Topline

Pope Francis named Cardinal Robert McElroy, a vocal critic of President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies and an advocate for “radical inclusion” of LGBTQ church members, as the next archbishop of Washington, D.C., as the Catholic Church splits between liberal and conservative factions.

Important facts

What did Mcelroy say about Trump?

McElroy has criticized Trump primarily for his views on immigration, including his promise to carry out mass deportations. McElroy was one of 12 Catholic bishops from California who co-authored a statement last month expressing support for “our immigrant brothers and sisters” and acknowledging that “calls for mass deportations and crackdowns on undocumented individuals” have caused fear in migrant communities. After Trump’s first election victory in 2016, McElroy called it “unthinkable” that Catholics would “stand by while more than 10 percent of our flock is torn from our midst and deported.” He called Trump’s mass deportation plan an “act of injustice that would tarnish our national honor” and compared it to Japanese burials and the dispossession of Native Americans. McElroy criticized Trump’s plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy in 2017 for lacking “a spark of humanity,” declaring that Jesus Christ “was both a refugee and an immigrant during his journey.” had been.

What has Mcelroy said on other political issues?

In a 2023 column for America magazine, McElroy pushed for greater inclusion of divorced and LGBTQ Catholics in the church, citing the church’s “disproportionate” focus on sexual activity because sin is “not the focus” of the relationship a Christian stands and “should” stand by God. McElroy called it a “demonic secret of the human soul as to why so many men and women harbor a deep and instinctive antipathy toward members of the LGBT community.” In a speech in February 2024, McElroy considered Catholics’ lack of support for the blessing same-sex marriage as a result of the “ongoing hostility of far too many toward LGBT people.” McElroy has also criticized abortion as a “de facto litmus test for determining whether a Catholic official is a faithful Catholic.” However, McElroy called Biden’s lack of support for anti-abortion laws “immense sadness” in a 2021 America Magazine column and called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “Day of thanks and celebration.”

Who is Brian Burch?

Burch, founder and co-president of CatholicVote, was once a Trump skeptic but praised him in 2020 for his “concerted efforts to reach out to Catholics in ways we haven’t seen in the past.” This year he authored the pro-Trump book “A New Catholic Moment: Donald Trump and the Politics of the Common Good.” Burch has criticized Francis for “progressive Catholic cheerleading” and accused him of causing “massive confusion” over his approval of blessing same-sex marriages in 2023.

tangent

Also on Monday, Francis named Sister Simona Brambilla, an Italian nun, to head a Vatican office, becoming the first woman to head a major Vatican department. The department, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, is responsible for religious communities. Francis has long advocated for a greater role for women in the church, although he has ruled out ordination of women as deacons or priests.

Further reading

Pope Francis has named the first woman to head a major office at the Vatican (Associated Press)

Trump appoints Pope Francis critic as ambassador to the Vatican (Politico)