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

Pope Francis Names Dominican-Born Priest as Palm Beach Bishop, Bringing Immigrant Advocate to Trump’s Backyard

Pope Leo XIV on Friday appointed Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez as the new bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, placing a vocal immigrant advocate in the diocese that includes former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Rodríguez, currently pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Queens, New York, leads the largest parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn with approximately 17,000 congregants, most of whom are Hispanic immigrants.

“I never, never, never expected anything even close to this,” Rodríguez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Palm Beach, where he was visiting a homeless shelter. “I’m even a little bit scared. But I trust in God’s assistance.”

The appointment is particularly significant given the location of the Palm Beach Diocese, which encompasses about 260,000 Catholics across 54 parishes and missions. The diocese includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which the former president has called the “Center of the Universe.” Trump’s immigration policies during his administration were frequently criticized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Rodríguez was ordained to the priesthood in 2004 in Santo Domingo. He has served at Our Lady of Sorrows in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Corona, Queens, through challenging times, including when more than 100 parishioners died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rodríguez has established himself as an outspoken defender of immigrant rights. Earlier this year, he joined numerous faith leaders across the United States expressing concern about immigration enforcement actions that created fear within migrant communities.

“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,” Rodríguez 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.”

The new bishop emphasized that immigration enforcement shouldn’t target families and children. “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,” he said.

The appointment comes during a period of heightened tension over immigration policy. Many church leaders have condemned immigration crackdowns, noting they often target parishioners without criminal records who become afraid to attend Mass, buy food, or seek medical care. In many immigrant parishes, U.S.-born children have parents who are undocumented, creating precarious family situations.

Rodríguez emphasized his alignment with the Catholic Church’s official position, which defends migrants’ rights while acknowledging nations’ authority 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 noted.

The Vatican announced Rodríguez’s appointment just one day after Pope Leo accepted the resignation of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the conservative leader of the New York archdiocese who maintained ties to Trump, including praying at his inauguration and serving on his Religious Liberty Commission.

While U.S. bishops remain divided on some social issues like LGBTQ+ inclusion, they have shown remarkable unity on immigration. During their general assembly earlier this year, they issued a rare “special message” criticizing the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies and the “vilification” of migrants in public discourse. The bishops also expressed concern about the fear created by immigration raids and the denial of pastoral care to migrants in detention centers.

The appointment of Rodríguez appears to reinforce Pope Leo’s commitment to immigrant advocacy, placing a leader with first-hand experience of immigrant communities in a symbolically important diocese.

“Migrants are not to be demonized,” Rodríguez stated. “Good migrant people that are here to work hard for their families — they share many of our core values. They’re 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.”

The Diocese of Palm Beach has indicated that Rodríguez will be ordained and installed during a future Mass at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola, though a specific date has not yet been announced.