Pope Francis on Monday named Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego because the archbishop of Washington, tapping certainly one of his most progressively like-minded allies to go the Catholic Church within the U.S. capital in the beginning of the second Trump Administration.
McElroy, 70, replaces Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who at 77 is 2 years beyond the conventional retirement age for bishops.
The Vatican announced the appointment in an announcement Monday.
Francis has long had his eye on McElroy, making him bishop of San Diego in 2015 after which elevating him as a cardinal in 2022.
McElroy has been certainly one of a minority of U.S. bishops harshly criticizing the campaign to exclude Catholic politicians who support abortion rights from Communion, a campaign Francis has publicly criticized by insisting that bishops have to be pastors, not politicians.
He has also questioned why the U.S. bishops’ conference, which has leaned conservative in its leadership, consistently insists on identifying abortion as its “preeminent” priority. He has questioned why greater prominence was not given to issues comparable to racism, poverty, immigration and climate change.
He has also expressed support for LGBTQ+ youth and denounced the bullying often directed at them, further aligning himself with Francis’ priorities as pope.
McElroy’s appointment to Washington comes just a couple of weeks after Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, nominated Brian Burch as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Burch, president and co-founder of the advocacy group CatholicVote, has criticized Francis and a few of his policies on social media.
Francis made the appointment ahead of his final meeting with President Joe Biden, who’s making a final foreign trip to Italy this week. Biden emerged from a 2021 meeting with Francis by saying the pope told him to proceed receiving Communion despite his position on abortion.
He later received the sacrament at a Rome church.
The Archdiocese of Washington includes the District of Columbia and five Maryland counties of Montgomery, Prince George’s, St. Mary’s, Calvert, and Charles. It has a complete population of three,050,847, of which 671,187 are Catholic.
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