Salvadorian priest and bishop designate
Evelio Menjivar-Ayala (born August 14, 1970) is a Salvadoran priest of the Catholic Church who serves as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington. He is the first Central American-born person to serve as bishop in the United States.[1]
Biography
Evelio Menjivar-Ayala was born on August 14, 1970, in Chalatenango, El Salvador. He arrived into the United States as an undocumented immigrant in 1990 with his brother.[2] He studied philosophy at St. John Vianney Seminary from 1995 to 1999 and Catholic theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas from 1999 to 2002. He completed further studies at the Scalabrini International Migration Institute (SIMI), part of the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, where he earned a licentiate. He also attended the Pontifical North America College.
He was ordained a deacon in St. Peter's Basilica on October 10, 2002, by then-Archbishop of Milwaukee, Timothy M. Dolan. On May 29, 2004, Menjivar-Ayala was ordained to the priesthood in Washington, D.C., by the Archbishop of Washington, then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. He initially served as the parochial vicar of Mother Seton Catholic Church in Germantown, Maryland (2004–2008), then at Saint Bartholomew the Apostle in Bethesda (2009), and the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. (2009–2013). He has served as the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Landover Hills since 2016.
Pope Francis appointed Menjivar-Ayala auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington on December 19, 2022.[3][4] On February 21, 2023, the Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, consecrated him and Juan Esposito-Garcia at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.; Co-consecrators were the Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, Mario Eduardo Dorsonville-Rodriguez, and the Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Roy Edward Campbell.
His motto, Ibat cum illis ("He walked with them") comes from Luke 24:15.
