Derek Redd APPOINTED – The Most Rev. Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, who has been appointed as the 10th Bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, speaks to the audience at his introduction Friday.

The Most Rev. Evelio Menjivar-Ayala’s appointment as the 10th Bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese already is a special moment for him. It has been made even more special, he said, with who he will replace in that role.

Menjivar is taking the baton of the diocese from the Most Rev. Mark Brennan, who announced his resignation Friday as Menjivar also was introduced as the new Bishop. Menjivar has known Brennan for decades and has considered him a mentor for that long.

“He’s the one who welcomed me,” Menjivar said. “I’ve always said to him, even when he was just a priest, ‘You are the reason I’m a priest.’

“He opened the door,” he added. “I was an immigrant, a blue-collar worker in construction and a youth minister. But he saw potential and he accepted me. I’m very, very, very thankful for what he has done in my journey as a priest.”

Menjivar, 56, comes to the diocese after serving as the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington since 2023. His Mass of Installation will be celebrated at 2 p.m. July 2 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Wheeling.

Menjivar was born in Chalatenango, El Salvador, in 1970 and migrated to the United States in 1990. When he was named Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, he became the first Salvadoran bishop in the country.

He was feeling a mixture of emotions Friday morning as he introduced himself to the audience that packed into the Chancery for the announcement.

“I’m very, very happy,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m very nervous. I know I’m going to face new challenges in learning, in adapting to a new environment, getting to know different people and different realities.

“So it’s a mix of joy and, at the same time, feeling a little overwhelmed,” Menjivar added.

It will be a new role for Menjivar, yet his West Virginia home won’t be unknown territory.

Menjivar has visited the Mountain State many times. Early in his priesthood, he would help with the Spanish Mass at St. Joseph’s in Martinsburg. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, he sought somewhere he could take part in two of his loves, hiking and camping.

That brought him to the George Washington and Jefferson national forests and also led him to buy a cabin at Lost River in Hardy County.

So he’s not just familiar with the land, but also with the people.

“The only agenda that I bring is to love you and serve you the best that I can, to grow in faith and fidelity to Christ together and witness the love of Christ here in the heart of Appalachia,” he said, “in this land of striking beauty, rich in diversity and natural resources, and, at the same time, a place where many people continue to endure harsh marginalization and inequality.

“Yet as it often happens, your faith, your resilience, your creativity that lifts you up every morning, it keeps you moving toward a better and brighter future.”

U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., offered his congratulations and welcome to Menjivar in a released statement.

“West Virginia is a beautiful place full of some of the hardest working and most God-fearing people on earth,” Moore said. “I look forward to working with our new Bishop in our shared responsibility to care for the people of West Virginia, protecting the unborn, defending the rights of workers, and, most importantly, proclaiming the Gospel. May God pour out His abundant blessing on you as you begin this new ministry.”

Menjivar said he initially wants to build his relationship with the diocese and the community by listening. He wants to listen to the leaders and collaborators with the diocese, and to its young people, calling them not just the future of the faith, but also the present.

He wants to listen to the poor, to those who live in the margins, to the workers and to the immigrants. Menjivar hearkened back to Matthew 25, saying “the way we treat the least is the way we treat Jesus.”

Menjivar also wants to open his arms to the general community outside of the Catholic faith, to talk to the community’s political, faith and business leaders. That’s something at which Brennan has excelled in his time as Bishop, and he wants to follow in Brennan’s footsteps, as big as those shoes may be.

“I want to learn from the good that he has done here,” Menjivar said of his predecessor. “He’s very humble. He lives the beatitudes. I want to follow in his footsteps.

“Obviously, I have my own ideas,” he added. “As they say, we have to bring our own shoes to feel comfortable. I have my own style, but I really admire him.”