Pope Leo appoints a priest who has criticized Trump’s anti-immigration campaign as bishop of West Virginia

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) — The next Catholic bishop of West Virginia will be an El Salvador-born advocate for immigrants who opposed U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign policies against immigration.

Pope Leo

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Menjivar Ayala, 55, fled civil war in El Salvador as a teenager in the late 1980s, eventually crossing illegally into the United States in 1990, he told The Associated Press in an interview last year. But within “two weeks” he received humanitarian protection, was then granted a religious work visa, and became a US citizen two decades ago.

Still, he feels close to immigrants arrested in raids, including the federal law enforcement surge in Washington last year, because “it could have been me,” he said, in 2025.

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The Catholic Church has long called for the humane treatment of immigrants and refugees in the United States and around the world. Menjívar Ayala and other US church leaders strongly condemned the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies, while also affirming the nation’s right to control its borders and urging reconciliation.

A new bishop to prioritize those on the margins

Menjivar Ayala did not mention immigration policies nor Trump in his speech on Friday, instead focusing on his desire to be accepted by West Virginians and his willingness to listen to the community. Part of his speech was in Spanish.

“I have a lot to learn, but my heart is ready and wide open,” he said. “Above all, I want to listen to the poor. Those who live on the margins of the Church and society. To the workers, to the immigrants, because as Matthew 25 says, the way we treat the least is the way we treat Jesus.”

In the Diocese of Washington, which includes the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland, more than 40% of parishioners are Latino. In West Virginia — covered by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston — only 2.4% of residents are Latino and 92.6% of its 1.77 million residents identify as white, according to the U.S. Census.

Menjivar-Ayala replaces the Rev. Mark Brennan, 79, who has served as West Virginia’s bishop since 2019. Brennan took office after a scandal involving a former bishop’s sexual abuse of adults and lavish spending of church funds. At a joint news conference in Wheeling on Friday, Brennan reminded West Virginians that many in America come from elsewhere.

“But he loves all the people here. He will not be a bishop for just one group within the diocese. He will be a bishop for all people. I can assure you of that.”

The new bishop, who has spent his ministry career in the nation’s capital and surrounding communities, will work in a less Catholic and more rural area, overseeing 61,000 Catholics in the diocese and 92 parishes throughout West Virginia.

While acknowledging the beauty of West Virginia’s mountains and natural resources, he said many people in one of the poorest states in the country “continue to experience hardship, marginalization and inequality.”

He was praised for his defense of immigration

Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington praised Menjivar Ayala’s advocacy for immigrants during his tenure in D.C., saying in a statement that his “passion for justice and sensitive care for the Hispanic and immigrant communities in our diocese planted seeds of grace that will produce a harvest here for decades to come.”

In an article he wrote last year for The Catholic Standard, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, Menjívar-Ayala spoke out against the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants.

“Every day this situation gets worse and more dangerous,” Menjivar Ayala wrote. “For weeks now, the federal government has continued a ‘shock and awe’ campaign of aggressive threats and highly visible operations of questionable legality that go far beyond mere ‘immigration enforcement.’”

Menjívar-Ayala, whose appointment comes just weeks after the pope fell out with Trump over the US war against Iran, will be installed as bishop in a ceremony on July 2. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Menjivar-Ayala’s appointment.

Another priest born in Latin America was appointed bishop of the United States on Friday. The Rev. John Gomez will begin his term in the Diocese of Laredo, Texas, on June 30. Born in Colombia, Gomez came to the United States on a student visa in 2002 and became a U.S. citizen in 2021, according to his current diocese in Tyler, Texas. In a statement, Bishop Gregory Kelly of Tyler praised his “commitment to Hispanic ministry.”

Pope Leo’s first appointment as an American bishop, two weeks after his election in May 2025, was a former refugee: Michael Pham, who was born in Vietnam and became bishop of San Diego, California.

The number of priestly ordinations in the United States has declined for decades, making foreign-born clergy essential to many dioceses across the country.

Dell’Orto reported from Minneapolis.