WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When Trappist Brother Brian O'Dowd was looking for a new spiritual home, he set his sights on something different than his monastery in Ireland, built around a 13th-century Norman castle, where the religious community was dwindling.
He found it, but with a minor glitch: on the other side of the world at Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey in Carlton, Oregon, an abbey in a woodsy part of Oregon that had been recently renovated.
The monastic community there supports itself with its bookbinding, fruitcake bakery, wine warehouse, forestry and book shop.
They were "forward-looking" and that's why he wanted to be part of the community, said Brother O'Dowd in an Aug. 24 interview with Catholic News Service. But the move would entail more than spiritual whispers from the Holy Spirit. It needed approval from U.S. immigration authorities.
With help from Catholic Legal Immigration Network's Religious Immigration Services, the monk was able to enter legally into the country to join the monastery in 2013.
CLINIC's program for religious workers is among the nation's few groups specializing in religious immigration law, said Jeremy Dickey, CLINIC's director of communications in a July 19 email to CNS.
CLINIC's religious immigration services represent more than 800 foreign-born religious workers in the U.S., such as Brother O'Dowd. The migrant religious workers CLINIC represents serve at more than 120 nonprofit religious organizations each year, Dickey added.
This year, CLINIC's immigration services is set to receive the National Religious Vocation Conference's Harvest Award "in honor of services to international religious candidates."
Miguel Naranjo, director of CLINIC's Religious Immigration Services section, said the department helps Catholic men and women religious navigate the complexities of dealing with the country's federal bureaucracy when it comes legal immigration.
Foreign-born religious workers such as Brother O'Dowd serve by helping to encourage religious vocations, praying, but also taking part in a religious community's labors. They work in schools, hospitals and parishes, and some are devoted to a life of prayer behind cloister walls, which is an important part of Catholic life, said Naranjo.
In addition to his life of prayer, Brother O'Dowd, for example, helps prepare meals for his community and visitors, takes the official photographs for the community, and engages with those who visit the abbey on retreat.
"I enjoy that part of my ministry," said Brother O'Dowd. "I came from ethic of hard work and humor. In Ireland, we are extremely hard-working, so it has been a pleasure. I'm not afraid of hard work."
So that the men and women religious who serve are able to focus on the important work of praying and other parts of their ministry, lawyers at CLINIC's religious immigration services labor to stay on top of what’s happening with their cases when it comes to paperwork, deadlines, interviews.
The pandemic and other policies presented challenges such as delays, Naranjo said. Though some initially come into the U.S. for a short period of time, others make the decision to stay. Moving cases along the immigration process is not always easy. Because of the delays, some women and men religious found themselves running out of time and some ended up having to leave behind their ministries in the U.S., Naranjo said.
It creates a big problem especially if the foreign-born religious worker is also the pastor at a parish and has to go back to his native country. The delays created "a lot of challenges," which CLINIC brought to the attention of various federal agencies, Naranjo said.
The good news is that at the beginning of 2022, after CLINIC's immigration services raised awareness of the problems the delays were causing, some petitions started getting approved faster, Naranjo said.
For Brother O'Dowd, the services helped him with the initial process of entering and staying legally in the U.S. but also paving a path for a legal future here. Having the legal assistance of someone who understood him helped immensely, he said.
"I felt the fact that they were Catholic lawyers who understood Catholic needs around my ministry gave me a great deal of confidence and peace of mind," he said.
Not only did CLINIC's religious immigration services keep on top of paperwork and deadlines, lawyers also prepared him for interviews with immigration officials, Brother O'Dowd said.
"She was really making sure that I answered each question correctly," he said. "She really grilled me hard and I appreciated that grilling."
"There are still challenges," Naranjo said, but it's rewarding to contribute to improving the experience for newly arrived men and women religious who come to the U.S. from other countries and help them find a warm welcome.
Some like Brother O'Dowd decided to make that welcome permanent.
Earlier this year, after an almost 9-year journey navigated with help from the Religious Immigration Program, Brother O'Dowd became a U.S. citizen.
"It was a very joyful day," he said.
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