National Catholic Register, Jan 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Cardinal Robert McElroy, the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., says he wishes success for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration but that he’ll be watching closely to see how Trump deals with immigrants who are in the country without legal status.
“The Catholic Church teaches that a country has the right to control its borders. And our nation’s desire to do that is a legitimate effort,” McElroy said Monday, shortly after being introduced as Washington’s eighth archbishop during an online press conference at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle amid an unusually heavy snowstorm in the nation’s capital.
“At the same time, we are called always to have a sense of the dignity of every human person. And thus, plans which have been talked about at some levels of having a wider indiscriminate massive deportation across the country would be something that would be incompatible with Catholic doctrine. So we’ll have to see what emerges in the administration.”
The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis has appointed McElroy, 70, as archbishop of Washington, a high-profile see that includes about 667,000 Catholics in the District of Columbia and five counties in southern Maryland.
McElroy, widely seen as a progressive and an ally of Pope Francis, was appointed by the pope to the College of Cardinals in August 2022. He has served as shepherd of San Diego since 2015.
In Washington, he replaces Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, who has served as archbishop there since 2019.
The appointment was immediate. Gregory was already listed Monday as among the “former archbishops” of Washington on the archdiocese’s website.
The two cardinals appeared together at the online press conference.
The press conference, which was emceed by a moderator, featured prepared statements by the two cardinals, two questions from reporters the moderator posed to McElroy, and one question from a reporter the moderator posed to Gregory.
Gregory took over the archdiocese in April 2019 when it was reeling after revelations of sexual abuse by Theodore McCarrick, the sixth archbishop of Washington, whom Pope Francis dismissed from the clerical state, and the awkward departure of the seventh archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who was sharply criticized for how he handled allegations against McCarrick and for how he handled certain clergy-sex-abuse cases when he was bishop of Pittsburgh.
Gregory, who has been seen as a lower-profile prelate than his predecessors, has worked to right the ship in Washington. But financial and other problems loom, as McElroy noted in his prepared statement.
“The journey of this Catholic community has known mountaintop moments, the visits of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict, and Pope Francis, and it has known also moments of failure and shame — in the massive betrayal of the young to sexual abuse and the moral and financial reckoning for this betrayal which lie ahead of us,” McElroy said.
“In this mixture of mountaintop and failure, we are no different from the first disciples of the Lord. The light of Christ radiates in the Catholic community of this diocese in all of these dimensions, but most powerfully, it radiates in the lives of individual women and men who form the people of God, struggling in a world filled with turbulence, hardship, and illusion to follow the pathway of Christ,” he added.
The first question McElroy fielded was about decreasing reliance on so-called fossil fuels (such as oil and natural gas) in the Diocese of San Diego, such as through using solar panels.
McElroy, a staunch promoter of Pope Francis’ environment-focused encyclical Laudato Si’, said San Diego implemented the Archdiocese of Washington’s already-existing plan.
“So I’m here to learn as much as to bring new ideas. I think one of the great challenges for the Church in the world at this moment is that of the care for our home on this Earth, for the planet, and all of the abuse which it is suffering,” McElroy said.
“And it is a top issue in terms of our world,” he said. “How are we going to preserve the creation that God has given to us and enhance?”
The second and final question he received was about the incoming second Trump administration.
McElroy said he addressed a similar question about polarization in the United States during a panel discussion about six months ago, long before the November 2024 election that Trump won. His answer remains the same, he said.
“All of us as Americans should hope and pray that the government of our nation is successful in helping to enhance our society, our culture, our life, and the whole of our nation. And that is my prayer. It was my prayer then, not knowing who it would be, and it is my prayer now,” McElroy said.
“I pray that President Trump’s administration and that all of those state and local legislators and governors across the whole of the country will work together to make our nation truly better and to talk through the major issues that we face and make a difference,” he added. “And so our first responsibility for all of us is support for that goal, of success for our government.”
McElroy had been rumored as a likely replacement for Gregory since at least Oct. 10, 2024, when he met with Pope Francis at the Vatican, along with two other allies of the pope, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, and Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago. While details of the private meeting have not been made public, some observers have suggested the men discussed high-profile archbishoprics that needed to be filled, including Washington.
Gregory, who was appointed archbishop of Washington in April 2019, served five years and nine months in the post. His successor’s tenure could be even shorter.
