Pope Francis Appoints New Bishop for West Virginia

0:00On May 1st, Pope Francis just tapped a new bishop for West Virginia's Catholics, picking 55-year-old Avelio Minjivar, Ayala, from El Salvador to, lead the diocese of Willing Charleston. This guy is an auxiliary bishop out of Washington, D.C., and he's taking over a state that's mostly white and rural, covering all 1.77. Million folks there. Minjivar Ayala fled El Salvador's civil war as a teen back in the late 1980s, crossed into the U.S. without papers in 1990, but quickly got humanitarian protection and later citizenship 20 years ago. He's been vocal against harsh immigration crackdowns, saying raids hit close to home since that could have been him. In his first speech Friday, he skipped politics and zeroed in on listing to the poor, workers, and immigrants on society's edges, quoting the Bible. On treating the least among us like Jesus, West Virginia's only got about 2.4% Latinos, so this is a big shift for their 92 parishes and 61,000 Catholics.

1:01Bishop Mark Brennan, who's 79 and stepping down after handling a past scandal, vows for him at the news conference, saying he'll serve. Everyone, not just one group, Cardinal Robert McElroy from D.C. praised his work with Hispanic communities, calling it a lasting grace. Meanwhile, the pope named another land American-born priest, John Gomez from Colombia, as Bishop in Laredo, Texas, starting June 30th part of A. Trenned as U.S. priest or nation's drop and foreign clergy fill key roles. Steve R. Ayala gets installed July 2nd, bringing fresh energy to one of America's poorest states. That's your update from Global News Today, powered by AI.