Pope Francis Appoints Trump Critic as Washington, D.C., Archbishop

I completely agree with the Pope's views on immigration. That's why we should send several million illegals over to live in Vatican City.

Pope Francis Appoints Trump Critic as Washington, D.C., Archbishop

Cardinal Robert McElroy has supported migrants and said the church should be more inclusive to women and LGBT people

By Alyssa Lukpat, WSJ

Updated Jan. 6, 2025 12:55 pm ET

Pope Francis has named Cardinal Robert McElroy, a critic of Donald Trump, as the next archbishop of Washington, D.C., two weeks before the president-elect takes office.

The pope is installing one of the country’s most progressive Catholic leaders to oversee the more than 600,000 faithful around the capital. Cardinal McElroy has been an ally to the pope and a supporter of migrants and LGBT people. He has been the bishop of San Diego for nearly a decade, and the pope named him a cardinal in 2022.

The Vatican announced Cardinal McElroy’s appointment Monday on the four-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters. In elevating Cardinal McElroy up the ranks of the Catholic Church, the pope has signaled his wish for a more liberal U.S. episcopate, the ranks of bishops.

Cardinal McElroy during Trump’s first administration criticized the policy of separating migrant families. He has called for changes to the country’s immigration system to help refugees and migrants.

He said at a press conference Monday that Trump’s plan for a “wider indiscriminate massive deportation” would be incompatible with Catholic teachings. Trump has said he wants to deport millions of migrants when he takes office.

“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,” Cardinal McElroy said.

The cardinal has called for efforts to reverse climate change and has said the Catholic Church needs to be more inclusive to women and LGBT people. Pope Francis in 2023 ended the Vatican’s ban on blessing same-sex couples.

“It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities,” Cardinal McElroy wrote for America magazine in 2023.

Pope Francis has denounced Trump’s stances on immigration and other issues, saying that Trump’s plans to build a border wall were “not Christian.” The pope and Trump met at the Vatican in 2017 to mend fences over their disagreements on migration and healthcare.

Trump isn’t Catholic, but some members of his coming administration are, including JD Vance, the vice president-elect. Last month, Trump named Brian Burch his ambassador to the Vatican. Burch is the president of CatholicVote, a conservative political advocacy group.

Representatives for Trump didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday.

The pontiff enjoys a friendlier relationship with President Biden, who is Catholic. Biden is set to meet with the pope at the Vatican later this week at the pontiff’s invitation.

Pope Francis said ahead of the election last year that U.S. voters had to choose the “lesser evil” of the two candidates. Without naming Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, the pope said, “Both are against life: the one that throws out migrants and the one that kills children.”

Cardinal McElroy is set to succeed Wilton Gregory, the first Black American cardinal, who resigned. The 77-year-old Gregory is two years past the standard retirement age for bishops.

Archbishop Gregory is also considered a progressive leader who has denounced racism and been inclusive of LGBT people. He was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2001 to 2004 and dealt with the fallout of the church’s child sex-abuse scandal in Washington.

Gregory at the press conference Monday thanked Pope Francis for appointing him an archbishop and cardinal.

“It is only through his trust and confidence,” he said, “that I stand here today.”

Before leading the San Diego diocese, Cardinal McElroy was auxiliary bishop of the San Francisco archdiocese. He graduated from Harvard University and received a political science doctorate from Stanford University in 1989. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended a high school seminary.

Cardinals who are under the age of 80 upon Pope Francis’ death would help elect the next pope. Cardinal McElroy is 70.

The Vatican on Monday also said it was naming the first woman, Sister Simona Brambilla, to run a large Vatican office. She will be prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which oversees religious orders, congregations and other institutions.