Catholic priest Jorge Echegollen prays before a blessing tour for COVID-19 patients and their relatives outside hospitals, at the San Miguel Arcangel temple in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on May 28, 2020. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP) (Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images)
San Bernadino, California – In a rare and somber move, Bishop Alberto Rojas of the Diocese of San Bernardino has formally dispensed Catholics in his jurisdiction from their obligation to attend Sunday Mass. The decision, typically reserved for public emergencies or grave illness, comes amid intensifying immigration enforcement across Southern California, including the detention of individuals on parish property.
The announcement follows federal immigration raids in early June that swept through communities across the region, including arrests at two Catholic parishes. Rojas, who leads more than 1.5 million Catholics in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said the actions of federal agents have spread fear and anxiety among his congregants—especially undocumented immigrants who now fear that even their place of worship may no longer be safe.
“There is a real fear gripping many in our parish communities that if they venture out into any kind of public setting they will be arrested by immigration officers,” Rojas said in a statement Wednesday. “Sadly, that includes attending Mass.”
While the Church typically requires Catholics to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, Rojas cited the trauma and risk many immigrants face. “With all the worry and anxiety they are feeling,” he said, “I wanted to take away, for a time, the burden they may be feeling from not being able to fulfill this commitment.”
Rojas, himself an immigrant from Aguascalientes, Mexico, has consistently championed immigrant rights during his tenure. His latest decision aligns with an earlier statement condemning federal agents for detaining individuals on church property—an act he said contradicts the Gospel values of compassion and dignity.
“It is not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ — which guides us in all that we do,” he wrote last month, urging political leaders to adopt an immigration strategy rooted in justice rather than fear.
The Diocese of San Bernardino, the second-largest in California after the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, serves a majority Latino population in both counties—56.4% in San Bernardino County and 52.5% in Riverside County, according to the 2020 Census. Rojas emphasized that many undocumented members have lived peacefully and contributed positively to their communities. “Most of them are here because they wanted to save their families,” he said. “They had no other option.”
Other dioceses in the region, including Los Angeles and Orange, have not issued formal dispensations but say they are taking steps to support immigrant parishioners through in-home Mass, outreach, and legal accompaniment.
Pastor Omar Coronado of Inland Congregations United for Change praised the bishop’s move as “an extraordinary act of moral courage and pastoral care.”
