Foreign-born Catholic priests serving parishes across western Kentucky are facing an increasingly uncertain future as their visas expire — caught between the Trump administration’s 2025 immigration crackdown and a stalled green-card pipeline that threatens parish life in both rural and immigrant-rich communities.
The concern is especially acute in places like the Diocese of Owensboro in Kentucky. According to a report from the Messenger and Inquirer, the Owensboro diocese spans 78 parishes across small towns and agricultural counties, and 38 percent of the diocese’s 78 priests are foreign-born, serving under temporary R-1 religious-worker visas or similar protections.
Bishop William Medley told the Messenger and Inquirer that their presence has helped keep churches open in communities that would otherwise go without clergy.
“We have a shortage of priests in the United States to serve a very diverse and widespread population,” Medley said. “But even more than that, I want to emphasize this goes back to the first century and what we call ‘the Great Commission’ — Jesus commanded us to go to the ends of the earth.”
The roots of the current crisis date back to 2023, during the Biden administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department reshuffled processing for the EB-4 “special immigrant” category, which includes religious workers. The change folded those applications into a larger backlog, slowing progress so severely that only petitions filed years ago are being reviewed. Many priests on R-1 visas now face expiration long before their permanent residency applications can be processed.
At the same time, the Trump administration’s 2025 enforcement push has raised anxiety among clergy whose legal status depends on a pathway they can no longer reliably move through. While foreign-born priests are legally in the U.S., their pathway to permanent status is now far less certain.
For dioceses like Owensboro, losing even a small number of foreign-born priests could have immediate and visible consequences. According to the Messenger and Inquirer report, many rural parishes already share a single pastor through a practice known as “linking,” and further losses could lead to pared-down Mass schedules, parish consolidations, or closures.
Medley told the outlet that what’s happening in Owensboro mirrors trends across the country, especially in smaller dioceses that rely even more heavily on international clergy.
“What’s happening in the Diocese of Owensboro is pretty typical of dioceses, especially small rural ones in the country where more foreign-born priests are serving here,” he said. “That’s a blessing to the church because we get to experience the universality of Catholicism when we experience these men and the faith they bring.”
A 2022 study by The Catholic University of America’s Catholic Project found that 24% of U.S. priests are foreign-born, showing how dependent many dioceses have become on clergy from abroad.
Recognizing this growing strain, in April 2025, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops publicly endorsed the Religious Workforce Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would allow R-1 visa holders with pending EB-4 applications to remain in the country while waiting for adjudication. The legislation does not expand the number of green cards available, but it would prevent parishes from losing clergy solely because of bureaucratic delays.
Amid declining U.S.-born vocations and a growing reliance on foreign-born clergy, many priests now wait in limbo, unsure whether they will be allowed to remain with the communities they serve.
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