Two Washington archdiocesan priests appointed auxiliaries for archdiocese
Pope Francis has appointed two Washington archdiocesan priests, Msgr. Juan R. Esposito-Garcia and Fr. Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, as auxiliary bishops of their archdiocese.
Esposito-Garcia, who turns 49 Jan. 10, is currently serving as an official in the Dicastery for Bishops at the Vatican. Menjivar-Ayala, 52, is currently pastor of St. Mary Church in the Washington suburb of Landover Hills, Maryland.
Their appointments were announced Dec. 19 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican nuncio to the United States.
They both will be ordained bishops Feb. 21.
Appointing Cardinal Gregory as Archbishop followed by immigrant auxiliary bishops from Argentina and San Salvador sends a strong message from Rome to the American bishops, American Catholics, American political and economic establishments in D.C. as well as to the international political and economic personnel that gather in Washington. When Rome appoints bishops, it looks to the future not the past, especially so under this Pope.
Both of these new bishops grew up in the US and have served as priests of the Archdiocese so no matter how devoted they were to their parishes and immigrants they have likely learned a lot about politics and life in American just from living in D.C.
Although Gregory just turned 75 and had to submit his resignation, this signals that Rome is likely to keep him in place for the next five years until he ages out of the conclave at 80. That means that these two new auxiliaries have an opportunity to develop the political skills they need to be successful bishops even in mostly white dioceses.
Most of the American church's growth is in the West and Southwest, where being fluent in both English and Spanish is, if not an absolute requirement, at least a huge advantage. I guess that is how to think of these new auxiliaries: as in training to get their own dioceses, perhaps pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteNelsen Perez went from being a priest in Philadelphia to being auxiliary of Rockville Center in 2012 to being bishop here in Cleveland in 2017 to being archbishop back in Philadelphia in 2020!
DeleteI suspect both of these auxiliaries will be out of D.C. around the time that Cardinal Gregory retires about five years from now. They now have a retired Hispanic auxiliary; one may stay there as a permanent Hispanic auxiliary if being an ordinary is not his thing.
Seems there are a lot of people turning down the bishop's hat these days. I suspect most Hispanics would not turn down the auxiliary position since they would perceive it as a honor to their people e.g., in this case being the first Argentinian and Salvadoran bishops in the U.S.
However, taking the step from being the pride of a minority people to being the servant of all including the white community is a big one. Cardinal Gregory certainly understands that. It took pains when introducing the new bishops to emphasize that they came for a vibrant presbyterate that had many good candidates and they were going to serve the whole community. Wilton knows how to avoid the trap of being a token minority.