DETTERLING GOES TO CONFESSION...

In preparation no doubt for the falling of the final curtain Detterling attends confession. His confessor is Archdeacon J.C. Flannel of the C of E parish of Blaydon Races.

Detterling: Bless me Father for I have sinned,

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: How long has it been since your last confession my son?

Detterling: Actually I have not been since 1972. Which was also the last year that I shaved. Have had a beard since then.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: So you haven't been shaved or haven't been shriven since 1972? Tee! Hee! Hee! Hee! It's the way I tell 'em.

Detterling: Very good Archdeacon.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: And what sins do you wish to confess my son?

Detterling: The Sin of Onan. Yes over the years endless masturbation. 

Archdeacon J.C Flannel: Well, in your case I figured as much. One can always tell. And my son is this masturbation still continuing?

Detterling: No, it ended when I developed erectile dysfunction.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: And you are truly sorry for all those years of masturbation?

Detterling: Well, I guess so.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Any other sins my son?

Detterling: Yes, I have a life-long fear and loathing of gays and lesbians.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Really! This is most strange.

Detterling: Yes, I know. Publicly I am a committed supporter of  the Gay Lobby but the truth is that I hate and despise all gays.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: How has this come about my son?

Deterrling: It's a long story Father but I will encapsulate it. Back in my school days when I was in the Sixth Form I was accused by my fellow students of engaging in masturbation. I was hauled before the Student Council and the charge was substantiated. I was sentenced to be sent to Coventry. The Chairman of the Student Council who communicated the sentence to me was gay. Ever since then I have hated gays. But of course I pretend the opposite. To protect my pinko-liberal, Left-wing credentials I pretend to support the Gay Lobby. I know that it's so hypocritical. Recently a gentleman named Swashbuckling Mulligan wrote a devastating satire on my hypocrisy in this. I was knocked for six.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Hypocrisy is a terrible sin. Remember Jesus was harsh only with hypocrites.

Detterling: I know. I know. Mea culpa.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel:  Just a thought. To make reparation here perhaps you could make a clean breast of it and write an article giving your true feelings on all things Gay Lobby? Perhaps you could publish this in one of the Tyneside newspapers? Perhaps The Chronicle, The Northumberland Gazette, The Northern Echo? I think you may find this a wonderful catharsis my son.

Detterling: That'd a good idea. I will certainly consider it.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Now, anything else to confess my son?

Detterling: Well yes, my envy, jealousy of and deep-seated resentment to Gene Vincent.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: How long have these feelings towards Mr. Vincent existed?

Detterling: Over twenty years now Father.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Oh! dear! Oh! Dear!

Detterling: It all began with eight and a half inches. Gene is blessed with a male member measuring eight and a half inches in length - girth in proportion no doubt. Now when I compare my pathetic three and a half inches (when in maximum tumescence) I feel so inadequate.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Well, I think it best for you to leave this aside. None of us can compete with Gene Vincent in this respect.

Detterling: Not easy Father but I guess I will try. However there is much more troubling me as regards Gene. He and I have had so many battles over the past twenty years. Some on the TES website, some on Gene's blog. I always lose. Gene always gets the better of me and I have built up such anger and hatred towards him.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Oh! dear! anger and hatred gets us nowhere my son. You must forgive Gene Vincent.

Detterling: Forgive Gene??? I would find that so hard to do. This man has even boasted about mounting my wife Delia Doggy-style.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Oh! dear! Oh! dear! This is serious. This soul is heading for the bottomless pit. You must pray for Gene - that such a fate may never befall him. 

Detterling: Well, if my salvation depends on it I will try and forgive Gene. Not easy. He has torn me to shreds on so many occasion. He has mocked and guffawed at me. He has made me a laughingstock. He has a rapier-like wit. On one occasion I wrote to him:

'Gene I know that you probably despise me.' He wrote back, 'Well, if I ever gave it any thought I probably would.'

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Yes, I know how easy it is to build up hatred. I have fallen into that myself. How I detested and loathed that creeping Jesus Runcie and his self-basting pietism. And I absolutely abhorred Rowan Williams with his silky voice and superior attitude. Oops! What have I said? You didn't hear any of that!

