Sanctuary for Asylum Seekers: Revisiting the Religious Principle and Practice of Refuge in the Church

Abstract

This article argues for a reconsideration of the tradition of church sanctuary. First, I analyze the reality of Central American asylum seekers who are systematically denied protection in the United States. Second, using the earliest Christian references to sanctuary from the fourth century, I show that sanctuary was a religious and pastoral response to persecuted persons fleeing violence and death. Third, I trace the process that led to sanctuary’s disappearance from the Code of Canon Law in the late twentieth century, and argue that there is a need to reintroduce sanctuary as a religious principle and practice of the church.