Pope Francis names pro-LGBT Cardinal McElroy to Washington Archdiocese

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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.