Pope Francis on Monday named San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy as the next Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, moving one of his most outspoken allies on immigration into one of the most important posts in the American church.
The move, announced in the Vatican’s Daily Bulletin, comes at a critical time two weeks before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office and is a sign that Pope Francis is setting his own priorities for the incoming administration. Many powerful American Catholics, including Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, have supported Trump’s efforts against immigration and abortion.
Cardinal McElroy, 70, is a long-time supporter of the pope’s pastoral agenda and is known for speaking out frequently on issues of inclusion of immigrants, women and LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church and the United States.
He will succeed Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, the first African American to be appointed a cardinal. Member of the highest governing body of the Church.
During a news conference Monday morning at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, Cardinal McElroy directly addressed Trump’s immigration proposals, saying “a broader, indiscriminate, mass The deportation plan would be “incompatible with Trump’s immigration proposals.” Catholic Doctrine. “
He said that while the Catholic Church teaches that a country has the right to control its borders, it also centers on the “dignity of every human being.”
Cardinal McElroy also spoke briefly in Spanish, addressing directly the archdiocese’s Hispanic community, reminding them that the Church is the mother of all things — “todos, todos, todos,” he repeated — especially during the Hard times.
His presence in Washington will contrast sharply with prominent Catholics in the Trump administration. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, launched a hardline anti-immigration agenda on the campaign trail last year. Vance joined Trump in calling for mass deportations, pledging to end legal immigration programs and spreading baseless rumors that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating pets. He represents the traditional wing of the church that has gained strength in Republican circles in its fight against the rise of secularism.
Trump’s nominee for nuncio to the Holy See, Brian Birch, is the longtime president of Catholic Vote, a group that helps mobilize conservative Catholics behind Trump’s opposition to immigration, abortion and transgender rights.
As bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, which borders Mexico, Cardinal McElroy has a history of siding with immigrants, who represent an important constituency for the global and U.S. Catholic Church
As an undergraduate at Harvard University, he studied with Oscar Handlin, a renowned scholar who transformed public perception of the role of immigrants in American history.
Shortly after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Cardinal McElroy, then the new bishop of San Diego appointed by Pope Francis, told a Catholic immigration conference that standing idly by while Trump promised to deport millions of immigrants was unacceptable. “Unthinkable”.
He described Trump’s policy as “an injustice that tarnishes our national honor” and compared it to the U.S.’s internment of Japanese Americans and the dispossession of Native Americans during World War II.
He also spoke as President Trump sought to end a program that protects some 700,000 immigrants known as “Dreamers” from deportation.
While other Catholic bishops have tried to make abortion a top issue, Cardinal McIlroy has often argued that abortion is only one of several key priorities of Catholic moral teaching. When conservative bishops took aim at President Joe Biden, America’s second Catholic president, over a proposal to deny communion to politicians in 2021 because of their support for abortion rights, he fired back, saying that under such a proposal, communion “is intended to make We become one” For millions of Catholics, this would become a sign of division. “
Cardinal McElroy made the case for the “thorough inclusion” of women and LGBTQ people in church life and leadership. In 2022, Pope Francis named him a cardinal and therefore eligible to vote for the pope’s successor.
The former leader of the Archdiocese of Washington has navigated the inherently political nature of the position in his own way. Cardinal McIlroy, a scholar of American history by training and a rare bishop with a doctorate in political science from Stanford University, has not shied away from contemporary controversies, both in church and state.
“Our political society has been poisoned by a tribalism that is draining our energy as a people and endangering our democracy,” he wrote in 2023 in the Jesuit publication American Magazine. “And this poison is poisonous. has entered the life of the church destructively.
In December, Cardinal McElroy and 11 other bishops from California issued a statement in support of “our immigrant brothers and sisters” as Trump pledged another crackdown on immigration.
They wrote: “We would like to assure you that we and our Mother Church stand with you in these anxious days and are committed to “preserving your dignity and family unity.”
A date for Cardinal McElroy’s installation has not yet been set, but the Diocese of San Diego has said it will take place in March. Santiago’s new bishop is still to be appointed.
Although the Archdiocese of Washington has about half as many Catholics as the Diocese of San Diego, it is one of the most important dioceses in the country. The archdiocese includes the nation’s capital as well as major institutions such as the Catholic University of America and the Cathedral of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in North America.
Cardinal Gregory moved to Washington in 2019 from Atlanta, where he served as archbishop, following a tumultuous period for church leaders in Washington at the center of the U.S. sex abuse crisis. Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2020 amid widespread calls for racial justice across the country and within the Church. Cardinal Gregory plans to retire but remain in Washington.
Elizabeth Povoledo Contributed reporting.
