Sunday Musings: The Dangers of Going to Mass
Ninety-four percent of Catholics in Nigeria attend Sunday Mass. What makes this statistic even more impressive is that Christians in Nigeria regularly face persecution. According to the international organization Open Doors, 5,600 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2023 because of their faith. The Vatican notes that 145 priests were kidnapped and 11 were killed in Nigeria between 2015 and 2025.
“There is a silent genocide going on in Nigeria — a genocide of Christians,” Emeka Umeagbalasi, director of Nigeria’s Intersociety agency, said in a 2024 interview with OSV News.
Still, priests serve Mass, and the faithful show up. “The Catholic faith is generally very strong in the country, and I think it is the prayer of the faithful that has not wiped out Christianity in Nigeria,” Father Moses Iorapuu, director of social communications for the Diocese of Makurdi, told OSV News. “This is because the faith planted in Nigeria was not limited to church and spirituality. It was all-embracing and holistic. Our impact is felt even among non-Christians.”
This same staunch faith propels Christians in Palestine, China, Iraq and Syria to risk terrorism, kidnapping and murder to attend Sunday liturgy.
Meanwhile, in California, Catholics just received a dispensation from attending Mass.
San Bernardino Bishop Alberto Rojas told his flock that they are excused from their Sunday obligations because of fears of ICE arrests. San Bernardino County has an estimated 122,000 undocumented immigrants. The diocese includes about one million Catholics.
"We have seen a change and an increase in immigration enforcement in our region and specifically in our diocese," Rojas said after two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions occurred on diocesan properties. "Authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God."
Rojas also asked the agency to "please reconsider and cease these tactics immediately, in favor of an approach that respects human rights and human dignity and builds toward a more lasting, comprehensive reform of our immigration system."
Places of worship were considered protected areas where ICE could not enforce immigration laws. The Trump Administration changed the guidelines in early 2025. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement at the time.
The United States has every right to detain or deport people who enter the country illegally. During his two terms as President, Barack Obama deported 3.1 million people. During his first term, President Trump deported only about 900,000 people. Joe Biden had more deportations than that during his first year in office.
This article isn’t going to speculate about why fears are more heightened now than they were when Obama or Biden was President. The point is that it has kept some Catholic undocumented immigrants from attending Mass, and that is an unfortunate situation with no clear solution in sight. A dispensation from a Catholic diocese won’t make it better.
We should look to the faithful in Nigeria and other countries for courage in receiving the Sacraments despite possible dangers.
As Psalm 46 says:
God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Thus we do not fear, though earth be shaken
and mountains quake to the depths of the sea,
Though its waters rage and foam
and mountains totter at its surging.