The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis has gone to federal court over what it says are severe restrictions on priests trying to minister to people held at an immigration detention facility in Missouri.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, names senior Department of Homeland Security officials and the local sheriff. It claims clergy visiting detainees at the Saint Genevieve County Jail are generally limited to a four-hour period on Mondays and must communicate through a glass partition using a telephone handset.
According to the archdiocese, those conditions make it impossible for priests to conduct important religious rites that require privacy, including confession and certain sacraments.
The lawsuit also contends that federal immigration authorities are failing to enforce their own stated policy, which says clergy can visit detainees at any time after notifying the sheriff’s office.
St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski said the restrictions affect a population in which Hispanic Catholics make up a large share of the roughly 150 immigration detainees being held at the facility.
For the archdiocese, the issue goes beyond ordinary visitation. Priests cannot properly hear confessions, celebrate Mass or administer the anointing of the sick when conversations are conducted through a barrier and without privacy.
Catholic rules prohibit priests from hearing confessions electronically. A confession conducted over a non-private jail telephone could also violate the confidentiality traditionally known as the seal of confession, which carries serious consequences under church law.
The dispute escalated when priests sought permission to provide detainees with Communion. The jail reportedly proposed placing consecrated hosts in a container that could then be handed to detainees by a guard.
Rozanski rejected that arrangement, describing it as incompatible with Catholic practice. The Eucharist is regarded by Catholics as the real presence of Christ and is ordinarily handled by ordained priests or authorized ministers.
The archdiocese is asking the court to require the jail to provide clergy access comparable to that afforded to attorneys and consular officials. It argues that priests should be able to meet detainees privately so they can perform their religious responsibilities.
The case comes amid the Trump administration’s intensified immigration enforcement campaign, which has drawn criticism from human rights organizations over conditions and treatment in detention facilities. Immigration authorities have rejected allegations of widespread rights violations.
Federal immigration authorities, the Department of Homeland Security, the Saint Genevieve County Jail and the county sheriff’s office had not immediately responded to requests for comment.
