NEW: Pope Leo XIV has named Salvadoran immigrant Evelio Menijar-Ayala to be West Virginia’s lone Catholic bishop.
As a teenager, he made three attempts to enter the United States illegally.
He finally arrived in California in 1990, having been smuggled in the trunk of a car with his brother over the border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego.
Over the next several years, Menjivar-Ayala worked janitorial and construction jobs in California before deciding to become a priest.
It’s a remarkable choice in a state that is over 90% white and voted for President Trump by 42 points.
NEW: Pope Leo XIV appoints the youngest bishop in the United States.
Robert Boxie III, 46, is a new auxiliary bishop of Washington.
Boxie has been outspoken against the White House’s attacks against racial diversity.
“It’s really frustrating — especially this moment that we’re living in. The attacks on ‘DEI’ — I don’t even know what that means anymore. It’s a term that’s been hijacked. It means a lot of things to a lot of different people.”
“I think at its core, it’s what America is all about. We are a diverse nation with people from all over the world. Diversity is a good thing. Diversity is of God.”
“And the fact that it’s been turned into something negative — or something that should be avoided or not talked about — just flies in the face of who we are as Americans.”
“So much of our history has been exclusive, especially when it comes to race. And it’s just un-American; it’s un-Christian; it’s anti-Catholic.”
Pope Leo XIV’s last tweet before his election praised the bishop’s work and criticized Trump’s relationship with the Salvadoran president.
NEW: Pope Leo XIV has named a former undocumented immigrant Evelio Menijar-Ayala to be West Virginia’s lone Catholic bishop.
After three attempts to enter the US illegally from war-ravaged El Salvador in the 1980s, Menjivar was smuggled in via a trunk as a young teenager.
It’s a remarkable choice in a state that is over 90% white and voted for President Trump by 42 points.
The first U.S.-born pontiff also named a Black, Harvard-educated priest as the youngest bishop in the United States.
Robert Boxie III, 45, has been critical of the Trump Administration’s attacks on racial diversity. thelettersfromleo.com/p/pope-leo-xiv…
Here’s how the bishop describes his journey from El Salvador to the United States:
“I came to the United States in 1990, unchecked. I crossed the border by San Ysidro in California. But a few weeks after, I applied for political asylum. I got the permit to work and to stay, but it took me seven years in order to go back to El Salvador.
“So it was a difficult time, being away from my family and not being able to see my parents. I would say that that was the most challenging thing of being undocumented, not being able to travel and to see my parents.”
“Whatever work I could, my first job was as a receptionist in Los Angeles. Then I worked in construction, maintenance. And so that is what I was doing when I felt the call to be a priest. I was doing construction work.”
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