Detterling: Gene's forte is Theology and how I have repeatedly come a cropper when I tangled with him on theological issues. For example, aging woke fool that I am, I once wrote that the Holy Spirit is a woman. My word! How Gene tore me to shreds for such jackassery. He wrote:

'Putting aside the obvious point that God the Holy Spirit transcends physicality, based on biblical texts the gender of the Holy Spirit as male is a core tenet of Church belief. Denying it would heresy.

While Holy Spirit’s power and influence is often expressed in Scripture with feminine imagery (e.g., the word “ruach … spirit“ in Hebrew is feminine), Scripture consistently refers to the Holy Spirit using masculine pronouns. Jesus himself referred to the Holy Spirit as “He” (Greek ekeînos as in John 14:26, 15:26, 16:13).'

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: So he is quite a learned man this Gene?

Detterling: Yes he is. And the irony is that despite me losing in every showdown I have had with him on theological issues I have learned so much about the Faith - about the Church teaching on homosexual acts, about the Church teaching on Original sin, about the heresy of Pelagianism, about the theology of Saint Paul and even about the Thirty-nine Articles.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Well, it is marvellous that you can see Gene's correction of you in such a positive light. But, I have a feeling that there is more to be confessed about your relationship with Gene.

Detterling: Indeed there is Father. I have been consumed with envy at Gene's success as a writer. I am a writer myself and have completed a memoir entitled Journeyman. It will be published posthumously. Gene has long claimed that he was working on a major opus that would be a ground-breaking new literary form. I regularly dismissed his claims as fantasy and was adamant that his work would never be published. Then, lo and behold, his book came out in late 2023. It is entitled Granny Barkes Fell in Woolworth's. I was devastated at its publication. Gene has beat me to the punch. And to make matters worse it received great acclaim from figures such as A.N. Wilson and Arianna Huffington. I am just totally consumed with envy, jealousy and resentment.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: My son envy, jealousy and resentment constitute great sin. My suggestion is that you take steps to expiate this sin. Have one of those old-style human sandwich boards made - you know the kind that straps over the shoulders. Have an advert for Granny Barkes Fell in Woolworth's emblazoned back and front. Walk for, say, two hours a day up and down the Scotswood Road promoting Granny Barkes Fell in Woolworth's. It will do you a power of good.

Detterling: Now Father there is something else. Something terrible.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: It's not bestiality is it? Please let it not be.

Detterling: No Father it is not bestiality - but it is a terrible sin.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Well, the old adage applies. 'Confession is good for the soul'. So it is best to confess it my son.

Detterling: Well, here goes. I have a nephew Cuthbert. Cuthbert is gay. I think the world of him. Back around fifteen years ago I was engaged in a heated argument with Gene Vincent on the Times Educational Supplement website. I was losing of course. I thought I would seek the sympathy vote. (One of my worst weaknesses is playing the sympathy card. Once I did a John Stonehouse and faked my own death. I was rumbled by Gene of course.)

Anyhow at the time I had a nephew who tragically committed suicide. I tried by slight of hand to pretend it was my gay nephew Cuthbert. Gene rumbled me of course. And most unfortunately Cuthbert discovered my deceit and we have been estranged since.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: This kind of deceit can cause such hurt and pain. You must repent. You must try and reconcile with your nephew. Maybe you could find someone to act as an intermediary?

Detterling: As a matter of fact Gene Vincent did offer to act as a go between. But I turned him down.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: I am coming to believe that this Gene fellow isn't all bad. In some ways he comes across as a loveable rogue, a rapscallion.  I think he might make a good stand-up comedian. 

I myself have a bit of a reputation as a stand-up comedian. At archdeacon convocations I usually finish the sessions with my version of a Frank Carson routine. It goes like this:

"Have you heard the one about the Irishman who broke into a betting shop? He lost two thousand quid.

Have you heard the one about the Irishman who went to live in China? He died out there and is buried in the paddy fields.

If you come across a man who was born in the town of Nancy in northern France would it be okay to refer to him as a Nancy boy?"

