Editor’s Note: Bishop Evelio Menjivar, auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., and the first Salvadoran bishop in the country, joined Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News, on the set of EWTN News In Depth for an interview that aired March 14, 2025, on EWTN. Discussing his own experience migrating to the United States in 1990 (he became a citizen in 2006) and the political climate at this moment, please find the transcript below. 

 

Your Excellency, thank you so much for this moment to reflect both on your personal story, but also on this political moment that we are living as a Church in the United States. Knowing your story, the three times that you attempted to cross the border, that final crossing and arrival with your sister in Los Angeles, and your personal desire to become a priest, how does that journey affect how you see the dialogue or difficult crisis that we’re seeing today with immigrants and migrants?

Well, first of all, I don’t feel proud that I crossed the border without documents. But it is a testimony that many people cross the border with good intentions. And I will say that that is very important because, these days, I mean, people are just treated like criminals. But not everybody comes here with the intention of do harm. Most immigrants come here because they do not find any other option in their countries, and they put their own lives at risk. But once we enter here, we contribute with our own talents, with our own energy. Most of immigrants come here when they are very young. I came here when I was 20, with a great desire to work hard, to go to school, to contribute to the well-being of this great nation that became my home country now. So it is a journey sometimes marked by a lot of uncertainty, fear, but also with hope. I guess one of the things that immigrants bring to this nation is hope and the desire to work hard, to make a living, but also to contribute to make society better through our own contributions. And so it was not easy, but here we are trying to do our best.

And this is — I would say, my own story is — the story of many people. I’m not unique … so many people, so many immigrants contributing in different ways to make the United States a great nation.

 

Cardinal [Wilton] Gregory, in your episcopal ordination, when he gave the homily, he spoke of your closeness to those who know hard work, unfair wages, necessary work, anything possible to be able to make a day’s living. How do you feel when you hear the stories of those who are characterized in a negative way rather than doubling down on this desire to work?

Well, as most immigrants do, I did janitorial work. I did construction, painting, youth ministry — you name it, all kinds of blue-collar jobs. And so that helped me to understand labor, hard labor, to learn to work hard. And Cardinal Gregory said very beautifully in the homily that I should never forget my roots — and that way, people, immigrants, anybody, will be able to be more open to share their own stories, knowing that I’m going to understand them. So I feel very proud of the work that I did because I enjoy just doing whatever work I have to do. I do it with joy because it makes us who we are, in a way. And I bring that gift to be able to understand the hardships that people go through. And Jesus — the cardinal mentions — was known as the son of the carpenter, and he himself was a carpenter. So what a beautiful thing, just to share in a way in the trade of Jesus as a carpenter, as a worker, you know, that earned his life with the work of his hands.

 

The reality for the Church today: Many people say that the future of the Church is Latino or Hispanic, but it really is right now, majority-Latino, whether you're first or second generation, related to the culture or not. And the Hispanic church doesn’t have that representation in its leadership. You’re one of very few bishops who come from Latin America and the first from Central America. What do you see changing, and do you see that this elevation of those who come from this area will be helpful in helping the country through this difficult dialogue right now?

Well, I believe it is very important that the shepherds understand their flock. I mean that bishops understand the Church, but priests understand their parishioners. That is very important. So, yes, there are not many Hispanic bishops, but the number is increasing. There are more and more, especially during the last years with Pope Francis. He understands very well the American Church, and he has a great love for the American Church, and he’s very conscious of the needs of the Church here. So there are more Hispanic bishops. And one of the things that we need to do as a Church is to promote more vocations to the priesthood. We need more Hispanic priests, that’s for sure. We need more deacons; we need more religious sisters and brothers to serve the Church. In 1888, Pope Leo XIII sent a beautiful letter to the bishops of the United States, when the Italians were coming here, were migrating. And then the Pope, Pope Leo XIII, acknowledges the need for priests that speak Italian in that case, in that time, you know, to care for the people. So it is something that the Pope has always been very conscious about: the needs of the Church, the local Church, and then the priests.

The bishops do what they can to learn the language and to learn the culture, even though they are not from a particular race or language. But there are many, many, many bishops and many priests that are not Latinos, are not Hispanics, but they are learning the language to serve everybody.

 

You mentioned the Holy Father, and he recently sent a letter specifically to you and your brother bishops. And he asked you to remember human dignity in the issue of immigration and especially associated with the political climate today; the way the rhetoric associated with those who are crossing the border, the way that we treat them, speak to them, in the way that the Church responds. How did that make you feel?

