Evelio Menjivar-Ayala
Salvadorian Catholic prelate (born 1970)
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Evelio Menjivar-Ayala (born August 14, 1970) is a Salvadoran American prelate of the Catholic Church. Born in Chalatenango, he migrated to the United States in 1990 and was ordained a priest in 2004. He was made an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington in 2023, becoming the first Salvadoran-born bishop in the country.[1] In May 2026, he was appointed Bishop of Wheeling–Charleston in West Virginia by Pope Leo XIV.
Evelio Menjivar-Ayala | |
|---|---|
| Auxiliary Bishop of Washington Bishop-designate of Wheeling-Charleston | |
Menjivar-Ayala in 2025 | |
| Archdiocese | Washington |
| Appointed | December 19, 2022 |
| Installed | February 21, 2023 |
| Predecessor | Mark E. Brennan |
| Other post | Titular Bishop of Aëtus |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | May 29, 2004 by Theodore McCarrick |
| Consecration | February 21, 2023 by Wilton Daniel Gregory, Mario E. Dorsonville, and Roy Edward Campbell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 14, 1970 |
| Education | St. John Vianney College Seminary Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas Pontifical Urban University |
| Motto | Ibat cum illis (He walked with them) |
| Styles of Evelio Menjivar-Ayala | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Bishop |
Biography
Early life
Menjivar-Ayala was born on August 14, 1970, in Chalatenango, El Salvador. 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.[2]
Over the next several years, Menjivar-Ayala worked janitorial and construction jobs in California. Deciding to become a priest, he entered the St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, Florida, in 1995, where he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1999.[3]
Menjivar-Ayala went to Rome in 1999 to enter the seminary at the Pontifical North American College. He received a Master of Theology degree from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in 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. Menjivar-Ayala was ordained a deacon in St. Peter's Basilica on October 10, 2002, by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan.[4]
Priesthood
On May 29, 2004, Menjivar-Ayala was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.[5] The archdiocese assigned Menjivar-Ayala as parochial vicar at the following parishes:
- Mother Seton in Germantown, Maryland (2004 to 2008)
- Saint Bartholomew the Apostle in Bethesda, Maryland (2009)
- Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington (2009 to 2013) [3]
Two years following his ordination, he became an American citizen,[6][7] and in 2013, Menjivar-Ayala was appointed pastor of Our Lady Queen of the Americas Parish in Washington. He was transferred in 2017 to St. Mary's Church in Landover Hills, Maryland, to serve as pastor there.[3]
Episcopal career
Auxiliary Bishop of Washington
Pope Francis appointed Menjivar-Ayala as an auxiliary bishop of Washington on December 19, 2022.[3][4] He was consecrated on February 21, 2023, by Cardinal Wilton Gregory at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. The co-consecrators were Bishop Mario Dorsonville and Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell.[5]
His motto, Ibat cum illis ("He walked with them"), comes from Luke 24:15.[4]
Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston
On May 1, 2026, Pope Leo XIV appointed Menjivar-Ayala the tenth bishop of Wheeling-Charleston.[8] He is scheduled to be installed on July 2, 2026.
