Overview
- Rome announced Evelio Menjivar-Ayala to lead West Virginia’s Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and tapped Howard University chaplain Robert Boxie III as a new auxiliary in Washington to fill Menjivar-Ayala’s former slot.
- Menjivar-Ayala was born in El Salvador, entered the U.S. without papers in 1990, worked janitorial and construction jobs, and has criticized how immigrants are treated under the current administration.
- Boxie has called attacks on diversity un-American and un-Christian and has voiced concern about a weakened Voting Rights Act while warning that rollbacks to diversity, equity, and inclusion harm racial progress.
- Coverage in la Repubblica cast the moves as a rebuke to President Trump, and the Washington Post framed them as part of a papal pattern of elevating clergy who oppose parts of the administration’s policies.
- The appointments follow recent public jabs between Trump and the pope, and Italian analysis suggests relations could again strain over immigration.