Catholic leaders hold border Mass in Arizona to defend migrants

More than 100 Catholic bishops, nuns, priests and parishioners crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales on Friday evening. The procession began at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Nogales, Arizona, and moved into Nogales, Sonora, under the banner Border Mass 250, a gathering tied to the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.

Organizers scheduled a 4 p.m. pastoral conversation, a 5 p.m. Mass and a 6:15 p.m. rosary and procession into Mexico. The Diocese of Tucson called the event a “ministry of presence” focused on human dignity. Tucson Bishop James Misko helped lead the gathering, joined by Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe and Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish overlooks the border fence, and the crossing happened as temperatures reached 36 degrees Celsius, or 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Sister Eileen McKenzie, a Franciscan nun who works with migrants, pointed to the harsh desert heat as a danger people face in the Sonoran desert and in detention systems.

Just before the Mass, the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed the Trump administration to turn away asylum seekers at the border and strip deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a special immigration message 216-5 with 3 abstentions on Nov. 12, 2025. It expressed distress about fear and anxiety around profiling and enforcement, criticized the vilification of immigrants, and raised concerns about detention conditions and the lack of pastoral care.

The bishops’ 2026 religious-liberty report said immigration enforcement would remain a major concern and reiterated Catholic teaching that governments may control borders while still upholding the dignity of every human person.