Tee! Hee! Hee! It's the way I tell 'em.

 Detterling: Very good Archdeacon but could we return to my confession?

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: There is more to confess my son?

Detterling: Indeed there is. I confess that I have been a pseud all my adult life. And conceited, pompous and arrogant with it. Yes, an incorrigible pseud. Gene Vincent has said that I should have my own resident slot on Private Eye's Pseuds Corner.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: Being a pseud is certainly sinful. Amongst other things it includes the sin of pride. The attitude that you are superior in understanding and comprehension. Superior than other mere mortals. Pride: that was the sin of Lucifer the fallen angel. You must move away from being a pseud.

Detterling: Everything you say is true Father but is so difficult. Being a pseud is built into my very DNA.

Archdeacon J.C. Flannel: I know all about pseuds. I went to Newcastle University as a young man in the early 1970s. It was wall-to-wall pseudery. Pseuds in sandals reading Sartre and Foucault. Pseuds in kaftans listening to Iron Butterfly, Barclay James Harvest, John Cage. Pseuds here, there and everywhere all talking bollocks. Oh! yes. I have lived through it.

(To be continued)

 

 

‘A voice told me not to be afraid’: The story of Lourdes’ 72nd recognized miracle

By Solène Tadié

CNA Newsroom, Jul 26, 2025 / 11:15 am

Antonia Raco, a 67-year-old Italian woman long affected by an incurable neurodegenerative illness, was officially introduced to the press on July 25 in Lourdes, where her healing was recognized as the 72nd miracle attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary since the apparitions of 1858.  

In a moment of great joy, the 72nd miracle of Lourdes Antonia Raco spoke about her miracle. An incredible experience for many to witness on our pilgrimage and a great reminder that we are all pilgrims of hope. pic.twitter.com/Y0Ahj4zOcN

— Archdiocese of Liverpool (@lpoolcatholic) July 25, 2025

Diagnosed in 2006 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — a progressive and fatal condition — Raco experienced a recovery that defied medical explanation.

First announced by the Sanctuary of Lourdes on April 16, the recognition marked the culmination of 16 years of medical, canonical, and pastoral inquiry. Raco, a mother and active parishioner from Basilicata in southern Italy, had been living with the disease for several years when she traveled to Lourdes in 2009.

“I had wanted to go to Lourdes since I was a child,” she recalled. That wish came true that summer, when she and her husband, Antonio, traveled to the shrine with the Italian pilgrimage association Unitalsi.

The experience, however, was not exactly as she had once imagined: She arrived in a wheelchair, already struggling to breathe and swallow.

On the second day, sanctuary volunteers brought her to the baths. “We prayed together. That’s when I heard a beautiful young female voice say three times: ‘Don’t be afraid!’” she recounted during the press conference in Lourdes, held in the presence of religious and medical authorities.  

Raco wore the white veil and uniform of the Hospitallers of Lourdes — the volunteer caregivers she now joins each year, assisting the sick with the same compassion once shown to her.  

“At that moment, I burst into tears and prayed for the intentions I had brought with me.” 

She described a sudden, sharp pain in her legs during immersion, as though “they were taken away from me.” She did not disclose what had happened to anyone during her stay and returned home in a wheelchair.

It was there, in her living room with her husband, that she again heard the same voice urging her, “Tell him! Call him!” Obeying the voice, she called out to her husband, who had just stepped into the kitchen. “Something has happened,” she told him.

In that moment, she stood unaided for the first time in years. Overcome with emotion, the couple embraced, crying together as they realized she was cured.

Though overjoyed, Raco was initially unsure of how to speak about her experience. She eventually confided in a parish priest in her diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro in Basilicata, who urged her to undergo medical evaluation.

Soon after, the local archbishop who had accompanied the pilgrimage that year, Francesco Nolè, visited her and, after hearing her story, told her: “Antonietta, the Lord has entered your home and given you a gift — but it is not for you alone. It is for all of us.” 

