Thread: Fear of ICE among reasons century-old Detroit church closing

Fear of ICE among reasons century-old Detroit church closing

The Associated Press

DETROIT After more than 100 years, a Roman Catholic church in Detroit is closing, partly because Hispanics who worship there fear immigration agents.
The final Mass at All Saints Church will be celebrated Sunday on Detroit's southwest side. The congregation of 300 families will be encouraged to attend St. Gabriel, a nearby church.

All Saints was founded in 1896 and has been at its current site since the early 1900s, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.

The pastor at St. Gabriel, the Rev. Marc Gawronski, said there are many reasons for the closing of All Saints. The church has weak finances, needs repairs and has been losing members. A construction project on Interstate 75 has hurt attendance.

Gawronski said there has been an increase in raids and enforcement by federal immigration agents in the community.

Immigration agents have an "informal agreement that they have affirmed that they will not go into churches and not hassle people going to church," he said. Nonetheless, "people are even nervous about being able to get up in the morning and go to church."

Only three people attended a Spanish Mass on a recent Wednesday night, the Free Press reported.

In 2012, the Detroit archbishop told All Saints and St. Gabriel to make plans for an eventual merger.

Ila Mae Lancendorfer, 81, lives just a few blocks from All Saints. It has been a place for many of her personal milestones, such as baptism, First Communion and marriage. She was the music director for 30 years.

"The church has been just a very important part of my life — all my life," Lancendorfer said.

Fear of ICE Among Reasons Century-Old Detroit Church Closing

They can go to Church on their soil.

Churches are NOT above the Law...send in ICE to apprehend and deport illegal aliens.

Stop the Churches and States from harboring, aiding and abetting illegal aliens.

They should not be in our country!

NO DACA, NO AMNESTY, NO PATH TO STAY

VETO IT AND VOTE IT OUT!

This admits illegal invaders are keeping the Church afloat. I know I resent the stance the Church has taken. But this explains quite a bit, to me at least.

ICE should park vehicles near all these churches suspected of serving members who are illegal aliens. The Catholic Church is one of the biggest culprits in usurping our immigration laws, meddling in our politics, and wrongfully influencing laws and policies on this issue, and they do so for contributions and donations of drug money.

The pastor at St. Gabriel, the Rev. Marc Gawronski, said there are many reasons for the closing of All Saints. The church has weak finances, needs repairs and has been losing members. A construction project on Interstate 75 has hurt attendance.

Note that the pastor didn't mention raids among the reasons the church is closing. But the article's title suggests that is the main reason.

Originally Posted by Judy

The Catholic Church is one of the biggest culprits in usurping our immigration laws, meddling in our politics, and wrongfully influencing laws and policies on this issue, and they do so for contributions and donations of drug money.

Sadly you are right. Catholic priests only protect illegal aliens because the vast majority of them are Catholic Mexicans and South and Central Americans. It's all about religion to them. Instead of standing by other American Citizens in trying to save our country, they put religion first. They would rather support a Catholic illegal alien from south of the border rather than side with one of their American brothers/sisters who are not Catholic.

It really pisses me off. Here in Chicago, if you say anything bad about illegal aliens to any Irish Catholic, and I have a few Irish friends, who I butt heads with when we talk about illegal immigration, they get really mad, like you are attacking them personally. And you only know it's because they share the same religion, or else they wouldn't really give a rat's ass about illegals.

And I say Irish Catholics because for some reason, a lot of people here in the Chicago/Northwest Indiana area that immigrated here from the south like Kentucky or Tennessee think they are Irish, even though they are of Scottish decent, and are Protestant and not Catholic. But this is another topic for another Thread/Section.

But in a nutshell, since it's been mentioned, I once made a comment on here about a childhood friend of mine who always thought he was Irish while we were growing up, but in High School, after visiting his grandparents in Kentucky, he told me that he found out that he is Scottish from his grandparents. The Scots-Irish label always made him mistakenly think he was Irish, but found out that it means Scottish. They were the Scottish people who were briefly settled in Northern Ireland by the British to act as a buffer between them and the unruly Irish.

After a couple generations, they were getting tired of getting attacked by the Irish on one side and oppressed by the English on the other side. So they said screw this and came to the U.S., where they later scattered to the southern/Appalacian states like Kentucky, Tennessee, etc. There were also some English who settled in Northern Ireland at this time along with the mostly Scottish. So there are southerners (Scots-Irish) who are also of English decent. The term Scots-Irish is very misleading and was only coined here in the U.S by the native English American settlers. These Scots-Irish, today's American Southerners, always called themselves Ulster Scots before coming here to the U.S.

Interesting!

Originally Posted by Judy

Interesting!

Yeah, I kind of started ranting there. It just really makes me mad when people will side with foreigners instead of their own countrymen because of religion.

But as far as the second part of what I said, it really saddens me that most southerns don't know about their Scottish, and in a lot of cases, their English ancestry. The Scots have a lot to be proud of in their history. I wish southerners would research and take pride in their great ancestry. Nowadays, it's actually quite simple to research this stuff. You can google phrases like "Nationality of the surname______ (Fill in the Blank). Or you can google "Scottish Surnames". Generally, names like Nelson, Hanson, Davidson, McCormack, etc., from down south, are common Scottish names.

I like your rants, you need to rant more!!

Originally Posted by Judy

I like your rants, you need to rant more!!

I like your posts too Judy. You're one of the best posters on here, and I'm a big fan of yours.