Pope Francis on Monday appointed a new cardinal with a liberal track record to head the archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego, who was selected to lead the archdiocese, has previously criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s stance on immigration, advocating for the country to admit more migrants and has expressed support for several left-wing policies within the Church. Cardinal McElroy will replace the outgoing cardinal in the diocese and will remain in the position throughout Trump’s presidency.
The Pope announced that he accepted the resignation of Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the current cardinal in D.C. who is now 77, on Monday. Under Canon Law, the ordinances that govern the Catholic Church, all bishops are required to resign once they reach the age of 75, though they may hold their position longer until their replacement is appointed, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
The appointment contradicts Trump’s recent selection of Brian Burch to be ambassador to the Vatican. Burch is the leader of CatholicVote, the largest Catholic advocacy group in the country, and is outspoken about his alignment with Trump on pro-life and religious freedom issues.
“Our nation’s immigration system is broken,” Cardinal McElroy declared in December alongside several other California bishops in response to Trump’s plan to enact mass deportations of illegal migrants. “‘The Lord hears the cry of the poor’ (Psalm 34:7), and we, the Catholic bishops of California, as shepherds of the flock of Christ, have seen and heard the growing distress among you, our migrant brothers and sisters,” the bishops wrote. “We realize that the calls for mass deportations and raids on undocumented individuals and migrant families have created genuine fear for so many we shepherd in our dioceses.”
Cardinal McElroy also called for “radical” revisions to the Catholic Church, suggesting in a 2023 essay that leaders should reconsider the inclusion of women and “LGBT” people to serve in the Church and shift their focus on what is considered sinful.
“Unworthiness cannot be the prism of accompaniment for disciples of the God of grace and mercy,” the cardinal wrote. “It will be objected that the church cannot accept such a notion of radical inclusion because the exclusion of divorced and remarried and L.G.B.T. persons from the Eucharist flows from the moral tradition in the church that all sexual sins are grave matter. This means that all sexual actions outside of marriage are so gravely evil that they constitute objectively an action that can sever a believer’s relationship with God. This objection should be faced head on.”
The Catholic Church has long upheld the belief that people in state of sin cannot receive Holy Communion, which Catholics believe is the true presence of Jesus Christ, applying to those who have divorced without the Church’s approval or engaged in homosexual acts and have not repented. Cardinal McElroy’s essay calls for a change to the Church’s teaching to allow anyone to receive the Eucharist.
The cardinal also called on the Church to reconsider the prohibition on the ordination of women.
“The proposal to ordain women to the permanent diaconate had widespread support in the global dialogues,” Cardinal McElroy wrote in his essay. “While there is historical debate about precisely how women carried out a quasi-diaconal ministry in the life of the early church, the theological examination of this issue tends to support the conclusion that the ordination of women to the diaconate is not doctrinally precluded. Thus, the church should move toward admitting women to the diaconate, not only for reasons of inclusion but because women permanent deacons could provide critically important ministries, talents and perspectives.”
The Archdiocese of Washington is one of the most prominent in the country, and the Cardinal may play a role in the election of the next Pope.
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