Cardinal McElroy says he prays for Trump’s success as he takes over Washington archdiocese

NEW YORK – In opening remarks as archbishop-elect of Washington, Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego said he prays for the success of President-elect Donald Trump and his administration while acknowledging his concern for the potential plans for “indiscriminate, massive” deportations.

“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 in response to a question from Crux. “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,” he said.

Immigration concerns aside, McElroy said he, and all Catholics, should pray for the success of Trump and his administration, as well as all elected officials nationwide.

“I pray that President Trump’s administration and 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, and so the first responsibility for all of us is support for that goal of success for our government,” McElroy said.

The Vatican announced on Jan. 6 that Pope Francis has chosen McElroy to succeed Cardinal Wilton Gregory as the archbishop of Washington. On the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and two weeks ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the Holy Father has appointed to the archdiocese that encompasses the nation’s Capitol a progressive prelate who has criticized Trump policies in the past, and who prioritizes the environment and the plight of migrants and refugees.

The announcement also comes a few weeks after Trump announced that Brian Burch, a right-wing Catholic political advocate and media figure who has often been a critical voice on Pope Francis, will serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

McElroy’s installation Mass will be March 11 at 2 p.m. at the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., according to the archdiocese. In addition to the nation’s capital, the archdiocese includes five counties in southern Maryland, and serves more than half a million Catholics.

McElroy comes to the archdiocese amid a financial restructuring with a number of changes set to go into effect on July 1, 2025, to address the diocese’s operating budget deficit, according to a letter Gregory sent to pastors on Oct. 31, 2024, that was obtained by Crux.

In introductory remarks, McElroy highlighted ways the archdiocese “has radiated the light of Christ” for the past 85 years, including through Catholic education, through the Civil Rights Movement and efforts to mitigate the effects of slavery, integrating the Second Vatican Council, the creation of participative and inclusive lay ministries, through the sacrifices of the clergy and religious men and women, and through the faithfulness of African American and immigrant communities.

The cardinal also acknowledged moments of failure in the archdiocese, mainly clergy sex abuse, which he called a “massive betrayal” that created an ongoing “moral and financial reckoning.”

Citing Pope Francis’s emphasis on the need for a culture of encounter, McElroy said in the weeks following his installation he will undertake meetings with the archdiocese’s priests and parish lay leadership as an “initial step … of coming to know” the archdiocese, and forming a vision for its future.

“Forming a vision of the archdiocese for the coming years will have to be a truly collaborative effort if it is to guide us through the challenges which we now face and will face in the future, and help us to seize the opportunities for pastoral growth that lie within our midst, and it will have to be an effort continuously rooted in the risen Lord who is our hope and our strength,” McElroy said.

McElroy, 70, comes to the Archdiocese of Washington from the Diocese of San Diego, which he was appointed to by Pope Francis in 2015. Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals of 2022. His first stop in the episcopacy was in 2010, when he was made an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco by Pope Benedict XVI. McElroy has a bachelor’s degree in American history from Harvard University, and from Stanford University a master’s degree in American history and a doctorate in Political Science.

McElroy is a close ally of Pope Francis, who has served as a papal appointee in the 2019 special synod on the Amazon region and the recently concluded synod on synodality. Leading California’s southernmost diocese, McElroy has been outspoken on immigration issues. He has also prioritized environmental advocacy, and championed a welcoming approach to LGBTQ people.

Gregory, meanwhile, enters retirement after taking over the Archdiocese of Washington in 2019, and being elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis in 2020. Now 77, he submitted his resignation to Pope Francis in 2022 on his 75th birthday, as is required by Church law.

Gregory faced no shortage of challenges while at the helm in Washington. He led the archdiocese through aftermath of a 2020 Vatican report on the serial sexual abuse of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who led the archdiocese from 2001-2006. He also led the archdiocese through a national racial reckoning after George Floyd was murdered in 2020, the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the presidential term of Joe Biden, who is the nation’s second Catholic president.

In remarks on his tenure in Washington, Gregory thanked the archdiocese’s priests, deacons, religious men and women, as well as the staff of the archdiocesan offices and agencies, saying “I could not have done this without you.” He also expressed his gratitude to lay faithful.

“I am grateful more than anything for the people of God who have welcomed and supported me since I arrived, allowing me the privilege of serving them in the best of times and in more difficult ones,” Gregory said. “We have loved one another, cared for one another, challenged one another, to be the Catholic Church Jesus Christ calls us to be.”

Before leading Washington, Gregory had led the Archdiocese of Atlanta since 2005. He was appointed to that role by Pope Saint John Paul II, who also made him an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1983, and the bishop of the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, in 1994.

In his remarks, Gregory also announced that he will remain in Washington in his retirement.

“I’m going to stay in Washington,” Gregory said. “I never approached my time here in Washington as a pass through, so I will have a residence here and be available to the best of my ability and in response to the opportunities that present themselves to continuing serving God’s people here in Washington.”

The news conference from Gregory and McElroy on Jan. 6 didn’t just focus on the future of the archdiocese, but also included moments of reflection from each prelate. They both thanked many in Washington and San Diego, respectively. And McElroy also thanked Gregory for more than a half century of service as a clergyman in the United States.

“Cardinal Gregory, it is an honor to be with you today, and to be able to offer gratitude for your lifetime of priestly service, and episcopal service, which has so profoundly enriched the Church in our nation and here in this Archdiocese … you have made critically important contributions at crucial moments in order to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the heart and the soul of the Catholic,” McElroy said.

“This enduring legacy will long remain a treasure for us all,” he noted.