After almost a decade as the Diocese of San Diego’s shepherd, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy has been appointed to lead a new flock.
It was announced Jan. 6 that Pope Francis was sending Cardinal McElroy to the nation’s capital as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. He succeeds Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, who is retiring after having served as Washington’s archbishop since 2019.
Cardinal McElroy, who was informed of his new assignment on Dec. 15, will continue to serve as the diocesan administrator for San Diego until his installation in Washington on March 11. He is expected to relocate to his new archdiocese at the beginning of March to oversee the transition process.
“As I take on this new mission in the life of the Church, a large part of my heart will remain here in the Diocese of San Diego, where I have experienced so much faith and care,” he wrote in a Jan. 6 letter addressed to his “dear co-workers in the vineyard” in San Diego.
Cardinal McElroy was installed as the sixth bishop of San Diego on April 15, 2015, at St. Thérèse of Carmel Parish in Carmel Valley, having previously served as auxiliary bishop of his native Archdiocese of San Francisco. He was elevated to cardinal on Aug. 27, 2022, during a consistory in Rome.
In San Diego, he demonstrated a strong commitment to several priorities of Pope Francis, including synodality, immigration, and environmental stewardship.
This record was acknowledged by the California Catholic Conference in its statement on the recent papal appointment.
“The Diocese of San Diego actively ministers to large numbers of migrants through the exemplary work of their Catholic Charities,” the California bishops’ conference wrote in the statement. “Cardinal McElroy’s commitment to environmental justice is demonstrated in his numerous energy and ecology programs throughout the diocese. He has shown a commitment, in his diocese and beyond, to synodality in the Church, bringing together under-represented voices seeking to build unity.”
“We look forward to the leadership of Cardinal McElroy in our nation’s capital, and invite all California Catholics to join us in praying for him as he takes on a new role,” they wrote.
In 2016, Cardinal McElroy held a diocesan synod on family life in response to the pope’s apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (“Joy of Love”), which had been released earlier that year. Among the fruits of that synod was the creation of the diocesan Office for Family Life and Spirituality, which replaced what had been known as the Office for Marriage and Family Life and expanded the scope of its mission with a greater emphasis on challenges faced by contemporary families.
One of the revamped office’s early successes was the adoption of the marriage preparation program Witness to Love.
“It’s amazing to think about what an impact the family life synod had on marriage and family ministry in our diocese,” recalled John Prust, director of the Office for Family Life and Spirituality. “It’s fair to say that, because of the synod, our diocese has been at least a few years ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to implementing this new vision of marriage prep that everyone is now referring to as the ‘marriage catechumenate.’”
The “marriage catechumenate” concept involves pairing engaged couples with experienced married couples from their own parishes to serve as mentors as they prepare for and begin married life.
Other San Diego diocesan synods organized in response to Pope Francis’ initiatives followed. Among them was a 2019 synod on young adults, inspired by the apostolic exhortation “Christus Vivit” (“Christ Is Alive”) that was published earlier that year.
The synod on synodality, a worldwide consultation of the faithful that included parish- and diocesan-level dialogues, was held in the San Diego diocese in 2022 and 2024, and a group of 17 pilot parishes have begun implementing its proposals.
Immigrants and refugees have also found a champion in Cardinal McElroy.
Appaswamy “Vino” Pajanor, CEO of Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego, noted that he has had “the privilege of witnessing firsthand Cardinal McElroy’s unwavering commitment” to this vulnerable population.
“Cardinal McElroy’s legacy in this regard is profound,” he said. “He has been a vocal advocate for meaningful immigration reform and has tirelessly worked to provide shelter, food and legal assistance to thousands of immigrants and refugees. His efforts have significantly contributed to the betterment of society, fostering a spirit of unity, compassion and understanding among people of diverse backgrounds.”
Since April of 2021, Catholic Charities’ Migrant Respite Shelters have cared for more than 404,000 asylum-seekers from over 146 countries who were processed and released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“These numbers reflect the large-scale impact of our work under Cardinal McElroy’s leadership,” Pajanor said.
In addition to his strong support for Catholic Charities’ work, Cardinal McElroy has demonstrated his solidarity with migrants and asylum-seekers in other ways.
For example, in February of 2016, he brought the Pastoral Center staff to Calexico for a day of prayerful discussion and reflection on border issues, which included a procession to the U.S.-Mexican border fence. In June of 2018, he participated in a rally for detained immigrants at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Throughout his tenure in San Diego, Cardinal McElroy was also a leading voice supporting care for creation, an issue highlighted by Pope Francis’ environment-themed 2015 encyclical Laudato Si.
At the cardinal’s instigation, solar power systems were installed at both the diocesan Pastoral Center, where solar panels now generate more than 80% of the building’s electricity, and at more than half of the diocese’s 96 parishes. He also suggested the creation of a program that has planted almost 200 trees at local parishes and schools, including 78 last year alone.
In 2022, the Diocese of San Diego and all of its affiliates, totally divested from all direct stock and mutual fund holdings of companies receiving more than 5% of their total revenues from the extraction and/or production of fossil fuels.
That same year, Cardinal McElroy hired Christina Bagaglio Slentz, Ph.D., as a paid, full-time director of the diocesan Creation Care Ministry, which from its establishment in 2018 until then had been entirely volunteer-run. She was among the first diocesan staffers nationwide engaging in this work full-time.
