POCATELLO — When the Pocatello Catholic community was last visited in the fall, there was concern that the growing congregation may lose two of its three priests for as much as a year, putting a severe strain on the availability of clergy to conduct worship services and administer sacraments.

A change in federal immigration regulations has since reduced some of those impacts, if not eliminated the problem entirely.

Because of the regulatory change, Father Emil Parafiniuk, pastor of the Holy Spirit Catholic Community in Pocatello, was able to avoid leaving the country for up to a year while applying for permanent U.S. residency. Parafiniuk, a native of Poland, instead made a quick trip back to his native country to meet with U.S. consulate officials as part of his residency application process. Under the old regulations, he would have been required to leave the country for up to a year while the application proceeded. Now, he's back serving his congregation in Pocatello.

"What is still there is that every religious worker, after five years, has to leave the country and apply for a new visa out of the country," Parafiniuk said. "They have to go through the consulate process and then they can be back in the United States."

The round trip to Poland — a 20-hour journey including connections — was a challenge, but one Parafiniuk preferred over leaving his parishioners for up to a year.

"I always say I prefer to do that rather than to leave for one year," Parafiniuk said. "And of course, the officers are very professional. If you follow the rules, everything now is much easier than it used to be … At the end of the day, the resolution that was brought by the government in January is very useful for a lot of clergy and it helps to maintain our legal status. That's what I always try to emphasize — every religious worker in the United States, we follow all the rules and we fill out all the paperwork."

While the Pocatello Catholic community kept its pastor, it lost one of its three priests when Father Remigius Ihim left the community a few months ago. The Diocese of Boise, which oversees all Catholic parishes in Idaho, has not assigned a replacement for Ihim, a native of Nigeria.

That leaves only Parafiniuk and Father Gabriel Morales to serve the community's 1,300 registered households. Parafiniuk estimates there are 6,000 to 7,000 Catholics in the Bannock County area.

"So, we need to pray for new priests, we need to pray for deacons," Parafiniuk said. "Our diocese now emphasizes very much the need for prayer for new vocations. The priestly vocation is not easy, but it is a beautiful one for sure."

Like many Catholic communities around the country, Holy Spirit is experiencing something of a rebirth. The church welcomes new members each year at Easter, baptizing those who have not been baptized by another Christian denomination and formally receiving into the church those who were baptized but were not Catholic.

This Easter, Parafiniuk and Morales baptized 32 new Catholics and received 15 previously baptized members into the church.

"Our parish is growing every year," Parafiniuk said. "Mass attendance is up 10 to 15 percent."

Parafiniuk credits the growth to two very different factors: the Holy Spirit and Instagram.

"Of course, from a spiritual point of view, it's the Holy Spirit and that's what we have to say," Parafiniuk said. "Another big influence now, and some people might be surprised, is Instagram and TikTok. A lot of people watch and listen to Catholic influencers and they say, 'Yes, I want to be a part of this church. I want to discover this church.'"

The dominant religion in Southeast Idaho is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many community leaders come from LDS backgrounds. But Pocatello currently has a Catholic mayor — Mark Dahlquist, a member of the Holy Spirit Community. Kathleen Lewis, head of the Holy Spirit Parish Council, also served as the hearing officer for the controversial conditional use permit request for a proposed data center at the abandoned Hoku industrial site.

Parafiniuk welcomes parish members taking leadership roles in the community but is quick to note that good leaders come from every faith.

"I think what the community needs is good people," he said. "People who value the community, people who take care of the community … Of course I'm happy, but I always want to emphasize that we're not looking for Catholic influence as such — we just want to do our part for the good of the community. We have a lot of LDS friends; we have a lot of friends from other churches that we value very much. Our role is always to make our environment, our community better, stronger and more open, and just a good place to be."

While in Poland, Parafiniuk visited his parents and renewed old acquaintances. But he was glad he didn't have to spend a year away from Pocatello, a place he now calls home.

"I was very happy to see my parents and to fulfill my obligations about the visa," he said. "But I was also much happier when I landed in Salt Lake City and drove back to Pocatello. I was saying, 'Yes, I'm finally home.'"