Pope Appoints Progressive Cardinal As New Archbishop Of Washington

WASHINGTON, DC — Pope Francis on Monday appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego to lead the Archdiocese of Washington, tapping one of his most progressive and like-minded allies to lead the church in the nation's capital just two weeks ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration.

McElroy, 70, will replace the retiring Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who helped the diocese navigate the aftermath of the 2018 eruption of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The Archdiocese of Washington includes the District of Columbia and Montgomery, Prince George’s, St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles counties in Maryland. The area has a total population of 3,050,847, of whom 671,187 are Catholic, according to The Associated Press.

McElroy is known as a supporter of the pope’s pastoral agenda and frequently speaks out on the inclusion of migrants, women and LGBTQ+ people in the Catholic church and the United States.

While speaking at a news conference at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington on Monday, McElroy directly addressed the incoming Trump administration's immigration proposals, saying that plans for a "wider, indiscriminate, massive deportation across the country" would be “incompatible with Catholic doctrine," according to a New York Times report.

McElroy, who was born in San Francisco, attended Harvard and Stanford universities and completed his ecclesiastical studies at Saint Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park. He was awarded a doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

McElroy was ordained a priest in 1980 and had served as bishop of the Diocese of San Diego since 2015.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Natalia Imperatori-Lee, chairperson of the religion and philosophy department at Manhattan University, called McElroy "competent, kind, empathetic, and willing to fight on the side of the vulnerable."

“McElroy has experience leading a diocese marked by diversity and challenges, and I can’t think of a bigger challenge than to be so close to the seat of the U.S. government in 2025,” Imperatori-Lee said in an email.