I’m very thankful for that letter because it is a beautiful expression of closeness of our universal Shepherd to us who are trying to be pastors, to be shepherds of our flock entrusted to us. So, first of all, I mean, we can feel how close the Holy Father is and how much he understands the issues of the Church. Here, he speaks as a pastor to pastors, and that is the beauty of the letter. And the Pope emphasizes the importance, the need to defend the dignity of his human beings, of immigrants. And I would say that that’s the central message of the letter: first of all, letting us know that he understands very well the situation that the Church and that American society is going through right now. But his message is a message of concern, of course, for the well-being of everybody. And then he wants to support us in the ministry that we are doing here.

Many people don’t realize that the situations in the countries that people are coming from are dire. What was the situation for you when you were running from El Salvador in the 1990s?

I was growing up during the civil war that started in 1977, more or less, when the conflict started. Let us remember that Archbishop Romero, now St. Óscar Romero, was assassinated in 1980. So then the civil war broke up. We were forced to abandon our village in 1982. We relocated to another town in the same area, but the whole area was abandoned, left with nobody, just the soldiers that will go from time to time. So the war was there; that was the situation that I grew up in. And then, in 1990, I left El Salvador, and the war continued for two more years. Religious sisters, even American sisters, were killed. And then many priests were killed; catechists were killed. So that was the situation. The Holy Father understands that the first right that we have is to thrive, to live, to make our life prosper in our own country. So that’s the first right that we have. But so many times that right was not respected in a way because we were forced to abandon or to leave our country. So it was a situation of war that pushed me and pushed so many immigrants to leave their countries. And, then, obviously poverty, lack of opportunities.

 

Cardinal Czerny [prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development] has often called that losing the right to remain. It’s very hard to see a lack of investment and stability in a lot of the places where migrants are coming from. When you consider the statements from President Trump, the statements from even Vice President JD Vance, who recently at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast said that he’s a new Catholic — he explained his conversion and this interfaith situation with his family — he made it a point to say that, sometimes as a new Catholic, he wouldn’t get everything right. Do you have any comments from what he said, his expression of solidarity with the Holy Father and his health and those statements?

It was very beautiful that he asked everybody to pray for the Pope’s health. So that is a beautiful expression of his love. And, obviously, you know, he has all the right to say whatever he said. And I will say that the Pope also, as a good pastor, kind of sent a message, not just to him, but to all of us: that we have to understand well the position of the Catholic Church and from where we receive the message — the command to walk with the poor and with the marginalized and, in this case, with immigrants — and that is from Jesus. And I will say that that is what the Pope says in the letter. You know, Jesus taught us to love everyone, everyone. And the Parable of the Good Samaritan is a great example of how we have to love everyone, the strangers among us, when we see a need, a person in need, that is our neighbor. And so it was a beautiful message that the Holy Father sent. And I’m very thankful that, and happy that, Vice President Vance got the message; and, above all, that he asked everybody to pray for the Pope’s health.

So that is a good sign that the vice president loves the Pope, loves the Church, and that he listens.

 

Archbishop Pérez let us know that within his Diocese in Philadelphia, there’s a lot of fear. There’s a fear of ICE raids. There’s a fear for those who want to be here and want to remain and have started making lives here. How do you feel that in this community in the Archdiocese of Washington: Do you also have to pastor those who are in fear of being deported?

Yes, I’m a pastor for everyone, and there are communities that are or people that are expressing fear and anxiety. Thanks be to God, we have also people that are very hopeful; I mean, people who are of hope. And they know that this is the moment when they need the Church the most, that they need to come as a community to pray. So, yes, we are seeing a lot of fear and a lot of uncertainty. People don’t know what is going to happen to them. But one of the beautiful things that we are seeing here is that people, they continue going to church and celebrating their faith. So that is a good sign of their hope and their trust in the Lord. So we had to walk with them and make sure that they know that we are with them and that they are not alone.

 

Finally, in your journey into the United States, you said you never lost your faith, that that’s what sustained you. Have you ever lost your faith since then as a pastor, as a bishop? Now, have you seen something that has made you lose your faith, or have you still continued on that straight path?

My faith is very strong and a faith that I received from my parents, and I learned to live it in community. And I will say that what is important for me and for anyone to grow in faith and to sustain and maintain the faith is to live it in community. I think doubts come when we just enclose ourselves and forget about the people. But when we see people, from the elderly to very young children with beautiful expressions, expressions of their faith and devotion, I guess our faith is sustained; it grows. Prayer life is very important. You know, celebrating the sacraments, but also walking with the people as community. And this is our faith. There is always a light that is lit, you know, somebody praying for us.