Jack Jenkins

Moments before Department of Homeland Security agents fired a hail of pepper balls at the feet of demonstrators outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey May 25, faith leaders say they were frantically working to calm things down.

"As AI amplifies and compounds religious bias at scale, more users may misunderstand the contribution faith and belief can make to moral and ethical AI grounding," said Elder Gerrit W. Gong, one of the 12 apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a speech.

"We need accountability. We need to set goals, track registrations, follow up to ensure that those who register actually vote," a Church of God in Christ bishop said at an "emergency" meeting.

A peculiar meeting at the Pentagon between apostolic nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who serves as Pope Leo XIV's U.S. representative, and a senior Department of Defense official has led to a flurry of speculation and concern about the relationship between the Pentagon and the Vatican.

The increase in faith-fueled militaristic rhetoric is pitting the president against a growing list of faith leaders, ranging from local clergy to the pope.

Both Apollo 8 and Artemis II missions included public references to religion, but astronauts aboard the Artemis' Orion spacecraft struck a broader, more global tone.

In the last week, faith leaders were offered some of their first glimpses into ICE facilities, making use of a degree of access denied to most people — even members of Congress.

A new survey finds support for Trump’s immigration agenda weakened even among his steadfast supporters: white evangelicals and white Catholics.

Not since the Civil Rights Era has the religious left so publicly and collaboratively protested in the name of a social question they regard as a spiritual one.

The plaintiff group — the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership — has announced that Cardinal Blase Cupich will be joining them for Ash Wednesday Mass.

Their Feb. 13 statement, led by Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, outlines a series of Catholic social teaching principles that the lawmakers say they consider when approaching immigration issues.

"I've had some priests who are of a different color being targeted and arrested — stopped — because of their color and asking them to prove that they're citizens. That's not America," the Chicago cardinal said.

President Donald Trump, speaking to a sprawling crowd at a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday (Feb. 5), returned to his personal tradition of using the bipartisan convening as an opportunity to attack his political enemies along religious lines.

Like religious leaders in cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere, local clergy were quick to muster resistance to the rapid influx of immigration enforcement agents, even as they wrangle with the unusual geography of Maine.

The faith leaders, who hail from across the country and represent a range of religious traditions, deployed to neighborhoods with significant immigrant populations, where DHS agents have been most active.

The question of offering pastoral care to immigrant detainees has become a theological and legal flashpoint since President Donald Trump launched his mass deportation effort last year.

The faith-based networks, which developed organizing infrastructure and relationships during the Floyd era, are joined by newcomers as resistance efforts have intensified since Good's shooting.

It's all just too much, but my faith requires me to show up,' said the Rev. Dana Neuhauser.

 "There was a request for clergy to show up" at the scene, said one Minneapolis minister. "I was out the door."

Clergy, churches and other religious organizations wrestle with how to mark one of the most important Christian holidays while also serving an immigrant population in crisis.