Pope Leo XIV reshapes Washington, W.Va. leadership; two bishops have Baltimore ties

A bishop who began his episcopal ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore is among those stepping down as Pope Leo XIV announced a set of appointments May 1 affecting the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va. A second bishop with Baltimore ties is also among those affected.

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, publicized the appointments in Washington May 1.

Among those stepping down is Bishop Mark E. Brennan, who was ordained an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Baltimore at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen Jan. 19, 2017, and served in the Baltimore archdiocese until his transfer to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., July 23, 2019. Pope Leo XIV has accepted his resignation as the diocese’s ninth bishop. 

Bishop Brennan, 79, who speaks English, Spanish and French, was especially involved in ministry to Spanish-speaking Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He will mark the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination May 15.

During his 2019 farewell Mass, held at Sacred Heart of Jesus-Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Highlandtown, Bishop Brennan encouraged those who were born and raised in the United States to befriend immigrants and walk with them, noting that it would enrich the lives of both groups. He also encouraged immigrants to make friends of those born in this country for their “mutual benefit.”

“Never forget that this is your church,” Bishop Brennan told immigrants. “You are not guests in someone else’s church. You are Catholics. You belong here. You have the right to be treated as such and to take part in parish life, in our Catholic schools and other ministries and to contribute to their welfare.”

Bishop Brennan had headed the Wheeling-Charleston diocese since his installation Aug. 22, 2019. Prior to coming to Baltimore, he served as director of priestly vocations in the Archdiocese of Washington. He serves on multiple committees for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, including the National Advisory Committee, the migration committee and the pro-life committee.

Also stepping down is Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr. of Washington, whose path to the priesthood traces back to a Baltimore sidewalk. While working in Baltimore’s retail banking industry, Campbell left work one December evening in 1995 and passed a man on the street begging for food. He stopped and took him to get something to eat, according to his biography on the Washington archdiocesan website.

“What he said to me I have never forgotten, ‘You’re a Christian, aren’t you?'” Campbell recalled. “My answer to him is just as memorable, ‘I try to be.’ I saw Jesus in that man, as clearly as I saw the man himself. That encounter started my reflecting on my relationship with Jesus in a very different way.”

Bishop Campbell was ordained into the priesthood May 26, 2007 by Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Washington March 8, 2017. He is 78. 

Two new auxiliaries named for Washington

To fill auxiliary roles in Washington, the pope named Father Gary R. Studniewski, pastor of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, and Father Robert P. Boxie III, chaplain at Howard University in Washington.

Bishop-designate Studniewski has led the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament since 2022. A former military chaplain who served from 1995 to 2014, he retired with the rank of colonel.

Bishop-designate Boxie has served as chaplain at the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center at Howard University since 2020. He has also been a professor in the Archdiocese of Washington’s permanent diaconate program since 2018 and an assistant vocations director for the archdiocese since 2016.

Wheeling-Charleston gets new shepherd

Named to succeed Bishop Brennan in West Virginia is Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of Washington, 55, who will lead a diocese that encompasses the entire state of West Virginia – some 24,000 square miles with a population of approximately 1.81 million.

Bishop Menjivar-Ayala was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington May 29, 2004, after studying philosophy at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami and theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas – the Angelicum – in Rome, where he also earned a licentiate at the Pontifical Scalabrinian Institute of Pastoral Theology for Human Mobility. He speaks English, Spanish and Italian.

In February 2023, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory ordained him as an auxiliary bishop of Washington at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, making him the first Salvadoran bishop in the United States.

OSV News contributed to this story

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