Catholic diocese sues US government seeking clergy access to detainees

WASHINGTON — The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Monday, ​alleging that detainees at an immigration detention facility in Missouri are being deprived of their right to speak privately with priests or receive sacraments like communion and confession.

The lawsuit, ‌filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against top officials at the Department of Homeland Security and ⁠the local sheriff, alleges clergy can only visit ​detainees at the Saint Genevieve County Jail during ⁠a four-hour window on Mondays, and can only speak to them via telephone handset through a ‌glass partition.

On its website, Immigration ‌and Customs Enforcement says clergy may visit detainees at any time as long as ⁠they notify the sheriff's office. The suit alleges ICE ⁠is not enforcing its own policy.

"As a bishop I am responsible for every soul in my archdiocese, and that includes those who are in the prisons," St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski told Reuters. The majority of the roughly 150 immigration detainees held at the facility are Hispanic Catholics, the diocese said.

Rozanski said the lack of privacy prevents priests from carrying out their ministering ‌duties.

"They cannot hear confessions, they cannot celebrate Mass, they cannot give ​the anointing of the sick to any of the detainees," he said, effectively "robbing the detainees of their rights to have access to these sacraments."

ICE, DHS, the Saint Genevieve County Jail and the county sheriff's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The detainees are part of a broad immigration crackdown and deportation drive by the Trump administration that has been condemned by human rights groups alleging widespread rights abuses, which ICE has denied.

Catholic law does not allow ​priests to hear confession by electronic means. And using non-private lines on jailhouse phones would also break the seal ‌of confession, an ‌excommunicable offense.

When the ⁠priests asked to be able to see detainees to give them communion, the jail proposed that priests place the consecrated hosts in a container and a guard pass the container to the detainee, a proposal Rozanski called "sacrilegious."

The Eucharist, which Catholics believe contains the real presence of God, is only meant to be ‌handled by ordained priests or ​ministers.

In its suit, the archdiocese is requesting that priests and ‌other clergy be given the ⁠same level of ​access granted to consular officials and attorneys when visiting the jail.

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