McElroy turns 71 next month. Under Church law, he must submit his resignation to the pope in early February 2029, about four years from now, when he turns 75. Pope Francis has allowed certain bishops to continue serving until age 80, which for McElroy would mean 2034.
Gregory answered one question during the press conference, saying that he plans to stay in the Archdiocese of Washington and assist in any way he can.
At the end, McElroy whispered to Gregory: “That was easy.”
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.
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The mass deportations will be less than advertised. The billionaires want cheap labor. Look for Elon to prevail upon Trump to go easy on mass deportations to provide workers for agriculture,landscaping, etc. MAGA gets played by Elon, again.
I personally think Elon has the right idea about immigration.
McElroy needs to spend more time with his Catechism and the teaching of Aquinas, both of which do not support McElroy’s understanding of doctrine. Further, does McElroy not understand that the US Constitution and its politicians do not kowtow to Catholic doctrine? McElroy should not pretend that many American Catholics, let alone Cardinals and Bishops, know or care to adhere to Catholic doctrine. The Cardinal should know, however, that Enough of us know and do care to call out those who do not.
If Aquinas, the Constitution, or Catholic doctrine are too much of a stretch for the mind of McElroy, he could start with these simple and clear articles:
http://www.tfp.org/what-does-saint-thomas-say-about-immigration/
http://catholicvote.org/catholic-teaching-on-immigration-integration-and-the-common-good/
Cdl McElroy who specializes in ethics [PhD moral theology Gregoriana] and social justice [PhD political science Stanford] makes a valid point on the issue of prospective injustice with a mass deportation policy. As possessing acumen he conditions this what a wait and see attitude – how the Trump administration will proceed.
Earlier my similar concerns were expressed regarding the requirement to examine the conditions of each illegal immigrant. Would it be just or unjust to remove already settled families who are contributing to the nation in their work and participation? Justice needs be recognized whatever the source.
Very true. One of the ways of explaining natural law to young people is to point out that right is right no matter who is right and how many are wrong, and wrong is wrong no matter who is wrong and how few are right.
Since the election rejoicing conservatives have dug up a very old video of Hillary Clinton presenting a perfectly sensible immigration policy making all the appropriate distinctions for a implimenting a case by case basis for proceeding.
In other news, does Cardinal McElroy oppose evicting trespassers from private property, or retrieving stolen items from people who have stolen them?
“Well, yes, I know that Y broke into X’s home and is staying there illegally, but how can we force him to leave? Why, that would indicate that we lack a sense of the dignity of every human person!”
“Oh, well, I know that the item in question really belongs to X, but Y has had it for years, ever since he stole it from X, and it would be really unfair to Y to deprive him of the stolen item. Why, that would indicate that we lack a sense of the dignity of every human person!”
I personally hope they deport most of them. No one is “entitled” to enter the US. Especially not those who sneak in, or game the system by giving birth here, and then become an automatic burden on our taxpayers. We have MANY poor and needy citizens of our own, most of whom get little enough help.They would get more if we were not spending it on citizens who are not our own.
If you study the immigration history of Ellis Island you will discover that those immigrants who came by boat had to prove that they had a job waiting for them, a sponsor, or sufficient cash with them they they would NOT become a burden on US taxpayers. Otherwise, they were sent back home. Period. We owe these people nothing. Too many have come here to engage in violent criminal activity like drugs, gangs and sex trafficking, and you have to be willfully myopic, thoroughly propagandized to certain leftist viewpoints, or a few brain cells short of reality not to see it.
Thankfully, McElroy has to turn in his resignation in 4 years. His getting a 10 year run seems less likely as Francis is already 88 years old, and would be 98 by the time 10 years was up. Much will depend upon who takes the current Popes place at some point.
Living the rarefied life which they do, far too many upper churchmen have ZERO idea of what it is like to live among so many millions of illegals who are us costing billions and some of our lives.I was disgusted to see a recent TV commercial trying to portray the Holy Family as illegals as they fled Herod. The tyranny of “nice” strikes again. Pathetic.
The mass deportations, if Trump is good on his word, won’t be indiscriminate. People in the country illegally will be the only ones removed. Start with the criminals and lunatics. Then move on to the single men of military age. Finally, all the rest will have to go. Families need not be separated. As Homan stated clearly, families can be sent back to their home countries intact. “Anchor babies” can and should go back with their parents.