Pope Francis on Monday nominated Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the bishop of San Diego, to be the next Roman Catholic archbishop in Washington, removing one of his most vocal supporters by moving to some of the most prominent positions in the American church.
The move, announced in the Vatican’s daily newspaper, comes at a critical time two weeks before President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated and shows that Pope Francis is forming his own priorities as he faces the incoming administration. Many powerful American Catholics, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, support Mr.
Cardinal McElroy, 70, has been a long-time supporter of the Pope’s pastoral plan, and is known for speaking out about the inclusion of immigrants, women and LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church and in the United States.
He will succeed Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, the first African-American to be made a cardinal. a member of the governing body of the church.
In a press conference at the Church of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington on Monday morning, Cardinal McElroy spoke directly to the proposals of Mr. Catholic teaching.”
Although the Catholic Church teaches that the country has the right to control its borders, it also emphasizes the “dignity of every person,” he said.
Cardinal McElroy also spoke briefly in Spanish, speaking directly to the Hispanic community of the archdiocese, reminding them that the church is the mother of all – “todos, todos, todos,” he repeated – especially in difficult times.
His presence in Washington will be different from the prominent Catholics in Mr. Mr. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, pushed a strong anti-immigrant agenda on the campaign trail last year. Next to Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance called for mass deportations, promised to end legal immigration programs and spread unfounded rumors that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating pets. He represents the clerical wing of the church, which has gained strength in Republican circles as it competes with the growth of religion.
Appointed by Mr. Trump’s successor to the Holy See, Brian Burch, is the longtime president of Catholic Vote, a group that helped rally conservative Catholics to support Mr.
As the bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, near the Mexican border, Cardinal McElroy has a history of standing with immigrants, who represent an important part of the Catholic Church around the world and in the US.
As an undergraduate at Harvard University, he studied with Oscar Handlin, a prominent scholar who changed public opinion about the role of immigration in American history.
Just after Mr. After Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Cardinal McElroy, the new bishop in San Diego appointed by Pope Francis, told a Catholic conference on immigrants that it was “unthinkable” to advocate as Mr. Trump has promised to deport millions of immigrants.
He explained the goal of Mr. Trump called it “an act of injustice that would tarnish our national honor,” and compared it to the United States’ internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and its dispossession of Native Americans.
He also spoke when President Trump tried to end the program that protects from deportation about 700,000 immigrants, known as Dreamers, who entered the country as children.
As other Catholic bishops sought to make abortion their dominant issue, Cardinal McElroy often asserted that abortion was one of the most important aspects of Catholic moral teaching. When conservative bishops pointed to President Biden, America’s second Catholic president, for a 2021 proposal to deny communion to politicians because of their support for abortion rights, he pushed back, saying that under such a proposal, the sacrament, “which wants to unite us. , for millions of Catholics it will be a sign of separation.”
Cardinal McElroy made the case for “greater inclusion” of women and LGBTQ people in church life and leadership. In 2022, Pope Francis made him a cardinal, so he was eligible to vote for a successor.
Former leaders of the Diocese of Washington have navigated the political climate of deployment in their own ways. An American historian by training, Cardinal McElroy is the rare bishop with a doctorate from Stanford University in political science, and he did not shy away from the controversies of the day, either in the church or in the nation.
“Our political society is poisoned by bigotry that saps our strength as people and endangers democracy,” he wrote in America Magazine, a Jesuit publication, in 2023. .”
In December, as Mr. Trump promised to fight immigration again, Cardinal McElroy and 11 other bishops of California issued a statement in support of “immigrant brothers and sisters.”
“We want to assure you that we, and our mother, the Church, stand with you in these days of concern,” they wrote, promising to “stand for your dignity and the unity of the family.”
A date for Cardinal McElroy’s installation has not been set, although the Diocese of San Diego said it would take place in March. A new bishop of San Diego has yet to be appointed.
Although the archdiocese of Washington is home to about half of the Catholic diocese of San Diego, it is one of the most prominent 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 Basilica 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 was archbishop, following a difficult time when church leaders in Washington were at the center of America’s sexual abuse crisis. Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2020, at a time of growing calls for racial justice across the country and the church. Cardinal Gregory plans to retire, but remain in Washington.
Elisabetta Povoledo reporting contributed.
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