For more than a year, religious organisations have lobbied Congress and the Biden administration to fix a sudden procedural change in how the government processes green cards for religious workers, which threatens the ability of thousands of them to continue to minister in the United States.
The Catholic Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, and five of its priests, whose legal status in the United States expires as soon as next spring, have now sued the federal agencies overseeing immigration.
They argue that the change “will cause severe and substantial disruption to the lives and religious freedoms” of the priests as well as the hundreds of thousands of Catholics they serve.
“Our priests feel we’re doing the best we can,” said Bishop Kevin Sweeney, whose dioceses cover 400,000 Catholics and 107 parishes in three New Jersey counties.