WASHINGTON (OSV News) — With his appointment as new archbishop of Washington Jan. 6, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy’s term in the nation’s capital will begin shortly after President-elect Donald Trump begins his second stint in the White House, possibly creating flashpoints between the pair during their time in the nation’s capital over immigration and a host of other issues.
Cardinal McElroy will be installed at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on March 11 at 2 p.m., according to the Archdiocese of Washington. Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated to his second term in the White House on Jan. 20.
Pope Francis named Cardinal McElroy, San Diego’s bishop since 2015, to the post following his acceptance of the resignation of its current occupant, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the Vatican announced Jan. 6. The Archdiocese of Washington’s territory includes the nation’s capital city and as such is an influential post in the Catholic Church in the U.S.
The cardinal’s appointment, which comes just two weeks before the second inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in Washington, puts the prelate in the position of navigating a relationship that could see points of tension between Trump’s platform and Catholic social teaching on issues such as mass deportations and federal executions, for instance.
In comments at a virtual news conference amid a snowstorm in the nation’s capital, and on the same day congressional lawmakers met to certify the results of the 2024 election, Cardinal McElroy said, “All of us as Americans should hope and pray that the government of our nation is successful in helping to enhance our society, our culture, our life and the whole of our nation, and that is my prayer.”
In response to a question about how he planned to navigate possible areas of tension in a relationship with Trump and his second administration, Cardinal McElroy said, “In terms of what issue would I see coming forth in terms of the life of the church that might be in contrast with some of the priorities that the president-elect has been talking about, I would say a large one, of course, is immigration.”
“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,” he said. “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.”
Richard Wood, a sociologist and president of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California, told OSV News the Catholic Church “has a long history of engaging in constructive dialogue with all kinds of governmental leaders, even amid tensions over particular issues and contradictions between Christian truths about the human person and a ruling worldview.”
“I would watch for him to be open to converging viewpoints where common ground with the Catholic faith is possible but also entirely willing to raise a prophetic voice when the incoming administration acts against the common good as Christianity understands it,” Wood said of Cardinal McElroy. “What this will look like from the incoming administration’s side is anybody’s guess.”
Experts in political science and moral theology who spoke with OSV News offered both praise and criticism of Cardinal McElroy’s appointment to the post. But all of them identified immigration issues as a key possible tension point between Cardinal McElroy and Trump.
John Carr, founder of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, told OSV News that in considering the appointment, it is “important to keep pastoral and political together.”
“Cardinal McElroy brings a pastor’s heart to the church of Washington,” Carr said. “He also brings unique knowledge and skills to the intersection of Catholic social teaching and public life in the nation’s capital.”
Carr said that Cardinal McElroy, who holds doctoral degrees in moral theology and political science, is also a “scholar and author on the work of John Courtney Murray,” a Jesuit theologian known for his influential thought on church-state relations. The cardinal “will offer a faithful Catholic voice in challenging times,” Carr added.
“Cardinal McElroy will be principled but not ideological, engaged but not partisan, civil but not silent,” Carr said. “He will speak up for the poor and vulnerable, the unborn and the undocumented, for the common good and care for creation when human life and dignity are threatened or neglected.”
Kenneth Craycraft, a professor of moral theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati and author of “Citizens Yet Strangers: Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America,” called the appointment “regrettable.”
“I don’t think that Cardinal McElroy is a good representation of Catholic theology, especially Catholic moral theology,” said Craycraft.
Craycraft argued that “my sense of Cardinal McElroy is that he is very strong-willed and not very subtle, which means he won’t have any qualms about being openly in conflict with President Trump.”
“Now, in many, many cases, he should be in open conflict with President Trump,” Craycraft said, citing immigration and capital punishment as possible points of tension between them, but expressing concern the cardinal would not adequately represent the church’s views on abortion or LGBT issues.
“I don’t think that he is an effective voice in defending and promoting and advancing authentic Catholic moral teaching in all of its aspects,” he said.
But John White, a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America in Washington, told OSV News that the appointment of a cardinal with a “deep interest in public policy at this moment is extremely well-suited for Washington, and really sends a statement.”
“It’s just a fascinating appointment because it comes at a moment where these social justice and public policy questions are really going to come to the fore fairly quickly,” White said.
White says he sees potential for “significant pushback” from Cardinal McElroy in the event Trump seeks to carry out mass deportations.
The appointment, he argued, also shows Pope Francis “trying to put his stamp on the Catholic Church in the United States, which has been a significant source of opposition to him.”
“All of these things kind of converge together there,” White said. “You know, opportunity meets opportunity, if you will. It’s an opportunity not just to respond to what Trump may do, but to put a very forceful person who’s thought deeply about these issues in the role.”
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