Fr Frank O’Loughlin, an Irish-born priest and former seminarian of All Hallows College in Dublin, led a Mass outside the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center last week, marking his 60th jubilee while protesting US. immigration policies.
The 83-year-old priest, long known for his work with migrant communities in Florida, drew more than 100 supporters to the Everglades site, where families prayed and demanded an end to detentions and separations.
Among them was 14-year-old Angelica Maldonado, whose father, Rufino, was detained on August 10. “My dad has always been there for me on the first day of school,” she said through tears. “This is cruel. They are ripping families apart,” she told the Palm Beach Post newspaper.
Fr O’Loughlin, founder of the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, used the service to link faith with advocacy. He compared today’s migrants to the Israelites of Exodus, declaring: “Shall we ever permit anybody to call them aliens? If you start calling them illegal, the next stop is calling them criminal.”
Attendees traveled from across Florida and beyond, some flying in to honor the man they call “Father Frank.” Jerry Kay, who knew him 50 years ago, said: “He’s frail, but when he takes to the pulpit, he’s got more strength than most people I know.”
The Guatemalan-Maya Center organized the gathering, erecting tents, chairs, and banners. Cars lined the roadside as parishioners, advocates, and farmworker families prayed under the summer heat. Many voiced opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions in Florida communities.
Maria Barajas, 75, who once picked fields alongside her husband and protested with Fr O’Loughlin decades earlier, said they came again to resist deportations. “We are against all this separation of families,” she said.
For Fr O’Loughlin, the Mass was both jubilee celebration and protest — a reminder that his ministry, shaped in Dublin, remains rooted in justice. “You are proclaiming this kingdom of death will end and the reign of God will shine forth among us,” he told the crowd, which answered with applause and a standing ovation.