The road to recognition took more than a decade of thorough medical evaluation and expert review. “There is no cure for ALS,” noted Professor Vincenzo Silani, a leading neurologist involved in the investigation. He was among those who confirmed both the diagnosis and the inexplicability of Raco’s recovery. “Patients are doomed to get a little worse every day.” 

Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, the permanent doctor at the Lourdes Sanctuary, reminded the audience that the Church considers a healing miraculous only if it is sudden, complete, lasting, medically inexplicable, and not attributable to treatment or gradual recovery.

These criteria, which continue to guide the Church’s discernment today, were first established by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, later Pope Benedict XIV.

Debate within the International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL) was initially inconclusive when the case was first presented in 2019. But a new international consensus on the diagnosis of ALS, published in 2020, provided the framework for reassessment. In 2023, Silani reevaluated Raco in Milan and confirmed the definitive cure. 

Finally, in November 2024, a secret vote was held among 21 members of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes: 17 voted in favor of an unexplained, complete, and lasting cure — meeting the two-thirds majority required by Church criteria. 

Following the positive medical vote, the case was referred to the current bishop of Raco’s home diocese, Vincenzo Carmine Orofino, who formally recognized the miracle on April 16 of this year.

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes, who participated in the scientific process without voting, praised the rigor and transparency of the medical discussions. “What impressed me most,” he said, “was the freedom of the experts. They are not there to defend a cause but to seek the truth.”

He also reminded the participants that miracles never impose faith. “Even the Resurrection did not force anyone to believe,” he said. “A miracle is a sign — a gift to be received in the light of faith.” 

Closing the press briefing, the rector of the sanctuary, Father Michel Daubanes, expressed deep emotion and gratitude as he recalled the honor of announcing the miracle during the 6 p.m. rosary on Holy Thursday, April 17, just minutes before it was proclaimed at the cathedral of Tursi-Lagonegro.

“We often say: ‘If I saw a miracle, I would believe.’ But the truth is: If I believe, I can see miracles,” he reflected. “This healing is not just a story from the past. It is a living testimony that continues to bear fruit.”

Solène Tadié is the Europe Correspondent for the National Catholic Register. She is French-Swiss and grew up in Paris. After graduating from Roma III University with a degree in journalism, she began reporting on Rome and the Vatican for Aleteia. She joined L’Osservatore Romano in 2015, where she successively worked for the French section and the Cultural pages of the Italian daily newspaper. She has also collaborated with several French-speaking Catholic media organizations. Solène has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

 

 

Germany: 

A Priest From Fulda Breaks With His Diocese

July 24, 2025

Source: FSSPX News

Fr. Winfried Abel

Fr. Winfried Abel, now 86, has held various positions in the Diocese of Fulda, his hometown, since his ordination in March 1964. He retired in 2014, but continued to be active, particularly with media outlets such as Radio Horeb, Radio Maria Austria, ETWN, and K-TV. He is very popular among German-speaking Catholics.

In an open letter addressed to the Vicar General, Dr. Martin Stanke, he announced that he ceased to identify himself as a "priest of the Diocese of Fulda." This open letter is worth quoting in its entirety, for its powerful stance and the specific detailed criticisms of the current situation in the Diocese of Fulda. However, other German dioceses are in more or less the same situation.

The Letter

"May the name of Jesus be your salvation!"  These are the customary welcoming words of greeting to visitors given by St. Nicholas of Flüe, in whose homeland I had the privilege of spending a few days of rest. This patron saint of Switzerland, rock of faith, also described as the last mystic of the Middle Ages, still divides minds today. For he ‘personally’ posed a vital question to the Church, which I would like to formulate in this way, in reference to you and the leadership of the diocese:

"What distinguishes the Church of Fulda from secular society?"

During my vacation in Switzerland, I learned of the upcoming Christopher Street Day in Fulda, for which you wrote a welcome message as Vicar General, undoubtedly with the agreement of our bishop, and which you published on the diocesan website.

You wanted to express your appreciation for "queer" people. However, this word caused me two sleepless nights. You may know that the English word "queer" also means "not quite normal"! I wonder: who isn't quite normal here?

