Archbishop Wenski Leads Political Stunt At Alligator Alcatraz

Catholic priests have been reportedly barred from providing religious services inside Florida’s controversial new migrant detention facility — dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — nearly three weeks after it opened deep in the Everglades, the archbishop of Miami said.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter said that state and federal officials have spent the past three weeks deflecting responsibility over giving Catholic priests access to the facility, leaving the archdiocese in limbo.

“They could build that place in less than a week, so it doesn’t seem that it should take two or three weeks to tell the archbishop of Miami his priest can go in to minister to the detainees,” Wenski said on Monday, July 21.

Clergy’s lack of access to migrants in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn’t isolated to Miami. Priests and ministers from coast to coast say they aren’t being allowed into migrant detention facilities to provide counseling and religious services.

In California, evangelical leaders in a statement expressed concern about the limited access. “Government must not impose restrictions on churches, individuals, or faith-based organizations that offer spiritual or material support to immigrants — regardless of legal status.”

Continue reading at National Catholic Reporter
 

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Archbishop Thomas Wenski
Archdiocese of Miami
9401 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami Shores, FL 33138
Phone: 305-757-6241
Email: kicaza@theadom.org​