Pope Francis names pro-LGBT Cardinal McElroy to Washington Archdiocese

[Stone]

Pope Francis names pro-LGBT Cardinal McElroy to Washington Archdiocese
Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy, known for his aggressive pro-LGBT advocacy, to lead Washington’s archdiocese as Cardinal Wilton Gregory retires.



Cardinal Robert McElroy
YouTube/Screenshot

Jan 6, 2025
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original] — Pope Francis appointed San Diego pro-LGBT Cardinal Robert McElroy to lead the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., as Cardinal Wilton Gregory enters retirement.

In a January 6 announcement, the Holy See Press Office confirmed that Pope Francis had accepted Gregory’s resignation from the D.C. metropolitan archdiocese and nominated McElroy to take his place, transferring from his current position presiding over the Diocese of San Diego, California.

According to a report in The Pillar, McElroy had previously been floated as a replacement for the outgoing Gregory but was rejected by the Pope at the time.

The 70-year-old McElroy, who was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope Francis in August 2022, has a record of supporting causes at odds with Catholic Church teaching.

The prelate has issued calls to admit the divorced and “remarried,” and people actively engaged in homosexual lifestyles, to receive Holy Communion. Indeed, McElroy has staunchly opposed Church teaching on the “intrinsically disordered” nature of homosexual activity, decrying the Catechism of the Catholic Church as employing “very destructive language” on the issue. The cardinal has backed the work of notorious LGBT advocate Father James Martin, S.J., and suggested that same-sex “marriages” can “enrich the lives” of participants.

In 2021, as a bishop, McElroy defended admittance to Holy Communion of Catholic politicians who openly support abortion, contrasting with the prohibition stipulated in Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law, and calling any such denial a “political weapon.”

The cardinal has also been an outspoken supporter of altering Church teaching on the sacramental ordination of women to the diaconate, using the Synod on Synodality as a platform to call for a “paradigm shift” on “inclusion of women in the Church.”


McElroy’s rise to DC comes amid troubled past

McElroy’s appointment to Washington comes amid what was reportedly an involved search for Gregory’s replacement. His name has been mentioned often in recent months in conjunction with vacancies in larger U.S. sees, but until recently it appeared that he might be passed over as far as the D.C. post was concerned.

Looking visibly aged during October’s Synod on Synodality session, McElroy had reportedly been dismissed by Pope Francis as a possible option for leading the archdiocese.

Cdl. McElroy at the Synod on Synodality, 2024. ©Michael Haynes

The campaign for his being named Archbishop of Washington has a long history, with disgraced Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl flying to Rome in 2023 to lobby Francis for McElroy’s cause. A source in the Secretariat of State told The Pillar that Francis – whose pontificate is marked by signal acts of the exercise of his power – became annoyed at the excessive lobbying and thus turned against McElroy for the D.C. role.

But it seems that McElroy’s name was raised once more when Francis received three of the U.S. cardinals in private audience. On October 10, Cardinals Joseph Tobin, Blase Cupich, and McElroy all met with Francis, during which time Tobin made arguments to Francis in favor of McElroy taking the Washington see.

The then-incumbent Gregory was not included in the closed-door meeting, and he told media during the synod that not only was he not invited, but he did not know about it beforehand. Gregory, it seems, was not such a supporter of McElroy as was Tobin.

Notably, Francis then received another of McElroy’s champions in private audience a few weeks later, as Wuerl returned to Rome for another private meeting.

With McElroy now leading the Archdiocese of Washington as Donald Trump is set to return to the White House, it may well be the Archbishop of Washington rather than the papal nuncio – currently Cardinal Christophe Pierre – who will really convey the thoughts, feelings, or ire of Pope Francis to the Trump administration.

McElroy has been especially outspoken on a number of issues close to Francis’ heart, and on which Trump strongly differs with the Pope, such as immigration and climate issues.

When McElroy was raised to lead the Diocese of San Diego in 2015 and then named as cardinal in 2022, Rachel Mastrogiacomo, a victim of clerical sexual abuse, said “that McElroy will be setting policy for the Church, and likely be involved in the selection of the next pontiff, fills me with fear.”

Following today’s news, some commentators expressed strong aversion to the news. “D.C. Catholics deserve better, after so many lousy bishops – but the place is such a den of corruption and debauchery McElroy is a perfect fit,” wrote the editor of Catholic blog Rorate Caeli on X.

“Amazing that McElroy has never been the subject of a Vos estis investigation for his mishandling of the information he had related to McCarrick – a mishandling which he has publicly acknowledged,” commented a priest based in the Diocese of Evansville, Indiana.

Others were more laudatory of McElroy’s record. “In appointing Cardinal Robert McElroy as the new archbishop of Washington, the Holy Father has just selected one of the brightest and most capable clerics in the entire U.S. church,” wrote Father James Martin, S.J.

“With doctorates in both theology and political science, and experience as Bishop of San Diego, Cardinal McElroy is both smart and pastoral. He is a gift to both Washington and to the nation, and a worthy successor to Cardinal Gregory,” the notable pro-LGBT Jesuit added.