The so-called "pride marches" are symptoms of a morally decadent society that has exceeded the bounds of decency and morality. They are a colorful display of perversions, the glorification of tasteless obscenities, and a spectacle of the loss of the sense of modesty. All this under the motto "free love for all"!

If you welcome a "pride parade," then, as a doctor of theology, you should be sensitive to the word "pride." "Pride" lies at the origin of human history: it triggered the catastrophe we call original sin, because man opposed God in his pride and arrogance and broke his friendship with God. The first "Pride Parade" was, as we know, the expulsion of mankind from Paradise. God countered this "exodus" with a second exodus, led by Jesus, the new Moses.

Jesus never attributed sin to "systemic causes," but to the abuse of freedom and disobedience to God's commandments. I find it tragic and revealing that, after the publication of the study on child abuse, which, incidentally, revealed nothing new, the leadership of our diocese claims to be "horrified" and "deeply affected," while welcoming and approving the very things that cause and foster these abuses, namely the moral excesses of our society! So you want to cast out the devil with Beelzebub?

In the first chapter of Sacred Scripture (Genesis 1:27), a fundamental truth about the nature of humankind is clearly stated: "And God created man . . . He created him: male and female He created them." ("masculine and feminine"), not "man/woman/non-binary," as our Church, subject to state directives and the so-called "discoveries of the human sciences," states in all its job advertisements.

The difference between the sexes, a prerequisite for unity and fertility, is an integral part of the image of God in man! Must we allow modern "human sciences" to explain to us an order of creation that openly contradicts divine revelation?

Exactly two days after the death of Pope Francis, the German Bishops' Conference and the ZdK [Central Committee of German Catholics] deemed the vacancy of the papal see the opportune moment to publish the “Guide for Pastors Celebrating Blessings for Loving Couples.” This demonstrates, in the words of Peter Winnemöller, "a lack of tact, irreverence, even brazen insolence." Personally, I can't find any other words to describe it.

I am truly deeply shocked that "my" Catholic Church in this country, which I have served for 61 years, has fallen so low that even our bishops no longer differentiate between sexual, erotic, friendly, and divine love—sexus, eros, philia, agape—but approve and bless indiscriminately everything that falls under the concept of "love"!

I ask again: "What differentiates the Church of Fulda from secular society?"

Jesus once sent out his disciples, saying: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves" (Mt 10:16). The majority (!) of our pastors, who fear public opinion more than death by gunfire, interpret Jesus' words to mean that we must howl with the wolves. They adopt slogans that refer to new scientific discoveries and advocate a diversity that is nothing but arbitrariness.

St. Hildegard of Bingen describes this erroneous attitude in these terms: "Man is a rebel, he tears the Creator to pieces in the multitude of his creatures!" This much-vaunted diversity has its origins in the seed of sin, that is, in the disobedience of man who opposes God's creation with his own counter-creation made with his own hands.

This results in another dilemma: the majority of our bishops no longer know the difference between blessing and cursing. In his book The Great Divorce, the renowned Irish-born author C.S. Lewis uttered this memorable phrase: "In the end, only two groups of men will stand before God: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'Thy will be done.'"

To the first group belong the blessed: "Come, you blessed of my Father..." (Mt. 25:34). To the second belong the cursed, whose life plan God permits, but whom He neither "approves" nor "blesses"! Those who have chosen their own path are doomed. Anyone who understands anything about the discernment of spirits will immediately recognize that the bishops' "outstretched hand" is not a blessing, but a curse.

Therefore, I ask you: Can the Church "acknowledge with esteem" or bless a human decision that is clearly directed against God and the order of His creation? If an alcoholic asks for a blessing, he wants to be freed from his addiction, but not for his alcoholism to be blessed.

But if a homosexual couple asks the Church to bless them to confirm their way of life, the Church must refuse this blessing! A Church that bows to the spirit of the times ends up being taken seriously by no one. Those who invoke Fiducia Supplicans here or claim that the Bible contains no warning on the subject of "homosexuality" are interpreting the word of God ideologically and thus establishing their own magisterium.

