Overview
- The Vatican named Evelio Menjivar-Ayala bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, and he introduced the move at a Wheeling news conference where he said his only agenda is to serve the people of the diocese.
- Menjivar-Ayala fled El Salvador’s civil war and entered the United States in 1990 at age 20 hidden in a car trunk near the Mexico border.
- The appointment is being interpreted by many observers as a direct signal to the Trump administration over its hard line on migrants during a public back-and-forth between Pope Leo XIV and the president.
- West Virginia is a Republican stronghold where Trump won about 70 percent of the 2024 vote, and the statewide diocese serves roughly 110,000 Catholics in a population of about 1.8 million.
- Before the transfer, Menjivar-Ayala served about three and a half years as an auxiliary bishop in Washington and was noted as the first U.S. bishop from Central America.