On one of the last days of his life, Father Guillermo Treviño walked through Vatican City under a soft, silver sky, holding aloft an imposing wooden cross.
With 100 singing pilgrims following him, he led the way, raising his black cowboy hat high every time someone strayed.
The Rev. De Neice Welch, one of the pilgrims who also participated in the trip, said she will never forget seeing him smiling under that wing, guiding them like a shepherd through the heart of the Church he loved so much.
Treviño, who was just 39 years old, died in Iowa City on Friday, October 31, one day after returning from his trip to Rome. He had undiagnosed diabetes, which ultimately led to a stomach perforation that proved fatal, according to a Facebook post by his sister, Mariela Treviño-Luna, who was also with him on the trip to Europe.
Treviño served as pastor of St. Joseph Catholic churches in Columbus Junction and West Liberty, southeast of Iowa City, but was known throughout the state for his work as a founding member and chaplain of Escucha Mi Voz Iowa. The group is one of the leading immigrant rights organizations in the state.
“From my time as bishop of Davenport, I remember his fun and serious side,” said Thomas Zinkula, archbishop of Dubuque, the top leader of Iowa Catholics, in a message to the Des Moines Register. “Fr. Guillermo loved movies, Star Wars, and professional wrestling. But he was also passionate about serving and defending immigrants. I was inspired by his total commitment to seeking justice and mercy for people on that particular margin of society.”
Father Guillermo Treviño carries a wooden cross through Vatican City on October 23, 2025.
María Ayala, vice president of Escucha Mi Voz Iowa, expressed concern about the loss of Treviño at a time when immigrants face increasing uncertainty.
“I don’t believe what happened,” Ayala said. “We need more people like him to support our Hispanic-Latino community.”
Treviño had just returned from the Fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements in Rome, where he and Welch represented the Gamaliel National Network, a grassroots organization of nonpartisan religious organizations.
“Father Trevino was one of the most special people I have ever met,” said Welch, senior pastor of Bidwell Street United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.
He added that a memory he will never forget is when, waiting for dinner one night of the trip, Treviño gathered the South African contingent to play foosball.
“Everyone was playing and laughing and joking, and they didn’t even speak the same language, but he took control of the situation and invited all these people to just have fun,” Welch said.
The families of Pascual Pedro and Noel López walk to stand near Father Guillermo Treviño during a protest demanding the return and release of each man, respectively, on July 29, 2025 near the United States Courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
A life of service and faith for social issues
Born in Moline, on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities, Trevino never gave up on people, Deacon David Montgomery, chancellor of the Diocese of Davenport, said in an email to the Des Moines Register. He noted that Treviño’s own father, a Mexican citizen, was deported 12 times from the United States.
Treviño “was a gentle and sweet man, had a resonant preacher’s voice and could preach and pray effortlessly in English and Spanish, switching back and forth with ease,” Montgomery said.
Father Guillermo Treviño poses outside the Vatican on October 23, 2025.
Treviño’s first campaign to help vulnerable people, in 2018, stopped what advocates saw as a hostile move toward homeless people. The Iowa City Council agreed to replace 14 benches in the city’s Ped Mall with versions that lacked center armrests, making them unsuitable for sleeping.
“I think this is a mistake by the city,” Treviño told the Iowa City Press-Citizen at the time. “And we believe that if you break something, you should pay for it, own it.”
Hear My Voice Iowa held its first organizing meetings in the basements of its churches in 2021, Montgomery said.
Pascual Pedro (right), former West Liberty High School football star, appears in a 2024 photograph with Escucha Mi Voz board president Father Guillermo Treviño. Pedro, 20, was recently detained by ICE officials and deported to his home country of Guatemala.
Treviño emerged as a leading figure in the Diocese’s outreach to immigrant communities. In 2022, he received the Cardinal Bernardin National New Leadership Award, which recognizes a “young, faith-filled Catholic who has demonstrated leadership against poverty and injustice in the United States,” according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In 2023, he helped distribute $1.3 million in pandemic relief checks to meatpacking plant workers and farmworkers, according to Montgomery.
He added that one of Treviño’s most impactful victories came in 2024, when he helped save the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The national community organizing grant program, which provides between $5 million and $10 million in aid annually, had been criticized for overstretching its resources and faced attempts to severely reduce it, according to the National Catholic Reporter. The online publication quoted Treviño as saying before a crucial bishops’ conference that “pausing grant-making or annual fundraising for even a year would cause irreparable harm to the poorest and most marginalized communities in this country.”
This year he continued his advocacy work, writing an op-ed for the Des Moines Register after Pascual Pedro, a graduate of West Liberty High School, was detained during a routine immigration check and deported less than two weeks later.
“As Pascual Pedro’s pastor and godfather, I am deeply concerned by the recent statements by Senator Chuck Grassley, Senator Joni Ernst and Representative Ashley Hinson regarding his unjust deportation to Guatemala,” he wrote. “We demand leadership. We demand justice. We demand that Pascual be brought home now.”
Most recently, in August, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, sat next to Treviño as he spoke to a crowd about immigration issues at St. Joseph in West Liberty.
Sanders recalled his experience with Treviño on Saturday and, in a message to the Register, said he was personally sorry for his loss.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to a crowd about immigration issues on August 22, 2025 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in West Liberty, Iowa.
“I had the privilege of meeting Father Trevino several times,” Sanders said. “He was a brave man who dedicated his life to fighting for dignity and justice for all people. He stood up for the poor, the vulnerable and the voiceless.
“His passing is a tremendous loss, but the best way to honor his legacy is to continue his fight: to stand up, speak out, and confront injustice wherever it exists.”
Thai Theodoro is a reporter for The Des Moines Register. Contact her at ttheodoro@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @thaiiswriting.
This article originally appeared in the Des Moines Register: Father Treviño of Iowa, known for his advocacy for immigrants, dies at 39