Could John the Baptist have saved his life if he had blessed King Herod's second marriage? Could the cultivated humanist and Lord Chancellor St. Thomas More have survived if he had approved of the six adulteries committed by his King Henry VIII? Were all these martyrs of the Church mad, even ignorant?

And we, the priests of the Diocese of Fulda, must bless adultery and disordered relationships between people, in the face of so many faithful Christians—think also of the martyrs of Uganda!—who gave their lives for the order of God and the indissolubility of marriage? Do we not mock their bloody witness when we lead the march of unleashed madness?

In a press release recently published by our diocese, I read: "Offers for persons of all sexes are increasingly being established throughout the diocese. Thus, pastors are available to bless unmarried couples in church." The KHG [Catholic Student Association] Marburg and the KjG [Catholic Youth Organization] Fulda offer religious services for queer Catholics...

So this is modern Christian youth work! ... And you still ask why the Fulda seminary is empty?

I can give you the answer: young people with ideals will never again choose the priesthood in Fulda, because they can no longer recognize what makes the difference. Do you seriously think that the shortage of priests is due to the lack of "work-life balance" (Bishop Gerber) in the daily lives of priests? This Anglicism is taken from secular language. If so, it would rather be due to the lack of balance between a cultivated friendship with God and daily work (between work and prayer).

So I ask again: "What differentiates the Church of Fulda from secular society?" 

Today, I would like to cry out to the few remaining believers: "People, hear the signals!" The symptoms of the moral decline of the Church in our diocese are evident and undeniable. On the feast of Boniface, the rainbow flag parades unopposed in the Cathedral Square. The church of our spiritual father Boniface now serves almost exclusively as a useful backdrop for the noisy and uncultured concerts in the Cathedral Square.

Many Eucharistic celebrations are now nothing more than a backdrop for loudly applauded shows and cheap entertainment. I wrote in a letter to a colleague who, during Carnival, delivered a primitive and unassuming speech instead of a sermon at a costumed Mass: "Your proclamation was a sin!" 

In open defiance of the Pope, all German dioceses celebrate Junia Day [whom feminists claim to have been an apostle] and demand the "long-overdue" ordination of women. Children of unbelieving parents are baptized, even though it is known that this condemns them to leave the Church later. In superficial sermons, the name of God is still mentioned, but almost exclusively in the context of better human coexistence and a habitable earth. The heavens are no longer open...

St. Nicholas of Flüe, mentioned at the beginning of this article, was once visited by a young man who wanted to dedicate his life to the service of God and asked him for advice on the matter. The famous hermit replied: "If you want to serve God, you must not worry about anyone." By this, he meant: "Don't conform to this world! Don't seek the applause of the crowd and don't worry about public tastes!" Courageously follow the path God has laid out for you!"

In conclusion: I no longer wish to be a priest of this diocese. In the future, I will no longer refer to myself as a "priest of the Diocese of Fulda," but as a "priest of the Roman Catholic Church," because I believe that the Petrine ministry, based in Rome, is the guarantor of a Church to which Jesus' promise still applies: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This promise is no longer guaranteed to the Church of Fulda.

.....

A copy of this letter was sent to Bishop Gerber, to Auxiliary Bishop Diez and all the deans.

 

Catholic archbishop of Miami rides Harley Davidson to 'Alligator Alcatraz'

 News

Catholic archbishop of Miami rides Harley Davidson to 'Alligator Alcatraz'

(RNS) — Despite extensive attempts to obtain approval to say Mass in the detention center, Wenski told RNS the archdiocese had not been able to provide pastoral care for the detained migrants. 

Motorcycles ridden by Knights on Bikes are parked in front of the entrance to “Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades, on July 20, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain

July 22, 2025

(RNS) — On Sunday (July 20), a group of more than two dozen motorcyclists, including Miami’s Catholic Archbishop Thomas Wenski, rode to “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Florida state immigration detention center in the wetlands of the Everglades, to pray the rosary. 

The riders were members of the Knights on Bikes in Florida, a chapter of Knights on Bikes, an international fraternal organization of the Knights of Columbus. The Florida group has said the rosary outside prisons on several rides over the years, and Wenski, a rider himself and the chaplain for the international organization, suggested the stop at “Alligator Alcatraz.” 