McElroy is notorious among U.S. Catholics for his non-action regarding the alleged serial predations of Theodore McCarrick.

READ: Bishop McElroy warned about McCarrick in letter hand-delivered in 2016

In his bombshell 2018 testimony about McCarrick, former U.S. Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò attested that McElroy was aware of McCarrick’s abuses, and that Viganò was instructed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin to keep the San Diego episcopate open for McElroy.

Indeed, McElroy was informed about McCarrick at least by 2016, when Dr. A.W. Richard Sipe, one of the foremost experts on clerical sex abuse and the prevalence of sexually active clergy, sent a 16-page letter to McElroy detailing McCarrick’s alleged abuse. The letter was then published by Sipe on his website in 2018 for all to read.

“McElroy being made Cardinal was like giving McCarrick his red hat back,” commented Crisis magazine editor Eric Sammons in a 2022 social media post re-shared today.

McElroy’s relationship with Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington and the new Trump administration will doubtlessly be under special scrutiny as he emerges as one of the most prominent prelates in North America.

[Stone]

Bishop Strickland decries Pope Francis’ appointment of Cardinal McElroy as DC archbishop
Bishop Strickland slammed heterodox, pro-LGBT Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego as a ‘corrupt hireling’ in response to his appointment as archbishop of Washington, D.C., by Pope Francis and called on Catholics to ‘speak out against these wolves of the hierarchy.’



Cardinal Robert McElroy, Bishop Joseph Strickland
YouTube screenshot, Facebook

Jan 6, 2025
Editor’s note: The following statement is taken from an X post by Bishop Joseph Strickland published on January 6, 2025.

(LifeSiteNews) — In November, I asked the bishops of the United States, “What will it take?” It’s not surprising that I received no response from the bishops. The appointment of the corrupt Cardinal McElroy to the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., raises the question again.

READ: Pope Francis’ new cardinal pick has a horrifying record on homosexuality and abortion

The blatant corruption of Pope Francis and the U.S. cardinals is on full display with the appointment of a McCarrick clone to the same archdiocese where his evil reigned 20 years ago. All of us who love Jesus Christ and His Church must speak out against these wolves of the hierarchy. We cannot remain silent in the face of this blatant corruption.

Once again, I call on my brother bishops to speak up and say NO to this constant undermining of the Truth that is Jesus Christ. We all need the voice of St. John the Baptist as we call out the brood of vipers in the Vatican, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” We must not remain silent as another flock in the Church is burdened with a corrupt hireling for a shepherd.

RELATED

Bishop Paprocki accuses Cardinal McElroy of ‘heresy,’ says he may have excommunicated himself

‘Nobody can understand this’: Cdl. Müller criticizes promotion of ‘politician’ Bishop McElroy

Cardinal McElroy: Synod could end link between diaconate and priesthood to allow ‘female deacons’

Cardinal McElroy’s Diocese of San Diego orders homeschool groups removed from parishes

[Stone]

Archbishop Viganò: ‘Cardinal’ McElroy aligned with UN 2030 agenda, LGBT, vaccines
Let us not be surprised then if 'Cardinal' McElroy, appointed 'Archbishop' of Washington, heir of the serial abuser Theodore McCarrick, is so busy with immigrants, LGBTQ+, the environment and vaccines: these are the points of Agenda 2030.



Cardinal Robert W. McElroy
YouTube/Screenshot

Jan 8, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — The “mass deportation” of illegal immigrants is a decision that the State can legitimately take, and this is a principle dictated by Natural Law even before positive civil law or canon law.

Conversely, the “mass deportation” of illegal immigrants is certainly and indisputably incompatible with the network of pseudo-charitable organizations in the hands of the Bergoglian hierarchy, the Democratic Party and the NGOs attributable to George Soros, and with the system of complicity between the deep state and the deep church, both of which are actively engaged in the dissolution of the social, economic, cultural, and religious fabric of the nations in which they have taken control of the institutions. Stopping illegal immigration would make them lose an inexhaustible source of profit, paid for by citizens’ taxes.

The “mass deportation” of illegal immigrants is certainly and unquestionably incompatible with the subversive plan of ethnic substitution shared by the globalist elite, because it thwarts it and prevents the creation of the premises for social revolt that are intended lead to a further restriction of fundamental freedoms.

When we hear representatives of the deep church (i.e. the Bergoglian “church”) or the deep state speak, we ought to realize that these people are emissaries of the subversive globalist lobby, and that every word they say is false, because behind an apparently acceptable excuse they actually hide unmentionable criminal purposes.

Let us not be surprised then if “Cardinal” McElroy — appointed by Bergoglio as “Archbishop” of Washington, heir of the serial abuser and right-hand man of the Argentine Jesuit, Theodore McCarrick — is so busy with immigrants, LGBTQ+, the environment and vaccines: these are the points of Agenda 2030, which the Bergoglian “church” has been promoting since the Mafia of St. Gallen managed to have a puppet of the World Economic Forum elected “pope.” And let us not be surprised if what the exponents of the deep state and the deep church have in common is corruption, vice, and perversion.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s statement first appeared today on X (formerly Twitter).