A once-undocumented Salvadoran rises to the top of the Catholic Church in Washington, Karen Tumulty writes in Opinions.
to anyone. “What must the pastor do?” he said. “Be a pastor, don’t go condemning.”
For nearly seven years, Menjivar has been the pastor of a vibrant melting-pot parish — St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Landover Hills, whose membership is roughly 60 percent Latino and 35 percent immigrants from Africa. Menjivar also has held a number of leadership roles in the archdiocese. Notably, he is the only priest to sit on its seven-member Child Protection Advisory Board, set up in 2002 as a massive — and continuing — clergy sex-abuse scandal began to unfold.
condemns “homosexual acts” as “grave depravity,” Menjivar notes with pride that gay families are part of the community at St. Mary’s. This year, he said, he baptized one of their children and gave First Communion to three others. “They are persevering here,” he said of the gay parents who bring their children to receive the sacraments. “That says a lot.”In his final sermon as St. Mary’s pastor, Menjivar lamented that religion is too often used as a cloak for fear and judgment and prejudice.
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