{"id":90319,"date":"2025-12-20T08:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/90319\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T08:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:46:09","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-names-pro-immigrant-priest-as-bishop-of-palm-beach-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/90319\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV names pro-immigrant priest as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV on Friday named the Rev. Manuel de Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez, currently pastor of a predominantly Hispanic church<\/a> in the Queens borough of New York City, as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n

The diocese is home to the Mar-a-Lago estate of President Donald Trump, whose get-tough immigration policies have drawn objections from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez has been a staunch advocate for migrants, which make up most of his 17,000 congregants at the Our Lady of Sorrows church \u2014 the largest parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which also oversees churches in Queens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never, never, never expected anything even close to this,\u201d Rodriguez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday from Palm Beach, where he was visiting a homeless shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m even a little bit scared. But I trust in God\u2019s assistance,\u201d he said. “One thing I can tell you is that this diocese is a diocese of hard-working priests and hard-working people, and I\u2019m here to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Diocese of Palm Beach<\/a> comprises about 260,000 Catholics and 54 parishes and missions. On its website, the diocese said<\/a> that Rodriguez will be ordained and installed at a future date during a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola.<\/p>\n

A Dominican native<\/p>\n

Rodriguez was born in the Dominican Republic and ordained to the priesthood in 2004, in the capital, Santo Domingo. He led the Our Lady of Sorrows parish in the mostly Latino Corona neighborhood of Queens when more than 100 of its parishioners died from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Rodriguez joined numerous faith leaders<\/a> across the U.S. expressing their concern about how the immigration crackdown<\/a> launched by Trump’s administration had sown fear within their migrant-friendly congregations.<\/p>\n

In his new assignment, he will lead the diocese where Mar-a-Lago \u2014 Trump’s vast south Florida estate \u2014 is located. Trump has called the resort the “Center of the Universe.” <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president is doing really good things, not only for the United States, but for the world. But when it comes to the migrant, the immigration policy, we want to help,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cWe want to assist the president as a church because we believe that we can do better \u2026 than the way we\u2019re doing this right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some church leaders have condemned Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, saying it targets parishioners without a criminal record who are now too scared to leave home to attend Mass, buy food or seek medical care.<\/p>\n

At many immigrant parishes, U.S.-born children have parents in the country illegally. Some of these parents have signed caregiver affidavits, which designate a legal guardian, in hopes their children stay out of foster care in case they are detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to enforcing immigration laws, we shouldn\u2019t be enforcing them by focusing on deporting 5-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 9-year-old kids, people that have never committed any crime. So, we\u2019re here to help. We\u2019re willing to help, and God willing, we will,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said he’s in line with the Catholic Church, which staunchly defends the rights of migrants<\/a>, even as it acknowledges the rights of nations to control their borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church\u2019s position about this important and urgent matter has been made crystal clear by the bishops of the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Immigration a challenging issue for Catholic bishops<\/p>\n

The Vatican announced Rodr\u00edguez’s appointment the day after it shared that Pope Leo had accepted the resignation of conservative Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan<\/a> who led the New York archdiocese and also had ties to Trump, including praying at his inauguration earlier this year and being appointed to his Religious Liberty Commission.<\/p>\n

On some issues, such as greater inclusion for LGBTQ+ people, U.S. bishops are divided. But on immigration, even conservative Catholic leaders stand on the side of migrants.<\/p>\n

During their general assembly earlier this year, U.S. bishops issued a rare “special message” criticizing<\/a> the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants and their “vilification” in the current migration debate. It also lamented the fear and anxiety immigration raids have sown<\/a> in communities, and the denial of pastoral care to migrants in detention centers.<\/p>\n

U.S. Catholic bishops shuttered their longstanding refugee resettlement program<\/a> after the Trump administration halted federal funding for resettlement aid.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said the church will always be ready to defend the dignity of poor people and migrants, who over generations, \u201chave contributed to the growth of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMigrants are not to be demonized \u2026 Good migrant people that are here to work hard for their families \u2014 they share many of our core values,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re to be not to be rejected and treated harshly but instead, they\u2019re to be treated respectfully and with dignity. So, that\u2019s the idea, and Pope Leo is backing us up in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV on Friday named the Rev. Manuel de Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez, currently pastor of a predominantly Hispanic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,48601],"class_list":["post-90319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-manuel-de-jesus-rodriguez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}