Pope names pro-immigrant pastor bishop of Florida diocese where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is located

Rev. Manuel Rodriguez celebrates Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in the Queens borough of New York, on Sunday, May 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)

Pope Leo XIV on Friday named the Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, currently pastor of a predominantly Hispanic church in the Queens borough of New York City, as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.

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

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

“I never, never, never expected anything even close to this,” Rodriguez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday from Palm Beach, where he was visiting a homeless shelter.

“I’m even a little bit scared. But I trust in God’s assistance,” 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’m here to help.”

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

A Dominican native

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.

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

In his new assignment, he will lead the diocese where Mar-a-Lago — Trump’s vast south Florida estate — is located. Trump has called the resort the “Centre of the Universe.”

“The 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,” Rodriguez said. “We want to assist the president as a church because we believe that we can do better … than the way we’re doing this right now.”

Some church leaders have condemned Trump’s 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.

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.

“When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, we shouldn’t 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’re here to help. We’re willing to help, and God willing, we will,” Rodriguez said.

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

“The Church’s position about this important and urgent matter has been made crystal clear by the bishops of the United States,” he said.

Immigration a challenging issue for Catholic bishops

The Vatican announced Rodríguez’s appointment the day after it shared that Pope Leo had accepted the resignation of conservative Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan 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.

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.

During their general assembly earlier this year, U.S. bishops issued a rare “special message” criticizing 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 in communities, and the denial of pastoral care to migrants in detention centers.

U.S. Catholic bishops shuttered their longstanding refugee resettlement program after the Trump administration halted federal funding for resettlement aid.

Rodriguez said the church will always be ready to defend the dignity of poor people and migrants, who over generations, “have contributed to the growth of the United States.”

“Migrants are not to be demonized … Good migrant people that are here to work hard for their families — they share many of our core values,” he said. “They’re to be not to be rejected and treated harshly but instead, they’re to be treated respectfully and with dignity. So, that’s the idea, and Pope Leo is backing us up in this.”

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Luis Andres Henao, The Associated Press