Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy, until now Bishop of San Diego, to lead the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, in the United States, the Vatican announced this Monday.
The 70-year-old cardinal, with a doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and in political science from Stanford University, succeeds Cardinal Wilton Gregory at the head of the archdiocese that serves more than half a million Catholics in southern Maryland and the American capital.
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In his nearly 10 years as bishop of California’s southernmost diocese, McElroy has expressed his opinion on a number of controversial issues at the intersection of politics and Church life. Many also consider him to be the American cardinal whose thoughts most align with that of Pope Francis.
The openly progressive McElroy is now set to take over the ecclesiastical territory of the nation’s capital just as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second term as president of the United States.
Shortly after President Trump was inaugurated for his first term in 2017, McElroy said at a meeting of religious groups that if Trump was the “disruption” candidate, then similar disruption is needed to build a better society.
“Now we must all become disruptors,” the bishop said, referencing the use of military force to deport undocumented immigrants and the portrayal of refugees and Muslims as enemies.
On the political front, McElroy has been the most outspoken on the issue of immigration.
Speaking at an interfaith prayer vigil outside the U.S. federal courthouse in downtown San Diego in 2021, McElroy decried Congress’s failure to create paths to legalization for some of the United States’ 11 million undocumented immigrants.
“We cannot stand idly by as we watch our political processes, no matter how broken, destroy the dreams and hopes of the refugees and immigrants who have not only come and lived here, but have helped build our nation and improve it,” he noted then.
He is also a frequently heard voice in the debate over “Eucharistic coherence,” in which he has often criticized what he considers, in the United States, the prioritization of abortion over other social concerns, such as the death penalty and attention to migrants and the environment.
In recent years, McElroy has also claimed that denying Holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians is weaponizing the Eucharist for a political purpose.
In a May 5, 2021 essay, he denounced what he called “a theology of unworthiness” for receiving the Eucharist, according to which those who practice it focus too much, in his opinion, on discipline.
McElroy also supports the idea of deaconesses in the Church and is a strong advocate for Catholics who identify as LGBT.
Who is Cardinal Robert McElroy, new Archbishop of Washington DC?
Born in San Francisco on February 5, 1954, Bishop McElroy grew up in San Mateo County. He was ordained a priest in 1980 and served as auxiliary bishop to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone since 2010.
In 2015, Pope Francis chose McElroy to lead the diocese of San Diego. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis at the August 2022 consistory, after undergoing successful coronary bypass surgery the previous year.
Before entering seminary, McElroy studied history at Harvard University and then earned a master’s degree in American History at Stanford University.
After his priestly ordination, he also earned a bachelor’s degree (similar to a master’s degree) in sacred theology and doctorates in moral theology and political science.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA
Hannah Brockhaus
Hannah Brockhaus is Rome correspondent for Catholic News Agency. He grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.