How is sanctuary defined in Chapter 6?

Mattie's place is always busy, not simply with customers but with people who just pass through. There is a set of people who speak Spanish and live with Mattie upstairs for various lengths of time. She says that it is like a sanctuary. When Taylor says that she remembers a sanctuary as "a place they set aside for birds, where nobody's allowed to shoot them," Mattie replies that "they've got them for people too." The people are generally brought and taken away by the priest.