Pope Leo XIV names five more U.S. bishops, highlighting immigrant church leaders

Pope Leo XIV’s latest round of U.S. bishop appointments sharpened an emerging pattern in his first months: he is elevating pastors with immigrant backgrounds, parish experience and hands-on leadership in a church whose pews are changing fast.

On May 1, Leo named Father John Jairo Gomez bishop of Laredo, Texas; Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia; and Fathers Gary R. Studniewski and Robert P. Boxie III as auxiliary bishops of Washington. Five days later he appointed Jesuit Father Michael T. Castori bishop of Honolulu. By May 6, Leo had made 26 U.S. bishop appointments, and 11 of them, or 42%, were born outside the United States. Sixteen were under 60, and the youngest was 45.

The mix points to a church leadership bench that looks more immigrant and more pastoral than in previous cycles of appointments. Only three of the 26 appointees came from religious communities, a Jesuit, a Benedictine and an Oratorian, suggesting Leo has favored diocesan clergy with direct experience in local ministry, immigration issues and institutional administration. That profile matters in places like Laredo, where Gomez, a native of Colombia and native Spanish speaker, had served as vicar general and moderator of the curia in the Diocese of Tyler, and in Washington, where Boxie was serving as chaplain to Howard University and Studniewski had moved from the Army and military chaplaincy to become pastor of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

The resignations Leo accepted tell the other half of the story. Roy E. Campbell was 78 when he stepped down as a Washington auxiliary bishop. Mark E. Brennan was 79 in Wheeling-Charleston, James A. Tamayo was 76 in Laredo, and Larry Silva was 76 in Honolulu. Wheeling-Charleston spans 24,041 square miles in West Virginia, while Laredo covers 10,905 square miles in Texas, underscoring the scope of the dioceses now being reshaped.

The appointments were publicized in Washington, D.C., by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States. The Archdiocese of Washington said Cardinal Robert McElroy was “delighted” by the choice of Studniewski and Boxie. Menjivar-Ayala, who came to the United States as a teenager after fleeing violence in El Salvador, has been outspoken on immigrants and human dignity, reinforcing the message in Leo’s early personnel map: this papacy is rewarding bishops who know the church from the margins, not just the center.