At least 700 people have been detained or scheduled to be sent to “Alligator Alcatraz,” which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration ordered built in eight days as a “makeshift detention space.” It is expected to hold up to 5,000 people and cost Florida $450 million to operate for a year. Migrants, former guards and Democratic lawmakers have raised safety concerns about the facility, including lack of water, leaking tents and swarming mosquitoes.

Despite extensive attempts to obtain approval to say Mass in the detention center, Wenski told Religion News Service the archdiocese had not been able to provide pastoral care for the detained migrants. 

“You can’t make America great by making America mean,” said Wenski.

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RELATED: After immigration raids, Southern California Catholic bishop lifts Mass obligation

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Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, right, and Knights on Bikes pray the rosary for detainees at the entrance to “Alligator Alcatraz”  in the Florida Everglades, July 20, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski)

In a statement earlier this month, Wenski raised concerns about “intentionally provocative” rhetoric around the detention facility and safety issues with the location and precariousness of the center.

“Common decency requires that we remember the individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives,” Wenski wrote. “It is unbecoming of public officials and corrosive of the common good to speak of the deterrence value of ‘alligators and pythons’ at the Collier-Dade facility.”

Wenski told RNS that the deacon in charge of the archdiocese’s prison ministry, Edgardo Farías, had earlier traveled to the detention facility’s gates to request access, and the Florida Catholic Conference director, Michael Sheedy, had made outreach attempts to DeSantis’ office. 

The archbishop added that U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Republican who represents the Everglades as part of his congressional district, had called the Florida secretary of state’s office and was told pastoral access was a federal issue, even though, Wenski said, “The people on the federal side had told us it’s a state issue.”

Throughout his ecclesial career, Wenski said, he had faced roadblocks to saying Mass in prisons and detention facilities. Prison officials have objected to wine being brought in for Mass or have cited overcrowding. In the past, he said, he had been able to work through these issues.

When his priest was unable to enter the Krome Detention Center to say Mass during Lent this year, Wenski asked Gimenez to make some calls, and the archbishop was able to celebrate two small Easter Masses at the facility. “Overcrowding is not an excuse not to have Mass. The solution is not to eliminate Mass but to eliminate the overcrowding,” Wenski said.

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RELATED: Trump’s immigration agenda is widening fissures in Catholic hierarchy’s consensus

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Knights on Bikes pray the rosary for detainees at the entrance to “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades, July 20, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski)

Outside “Alligator Alcatraz,” Wenski, wearing a motorcycle jacket with patches that said “World Wide Arch Bishop” and “Ecclesiastical Province of Miami,” led the Knights on Bikes in the rosary and then blessed a highway patrol officer who had blocked their entry to the detention center.

Last month, Wenski rode his motorcycle 300 miles, from Miami to St. Augustine, Florida, for an international Knights on Bikes rally. Wenski, 74, said he has been riding a motorcycle since turning 50.

“ Motorcycles really help you pray a lot because there are a lot of crazy drivers out there,” he said. “ You have to be asking the Lord to send his angels to watch over you.”

The Knights on Bikes have also provided the archbishop a place to meet a “great bunch of guys” and “clear the cobwebs from my mind,” said Wenski.

Off the motorcycle, Wenski continues to advocate for immigration reform, including in conversations with lawmakers. He believes Congress should create a pathway to green cards for people in the country without legal status by updating the immigration registry process. 

Currently, immigrants who have been in the U.S. since before Jan. 1, 1972, can apply for a green card, or permanent residency, even if they have entered the country without legal status. Wenski advocates changing that date to 2015 or 2018, which would allow many immigrants to legalize their status, but he said one of his interlocutors on the issue, South Florida U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, told him the idea would not have a chance in Congress.

Wenski argues that immigration reform is necessary for President Donald Trump to fulfill his promises on the economy. “You’re not gonna have the most robust economy ever without taking into account the contribution of the labor of immigrants,” Wenski said.