Pope Francis on Monday named Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, bishop of San Diego, to be the subsequent Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, shifting one among his most vocal allies on immigration to probably the most distinguished posts within the American church.
The transfer, introduced within the Vatican’s every day bulletin, comes at a crucial second two weeks earlier than President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated and sends a sign about Pope Francis’ priorities. Many highly effective American Catholics, together with Vice President-elect JD Vance, have aligned themselves with Mr. Trump’s efforts towards immigration and abortion.
Cardinal McElroy, 70, is a longtime supporter of the pope’s pastoral agenda, and is thought for repeatedly talking out on the inclusion of migrants, girls and L.G.B.T.Q. individuals within the Catholic church and in america.
He’ll succeed Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, the primary African-American to be made a cardinal, a member of the church’s highest governing physique.
In December, as Mr. Trump promised to crack down on immigration as soon as once more, Cardinal McElroy and 11 different bishops from California issued a statement in assist of “our migrant brothers and sisters.”
“We wish to guarantee you that we, and our mom, the Church, stand with you in today of hysteria,” they wrote, promising “to advocate on your dignity and household unity.”
His presence in Washington will stand in distinction to that of Mr. Vance, who transformed to Catholicism in 2019 and superior a hard-line anti-immigrant agenda on the marketing campaign path final yr. Alongside Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance referred to as for mass deportations, promised to end legal immigration programs and spread baseless rumors that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, have been stealing and consuming pets.
Mr. Vance represents the traditionalist wing of the church, which has gained power in Republican circles because it pushes towards the rise of secularism.
As bishop of the San Diego diocese, alongside the border with Mexico, Cardinal McElroy has a historical past of standing with immigrants, who characterize a major constituency for the Catholic church each globally and within the U.S.
As an undergraduate at Harvard College, he studied with Oscar Handlin, a prominent scholar who shifted public views concerning the position of immigration in American historical past.
Shortly after Mr. Trump received the 2016 presidential election, Cardinal McElroy, then a brand new bishop in San Diego appointed by Pope Francis, told a Catholic immigration conference that it was “unthinkable” to face by as Mr. Trump promised to deport thousands and thousands of immigrants.
He described Mr. Trump’s coverage as “an act of injustice which might stain our nationwide honor in the identical method because the progressive dispossessions of the Native American peoples of america and the interment of the Japanese.”
He additionally spoke out when President Trump tried to finish this system that protects from deportation about 700,000 immigrants, referred to as Dreamers, who entered the nation as youngsters.
As different Catholic bishops sought to make abortion their pre-eminent difficulty, Cardinal McElroy usually argued that abortion was solely one among a number of crucial priorities of Catholic ethical educating. When conservative bishops focused President Biden, America’s second Catholic president, with a proposal in 2021 to disclaim politicians communion due to their assist of abortion rights, he pushed back, saying that below such a proposal, the sacrament, “which seeks to make us one, will grow to be for thousands and thousands of Catholics an indication of division.”
Cardinal McElroy has made a case for the “radical inclusion” of girls and L.G.B.T.Q. individuals in church life and management, to the exasperation of conservatives. In 2022, Pope Francis made him a cardinal, and subsequently eligible to vote on the pontiff’s successor.
Previous leaders of the archdiocese of Washington have navigated the inherently political nature of the posting in their very own methods. A scholar of American historical past by coaching, Cardinal McElroy is a uncommon prelate who holds a doctorate from Stanford College in political science, and he has not shied away from up to date controversies, both within the church or within the nation.
“Our political society has been poisoned by a tribalism that’s sapping our vitality as a individuals and endangering our democracy,” he wrote in America Magazine, a Jesuit publication, in 2023. “And that poison has entered destructively into the lifetime of the church.”
Although the archdiocese of Washington is residence to about half as many Catholics because the diocese of San Diego, it is likely one of the most distinguished postings within the nation. The archdiocese contains the nation’s capital, in addition to main establishments just like the Catholic College of America and the Basilica of the Nationwide Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the biggest Catholic church in North America.
Cardinal Gregory moved to Washington in 2019 from Atlanta, the place he was archbishop, following a tumultuous interval when church leaders in Washington have been on the middle of America’s sexual abuse disaster. Pope Francis elevated him to the School of Cardinals in 2020, at a time of widespread requires racial justice throughout the nation and inside the church.
Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting.
