Cardinal McElroy, staunch Trump critic, installed as Archbishop of Washington
The Catholic Herald• March 12, 2025
Cardinal Robert McElroy has officially become archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. It means an outspoken liberal within the Church and a vocal critic of Donald Trump will now lead the diocese that houses the US seat of government that has taken a significant conservative turn since President Trump returned to power.
During a nearly two-hour liturgy in which he was installed as the eighth archbishop of Washington, Cardinal McElroy encouraged the faithful of his new archdiocese to be “pilgrims of hope in a wounded world”, reports OSV News.
Referencing the Jubilee Year and its theme “Pilgrims of Hope”, in his homily, the cardinal said it was “vital for our local Church” to embrace “the hope that comes from seeing the world as God sees it”.
“What hope we could bring to our world as the Church of Washington if we could truly help our society to see others more as God sees them – beloved children, sisters and brothers,” Cardinal McElroy said during the Solemn Mass of Installation at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, located not much more than 5 kilometres to the northeast of the White House in the US capital.
“It is all too easy for every one of us to let the limits of earthly worries and perspectives erect prisons in our souls that shut us off from the expansive presence of the Resurrection in its fullness,” he said. “We must refuse to be overpowered by these prisons, and instead journey together as a local Church, companions in faith and in fragility to embrace the same risen Lord that Mary of Magdala encountered in the garden so many centuries ago.”
Cardinal McElroy, the former bishop of San Diego, was named by Pope Francis on 6 January to replace the retiring Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the first African American cardinal, who served as the archbishop of Washington from 2019 until this year – after offering his resignation to the Pope upon turning 75, as required by canon law, on 7 December 2022 – and who now becomes archbishop emeritus.
Known as a close ally of the Pope, McElroy is viewed as a liberal and aligns closely with many priorities of Pope Francis’s pontificate, particularly regarding the plight of migrants and refugees. In 2017, during Trump’s first term, McElroy gave a speech in Modesto, California, explicitly criticising Trump and urging Catholics to become “disruptors” of the anti-immigrant agenda.
McElroy is also known for his liberal views regarding sexual morality and has advocated for greater inclusion of LGBTQ Catholics while criticising elements of the Church that exclude them.
RELATED: Pope appoints Trump critic and liberal Robert McElroy as Archbishop of Washington
Cardinal Robert McElroy giving his homily during his installation Mass (Screenshot from cathstan.org.)
For more than 20 minutes before the Mass, prelates processed to the shrine’s altar to participate in the installation, OSV News reports. More than 280 priests, including those from the Archdiocese of Washington, the Diocese of San Diego and others, led the procession that included about 70 bishops and archbishops and eight cardinals.
About 3,500 people packed the National Shrine for the Installation Mass that was offered in both Spanish and English, OSV News reports. Among those in attendance were officials from the federal government, the District of Columbia, Maryland and California. More than 1,300 additional people followed the Mass remotely via the National Shrine’s livestream. The Mass was also broadcast over the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).
Cardinal McElroy’s appointment to the Archdiocese of Washington concluded a protracted and contentious search for a successor to the Washington archdiocese. This included a standoff between US cardinals and the apostolic nuncio, with Pope Francis initially deciding against McElroy before revisiting his candidacy after the 2024 US presidential election resulted in a win for Donald Trump.
The Archdiocese of Washington has had a chequered recent history with Cardinal Gregory having succeeded Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who resigned after the publication of a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation that criticised his handling of sexual abuse cases during his time as Bishop of Pittsburgh.
The announcement of McElroy’s appointment at the start of January came 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 US Ambassador to the Holy See.
On Sunday, 16 March, Cardinal McElroy will celebrate an 11 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington; as the new archbishop of Washington, he will officially take possession of the cathedral where the “cathedra” (bishop’s throne) that represents the teaching authority of the bishop is located, OSV News reports.
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy lamented that “divisions of race and gender and ideology and nationality flourish in the world of politics, religion, family life and education”.
He continued: “The poor and the migrant are daily dispossessed, and the dignity of the unborn is denied.
“The only effective witness that our Church can give to the world is to view every conflict which surrounds us through the eyes of God.”
RELATED: Trump rewards CatholicVote boss with top job at the Holy See
Photo: Cardinal Robert McElroy (at left), the newly installed archbishop of Washington, is handed the crozier – the shepherd’s staff symbolic of his office – by Cardinal Wilton Gregory (right), the archbishop emeritus of Washington, during the Solemn Mass of Installation at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, USA, 11 March 2025. (Screenshot from cathstan.org.)