A Southern California bishop made an unusual decision on Tuesday to relieve the congregation from the obligation of attending Sunday mass due to concerns over immigration raids and detentions happening nationally.
The dispensation by the diocese of San Bernardino, California, is in response to the Trump administration’s mass deportation operations.
On Tuesday, San Bernardino Bishop Alberto Rojas announced his decree.
This decision followed an operation by immigration authorities at a park in Los Angeles the previous day. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was present at the scene, calling for an immediate stop to the action.
“They need to leave, and they need to leave right now,” she said at MacArthur Park. “They need to leave because this is unacceptable!”
Governor Gavin Newsom of California, who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies, stated that the decree was a reaction to the administration’s assertive immigration enforcement strategies, which include raids at courthouses and other public locations.
“Freedom of religion? Not in Donald Trump’s America,” Newsom wrote on X. “People now have to choose between their faith and their freedom.”
In response to his remark, a White House spokesperson noted that Newsom closed churches during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many churchgoers without a place to worship.
“This is rich coming from Gavin Newsom who shuttered churches during the COVID-19 pandemic but reopened the movie industry, marijuana dispensaries, and other secular gathering places,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Religious Americans were locked out of their places of worship because of him. Newscum doesn’t care about religious liberty, he cares about flip-flopping around to try and exploit everything he can for perceived political gain.”
Catholic priest and author James Martin praised the move by the diocese.
“It is a dramatic sign that not even Catholic churches are considered safe places any longer. Where are the voices for religious freedom now?” he wrote on X.
In May, the Diocese of Nashville issued a similar decree in response to immigration enforcement activities.
“Our churches remain open to welcome and serve our parish communities, but no Catholic is obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk,” the decree said at the time.