“The Diocese of San Diego has been the diocese to which the rest of the country has looked when it comes to Creation Care Ministry, and that is because of Cardinal McElroy,” Slentz said.
She shared that she often received emails from other dioceses that were looking to establish their own Creation Care Ministry. There was a simple reason why.
“They were aware of Cardinal McElroy taking the lead on the issue,” she said. “He definitely has made a national impact because of his willingness to support Creation Care here.”
From the Southern Cross
Other views on McElroy in San Diego:
McElroy, McCarrick, and the Catholic Left
McElroy goes old school; exhumes body of whistleblower (satire)
McElroy experienced faith and care in San Diego, but San Diegans in return endured ten years of pain and despair.
Here’s what Bishop Strickland had to say about illegal migration: https://bishopjosephstrickland.substack.com/p/immigration-the-importance-of-both?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2384273&post_id=156204437&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=fdmrv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Reply to Counterpoint: Thank you for posting this letter from Bishop Strickland. It’s a must read for every Catholic about the illegal immigration crisis in America.
Bishop Strickland is excellent!
You got to be kidding. Cardinal McElroy has been an outspoken critic of established Church teaching as articulated by previous popes, including Pope Benedict XVI, Pope St. Paul VI, and Pope St. John Paul II. I will stick with Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI whose teaching stood test of time.
The victims of sex abuse of then Cardinal McCarrick (which Richard Sipe brought to light during his meeting with McElroy in 2015, and which was later acknowledged to have been ignored and swept under the rug) might disagree that McElroy was a positive force in San Diego.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/questions-raised-about-mcelroy-s-response-to-2016-mccarrick-allegations
Over the past decade, the Diocese of San Diego has a priest replacement rate of only 24 percent. There will be less than one new priest for every four priests retiring, dying or leaving for other reasons.
Great job.
Is that in the Southern Crock, I mean Southern Cross diocesan promo “newspaper?”
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/small-is-beautiful-suggests-diocesan
Yah – but look at all those cool solar panels!
Right at the close of the Council, one of the first things we were told, was that now, there was a dire prediction, worldwide, of an impending, crisis-level shortage of priestly vocations. So this was “aggiornamento?” An “updating,” an “improvement?” A couple of years later, I thought, well, manly men probably do not like the “Mickey Mouse,” dumbed-down, New Mass, facing “versus populum” and cracking jokes like a TV personality, silliness, “Kumbaya” sung off-key by untrained, unmusical young baboons, the Catholic Faith stripped down and cast aside for ecumenism and Protestant concepts, women eventually over-running positions helping at Mass, and degrading “hippie love” and “psycho-babble” substituting for true Christian Love and real Catholic teaching. Dishonest and demeaning. How about a serious, reliable, responsible, “no nonsense,” manly vocation to enter? Where is it? Before the Council, nearly every Catholic boy considered the priesthood at some point, and most learned to serve as Altar Boys. Every year, a good portion of every Catholic high school graduating class entered the seminary. Why can’t the pope and his top prelates face the truth– and have another council, and fix their serious problems?
Every single Mexican who shut down LA’s freeways yesterday and waved their Mexican flags should be deported. If you identify as Mexican, go back to Mexico. I don’t want you in my country. Thank God for Trump and his deportations. Let’s have even more.
My son-in-law is Mexican. He came here legally. He is not out protesting or closing down freeways. He loves his Mexican heritage and is now a US citizen. I want him in this country/ I also want all the hard-working Mexicans who pay taxes and go about their daily business. Be mindful of your rhetoric.
The rioters also burned an American flag. Be mindful of the symbolism there. I agree with the poster named “freeway shutdowns”. Once you become American, be American. Once you move here, be American. Learn our language. Honor our laws. Honor our flag. America will fall apart unless we unify around American heritage and identity and borders. Borders, language, culture. It was true thirty-five years ago. It’s just as true today. Savage.
We get the exhortations on solar panels (which I can’t afford). We get the envelopes for Catholic Charities (which I ignore in favor of worthier organizations and causes). Meanwhile, in our parish, which is not wealthy, we have had a window shot out twice, and the roof still leaks.
DC is welcome to him. But I get the cold grues waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Is there any difference between the Church of San Diego and the Sierra Club? Asking for a friend.
After nine long years of a boycott and pressuring Target regarding dropping Woke DEI and LGBT policies and products, the American Family Association (and other big faith-based American groups, too) made the decision to finally drop their boycotts. They stated that although Target (and other corporations) are not perfect, Target has met all of their basic demands. Target also will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s LGBT index. Target has had a great many financial and other losses, with millions of good Americans furious at them. The American Family Association’s film division produced an award-winning documemtary film, “In His Image: Delighting in God’s Plan for Gender and Sexuality.” You can buy this film for your family, or for your church group. You can also watch it free, online.
If anyone is interested, you can watch this faith-based organization’s Biblically-based documentary film, “In His Image,” (free) here:
https://www.afa.net/activism/afa-insider/2020/watch-in-his-image-documentary-now-for-free/
Or, you can buy it here:
https://resources.afa.net/in-his-image
Target investors launched a huge lawsuit against the company, due to horrific losses as a result of the boycotts.
If solar panels are Cardinal McElroy’s claim to fame the Church is in a lot more trouble than it can ever imagine. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of America pray for Washington DC.