The Briefing:
- Pope Leo XIV has picked bishops born in Colombia, El Salvador and Puerto Rico to run U.S. dioceses in Texas, West Virginia and Puerto Rico since May 2026, then added a fourth appointment in New Jersey in September.
- Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of Wheeling-Charleston once rode across the border hidden in a car trunk as an undocumented teenager fleeing El Salvador's civil war; he now holds the distinction of being the first bishop from El Salvador ever named in the country.
- Hispanic Catholics make up 36 percent of all U.S. Catholics today, up from 29 percent in 2007, Pew Research Center found, yet a Boston College researcher says Hispanic representation among bishops and church leaders still sits in the single digits.
- Among U.S. Hispanics overall, the portion who call themselves Catholic has dropped from 58 percent to 42 percent since 2007, adding pressure behind the wave of appointments.
Four Men, Four Unusual Paths to the Mitre
In the space of five months, Pope Leo XIV has handed four U.S. dioceses to men whose backgrounds break from the typical résumé of an American bishop. A former conscript in the Colombian army today runs a diocese pressed against the Texas border. A man who crossed into California hidden in a car trunk as a teenager oversees Catholics scattered across Appalachia. A priest who never left his hometown diocese in Puerto Rico just became the first native son to lead it in its hundred-year history. And, most recently, a fourth appointee took over in New Jersey, extending a pattern that began in May.
A Colombian Army Veteran Takes the Texas Border Diocese
John Jairo Gomez, 50, was raised in Cali, Colombia, after being born in Santa Rosa de Cabal in the Risaralda region, and completed his country's mandatory military service before leaving for the United States in 2002 to begin seminary studies for the Diocese of Tyler, Texas. He earned U.S. citizenship in 2021 and speaks Spanish, English and Italian with ease. The pope signed off on Bishop James Tamayo's retirement on May 1; Tamayo had guided the Diocese of Laredo since he founded it in 2000, and Gomez was tapped to succeed him, according to an official USCCB announcement. The diocese ministers to nearly 379,000 Catholics spread across seven Texas counties along the Mexican border. Gomez received his episcopal ordination and was installed on June 30 during a bilingual Mass; addressing the crowd, he said the growing "love of the Lord" is what draws people "to the church."
From a Car Trunk at the Border to a Cathedral in Appalachia
Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, who turned 56 this past August, was born in the town of Chalatenango, El Salvador, and made repeated attempts as a teenager to reach the United States before finally succeeding in 1990, crossing from Tijuana into San Diego hidden in the trunk of a car alongside his brother, according to reporting he later confirmed to the Washington Post. He became a U.S. citizen in 2006 and, in 2023, was named an auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., a step that made him the country's first Salvadoran-born bishop. On May 1, Pope Leo moved him to lead the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, where he now oversees upward of 100,000 Catholics across all of West Virginia, a state with one of the country's smallest Hispanic populations. At his July 2 installation, he told the congregation, "I'm a bishop for all, for everyone."
In Puerto Rico, the pope accepted the retirement of 77-year-old Bishop Ruben Gonzalez Medina on June 24 and elevated Geraldo Ramirez Torres, the diocese's own vicar general, to replace him. Ramirez Torres is the tenth of thirteen children born to Andres Ramirez Torres and Emma Torres Rivera in the mountain town of Villalba; he entered the Ponce seminary in 1985 and was ordained there six years later, making him the first priest trained entirely inside the Diocese of Ponce to lead it, arriving as the diocese marks its hundredth anniversary. He described the appointment as "a manifestation of the goodness and tender love of God."
A Fourth Appointment Lands in New Jersey
On September 15, the Vatican named Michael Saporito, 64, an auxiliary bishop of Newark, to take over the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, which serves more than 670,000 Catholics out of a total population of roughly 1.5 million across four counties. Saporito is not of Hispanic background, and his move was announced in the routine language reserved for a diocese that had gone without a permanent leader for nearly a year. Even so, the appointment fell inside the same five-month stretch that reshaped leadership in Laredo, Wheeling-Charleston and Ponce, extending a run of vacancies the pope has now filled.
The Numbers Behind the Pattern
None of these four appointments closes a much older gap on its own. Boston College theologian Hosffman Ospino has found that Hispanic representation among the nation's bishops, theologians and Catholic institutional leaders remains "very small" and typically stuck in the single digits, even as Hispanic Catholics increasingly carry the weight of the church's growth. That growth is real: Hispanic adults now account for 36 percent of everyone in the U.S. Catholic fold, up from 29 percent back in 2007, per Pew's large 2023-24 survey of American religious life. But the growth coexists with an erosion of religious identity that complicates the picture. The same survey found that Catholic self-identification among Hispanic adults specifically has slid from 58 percent in 2007 down to 42 percent today.
What Comes Next for the Parishes Involved
With Saporito settling into Metuchen and several other dioceses with large Hispanic populations still waiting on new leadership, the practical test for Catholics in Laredo, Wheeling-Charleston and Ponce will unfold slowly, parish by parish — in whether more Masses shift into Spanish, whether youth ministry gets bilingual funding, and whether sharing a bishop's native language actually changes how a diocese runs day to day.
