Visa backlog threatens 1/4 of NY priests, op-ed warns
January 31, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Nicholas Tomaino, an assistant editor for the newspaper, warned that “a visa backlog could result in the loss of nearly one-fourth of New York’s priests.”
“Of the 356 active archdiocesan and extern priests in New York, the bishop [Auxiliary Bishop Edmund Whalen of New York] says 183 are foreign nationals,” said Tomaino. 85 of these priests are in the United States on visas.
“This means that the Church depends on the vagaries of a dysfunctional immigration system,” Tomaino continued, as he discussed a Biden administration regulation that has had the effect of making it more difficult for religious workers to renew their visas. “The Trump administration has indicated it may propose a rule in September to offer religious workers more flexibility.”
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