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Pope Leo XIV Meets ICE Detainees' Advocates

Updated 8:24 AM ET · 5:37 PM ETConfirmed

Faith Desk

In Short: Pope Leo XIV received letters and messages from individuals detained at an ICE facility near Chicago and met with advocates who provide pastoral care.

Pope Leo XIV received letters and messages from individuals detained at an ICE facility near Chicago during a meeting with advocates who provide pastoral care.

The pope met with members of the Chicago-based Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) in Vatican City on October 28, 2026.

According to the group’s Facebook page, the pope looked visibly moved while listening to the testimony of Abigail Ortiz Valles, a Scalabrinian laywoman who works at the Broadview ICE facility.

Ortiz Valles and other coalition members presented the pope with a handmade album of photos from their actions over the past year, along with messages of support from coalition members and detainees.

During the meeting, coalition members also carried a banner displaying the message, “The Church… needs your holy rebellion,” a quote from the pope’s July address to young people.

Ortiz Valles became emotional as she recalled her meeting with the pope, saying, “Every time I visit Broadview, I encounter Jesus and His Passion.”

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• “The pope looked visibly moved” while listening to the testimony of Abigail Ortiz Valles, a Scalabrinian laywoman who takes part in the coalition’s ministry at the Broadview ICE facility near Chicago, according to the group’s Facebook page.
• October 30, 2026 By Carol Glatz OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Immigration and Migration, News, World News VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Leo XIV received letters and messages from individuals detained in a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) processing facility near Chicago and from Catholics active in providing immigrants and refugees with spiritual and pastoral support.
• They also held a banner saying, “The Church … needs a holy rebellion,” a quote from the pope in July urging young people to serve others.
• Coalition members had been denied access to the ICE processing center when “Operation Midway Blitz” began in September 2025, but they were allowed to return to provide hundreds of detainees pastoral care after suing the U.S. government and obtaining an injunction.
• Members of the Chicago-based Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership gave him an album containing the items when they met with the pope and at the end of the pope’s weekly general audience in St.
• The gift, the Oct. 29 post said, "was a handmade album of photos from our actions of the past year, showered with messages of love, support, and hope from members across our coalition and also from our siblings who are detained in Broadview."
• "ministry feels like encountering the face and Passion of Jesus every time she goes in."
• Many more joined protests and calls to activism after the heavily militarized and more controversial "Operation Midway Blitz" was launched by ICE to raid targeted locations and arrest and detain people reported to be illegal immigrants.
• “We are bringing visibility to our sisters and brothers being brutally kidnapped, detained, and deported. We are fighting to protect the religious freedom and dignity of immigrant individuals,” the coalition said on its website.
• Many wore yellow T-shirts depicting an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with her right fist held aloft and a verse about God casting down the mighty and lifting up the lowly from Mary’s Magnificat in Lk 1:46-55.

What's still developing

• Broadview, located 15 kilometers from downtown Chicago, has become a central focus of CSPL's efforts to support migrants facing detention.
• Make A One-Time Gift to Support My Work The Archdiocese of St. Louis sued the Trump administration on Monday, asking a federal judge in Missouri to let its priests hear confessions and bring Communion to the roughly 150 immigration detainees held at the Ste. Genevieve County Detention Center.
• Letters from Leo is a reader-supported publication and the fastest-growing Catholic community in the country.
• “They cannot hear confessions, they cannot celebrate Mass, they cannot give the anointing of the sick to any of the detainees,” the archbishop said of his priests.
• According to attendees, Pope Leo appeared touched by the photographs and letters.
• VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV called on the Trump administration to allow detainees at the Immigration and Customs Detention Center in Broadview to receive communion, a religious rite that federal authorities have repeatedly denied local clergy from offering.
• On the Middle East, Leo acknowledged that the first phase of the peace accord between Israel and Hamas remains “very fragile,’’ and said that the parties need to find a way forward on future governance “and how you can guarantee the rights of all peoples.’’ Asked about Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, the pope described the settlement issue as “complex,’’ adding: “Israel has said one thing, then it’s done another sometimes.
• Top photo caption: Pope Leo XIV hugs a child at the “Las Raíces” migrant center in San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, June 12, 2026, where he is meeting migrants and humanitarian organizations.
• “In her life, she was a courageous and heroic defender of human dignity, and a woman of faith who inspired generations of young Hispanic leaders, especially women,” said Archbishop José H.

Sources

• Angelus Newslink
• Catholic Reviewlink
• Chicago Tribunelink
• Evanston RoundTablelink
• Knewzlink
• Letters from Leolink
• OSV Newslink
• The Leaven Catholic Newspaperlink
• trentonmonitor.comlink
• Thelettersfromleolink
• WarpBeat — background on Pope Leo's Childhood Home Draws Crowds in Chicago Suburb link
• WarpBeat — background on Pope Leo's Childhood Home Draws Crowds in Chicago Suburb link
• NBC Chicago — video link