c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Religious and other nonprofit groups who work with the poor say the efforts the world applauded so highly when paying tribute to Mother Teresa are threatened if Congress doesn’t act soon to renew a law governing immigrant religious workers in the United States.

The law, which allows immigrant religious workers to seek permanent U.S. residency, expires Sept. 30, and thousands who work at church-sponsored soup kitchens, clinics and shelters could be forced to leave the country. “It’s absolutely essential we have this law, not so much for the sisters who serve here but for the people they serve,” Cardinal Adam Maida, the archbishop of Detroit, said Friday (Sept. 12). “Maybe Mother Teresa’s death was fortuitous. We pray she speaks (to Congress) from her throne in heaven.”

Maida joined religious leaders at a Senate immigration subcommittee hearing urging Congress to extend the immigration provision. They say it gives lay preachers, cantors and nuns, including members of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, special visas while they wait to become permanent residents.

If the law expires, the consequences will be both immediate and long-term, officials predict.

“For those who are here, the authorization for them to remain would be removed,” said the Rev. Peter Borgdorff, executive director of ministries for the Christian Reformed Church in North America. “As we need people like that in the future, it will be much more difficult to bring people here.”

Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., who chairs the immigration panel, is sponsoring a bill to make the immigration provision permanent. Abraham expects the bill to be approved by both chambers before the Sept. 30 expiration.

“I can’t see what argument one would make to stop this,” Abraham said.

About 5,000 lay religious workers who have worked at least two years in the profession come into this country annually under the law. About 15,000 religious workers have entered the United States since its enactment in 1990.

Another 5,000 ordained ministers and priests are allowed to apply annually for permanent residency under a separate provision.

“Renewal of this visa would be a small, but enduring memorial to Mother Teresa and her work in America,” said Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. “It will allow the members of her order to continue their charitable and compassionate work in this country long into the future.”

David Grunblatt, a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, said immigrant religious workers play a central role in providing care for U.S. religious organizations.

“In good times and in bad, whether the economy is strong or weak, there has always been a shortage of devoted and qualified religious workers,” Grunblatt said, “and those individuals who have dedicated themselves to this special type of community service, go selflessly where the need is greatest.”

MJP END KELLOGG