest when we bind together across race, generation, neighborhood and tradition.”
Charles and Denise Venegoni, from northwest suburban Hoffman Estates, said they came to lend their presence and voices to the church working to follow the mandate of Christ.
“It’s about time to have Christians standing up for what Jesus said,” including welcoming immigrants,” Charles Venegoni said.
“People being pushed into unmarked vans by masked men isn’t it,” added his wife, Denise Venegoni.
A group of Sisters of St. Joseph, who have a convent in nearby La Grange Park, came to ask for God’s mercy in a troubled and troubling time.
“This is Ash Wednesday,” said Sister Carol Crepeau. “It’s a time for penitence. God knows we are here to pray together for people who have been detained.”
“We are here to stand up against injustice,” said Sister Kathy Sherman.
Karlo M. Leonor, a second-year seminarian at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, came with a van full of seminarians and priests because he felt called to do something, he said.
“This is the issue of our time,” Leonor said, adding that USML’s rector and president, Father John Kartje, has impressed upon seminarians that “this is our moment. I feel I couldn’t help but be involved.”
During the Mass, the congregation prayed for all those killed by federal agents as part of the surge in immigration enforcement, including Silverio Villegas González, shot by federal agents in Melrose Park on Sept. 12 as he attempted to drive away during a traffic stop.
Family members and loved ones of those who have been killed, detained or deported were invited to receive ashes from Cardinal Cupich first.
The cardinal reflected on the meaning of the ashes, and the passage from Genesis in which God says, “You are dust and to dust you will return.”
Dust, Cardinal Cupich said, is the matter from which God created humanity.
“This, too, is a day for those who are made to feel like dust, dust that can be swept away or treated as if they do not belong,” he said. “It is a day for those who work with the dust in the earth, in construction, and cleaning, and harvesting the crops of the field, all to support their families.”
“When God formed humanity, he got down into the dust,” the cardinal continued. “He touched it. He took it in his hands and molded it. He breathed his own life into it. So as the dust of ashes is placed on your faces, and you hear the words, ‘you are dust,’ do not think this means that you are worthless. But rather, it means that we are claiming to be the clay in the potter’s hands. You may be undocumented in the eyes of the state, but you were handcrafted by the creator of the universe. Your worth does not come from a visa or a permit. It comes from the breath of God inside of you.”