By Jay Sorgi • Posted November 20, 2025

More than 100 people from diverse backgrounds came together outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office on North 8th Street in Philadelphia on Thursday, Nov. 13 to pray, sing, walk with and kneel before the Eucharist, and offer witness to the Catholic Church’s support for immigrants being targeted by the federal law enforcement agency.

“The Eucharist is central to the Catholic faith,” said Beth Ford-McNamee, the director of the Sisters of St. Joseph Center for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, which helped to organize the local vigil.

“The link between the Eucharist and the need for social justice in our Church and our society today is not always understood, lifted up or proclaimed enough. In this witness, we made a physical gathering of the physical body of Christ, both here at ICE and with those who honestly were not comfortable coming today because they’re too vulnerable. They are part of the body of Christ, too.”

A study conducted by World Relief and issued jointly by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration concluded that one out of every 12 Christians, including nearly one out of every five Catholics, in the U.S. is at risk of being deported.

The vigil’s centerpiece was a silent Eucharistic procession led by Father Dennis Gill, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. He led the block-long procession around the back of the ICE building, past numerous Department of Homeland Security vehicles on the sidewalk during a busy lunch hour in Center City.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ commands us to treat one another as if we are treating Him. ‘Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me,’” Father Gill said.

“That becomes a powerful invitation to us when it comes to migrants and immigrants, to ensure as Christians that we treat them justly and with care, certainly having respect for the law, but side by side with that making sure that there isn’t harsh treatment, unjust treatment, violent treatment.”

The Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing and the archdiocesan Office for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees both participated in the event titled “Catholic Public Witness for Immigrants.”

The Handmaids of the Sacred Heart and the New Sanctuary Movement also co-organized the event locally as part of the national campaign by the group One Church, One Family.

“A fundamental belief of our Catholic and Christian faith tradition is that Jesus taught us to welcome the stranger, to stand and walk alongside those who are marginalized and oppressed, and to lift up their voices,” said Marcelle McGuirk, the chair of the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing, who helped lead the music.

Participants who sang, chanted, listened, prayed and held signs and artwork depicting immigrants came from more than a dozen Catholic organizations representing several religious orders.

“God has not abandoned his children,” said Assumption Sister Catherine Soley, who attended the vigil. “We’re held by a loving God who is very present, very real and very much with us.”

The clergy, religious and lay Catholics plus people of various beliefs were joined by more than 40 students and faculty from St. Joseph’s Preparatory High School in North Philadelphia.

“The Society of Jesus, our universal apostolic preference, walking with the excluded, very clearly demonstrates that not only do we need to acknowledge the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, but also in our brothers and sisters who are being detained against their will,” said William Kuncken, a religious studies teacher at the Prep.

The vigil came one day after the release of the Special Message on Immigration by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It also marked the feast day of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the patron saint of migrants.

“How much we need her intercession today as we see the images across our country of people being brutalized and aggressively attacked, either for being an immigrant, having the observable characteristics of one as the Supreme Court has said, or standing up for them,” said Sister Michelle Cimaroli of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She co-led the musical portions of the vigil.

“As we feel the increased presence of ICE in our communities, our neighbors and fellow parishioners who have been part of our own communities, who sit in the same pews, are being aggressively removed from us. We want them to feel our presence with them.”

The event began and ended with participants singing bilingual Catholic hymns linking the Eucharist and solidarity with migrants. It also included Nieves Delgado, a Filipino community organizer and immigrant to America who shared the story of a 25-year U.S. resident from Lancaster whom ICE captured and federal officials deported earlier this year.

“I know what it is to feel uprooted, to feel alone, to feel separated from those we love,” Delgado said. “I know that (she) came to this country just like my relatives did, looking for a better life for her family, only to be inhumanely thrown out.”

Those in attendance promised future action through the Cabrini Pledge, to “affirm in word and deed the inherent dignity of every person, regardless of immigration status or country of origin, seeing each as a child of God before all else.”

Many left ready to make that commitment far beyond mere conversation.

“People care about the same things that you do. Connect with as many people as you can, get out there,” said Autumn Chandler with the Sisters of St. Joseph Center for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. “It takes action. It doesn’t just take words.”

“Faith without works is dead,” said Jeff Wallace, who assisted with the music. “This feels like the right thing to do, especially in this moment.”