Cardinal Robert McElroy was installed as the eighth Archbishop of Washington yesterday, March 11, 2025, during a solemn Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. As a nearly lifelong Catholic of the archdiocese, I am grateful for our new shepherd and I hope that his time in Washington will be blessed and grace-filled.
Cardinal McElroy, 71, succeeds Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who led the archdiocese through significant challenges, including the aftermath of the revelations surrounding former DC cardinal Theodore McCarrick. During his tenure he became the first Black cardinal from the US and was a participant in both the October 2023 and 2024 synodal assemblies at the Vatican. My sense of Cardinal Gregory is that he has been a warm and pastoral presence. His was a voice of maturity and wisdom as he helped us navigate through the Covid pandemic. In the past few years, we began to hear less and less from him, so I hope he looks forward to and enjoys a peaceful retirement.
I am extremely grateful that all three Archbishops of Washington during the current pontificate have been loyal to Pope Francis: Cardinals Wuerl, Gregory, and now McElroy. During the press conference to announce McElroy’s selection, Cardinal Gregory said that he plans to retire in Washington. This means that — at least currently — Washington is home to five Cardinals. In addition to the three aforementioned former DC archbishops, the papal nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre resides here. Additionally, the recently retired Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, will split his time between Washington (where he spent his entire priesthood prior to being named a bishop) and Boston.
Many Vatican watchers have speculated that Cardinal McElroy’s appointment was in part Pope Francis’ response to the election of Donald Trump as president and for his nomination of Brian Burch, head of the right-wing political organization CatholicVote, which is hostile to the pope and his teachings. A strong voice on matters of social justice — especially on poverty, immigration, and foreign relations — will be needed. Cardinal McElroy seems up to the challenge.
Cardinal McElroy, like most other bishops in alignment with Pope Francis, has been demonized by papal critics. Two of his fellow US bishops, Bishops John Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, and Joseph Strickland of Tyler (emeritus) have accused him — directly or indirectly — of being a heretic. Several far-fetched conspiracy theories accusing him of covering up clerical abuse are being floated by far-right media outlets in order to discredit him. The National Catholic Reporter dismantled one of them this week. I have investigated other accusations and have found them wanting.
The Gospel that was read during the installation Mass, was John 20:11-18, which begins with Mary Magdalene weeping at Christ’s empty tomb. In his homily, Cardinal McElroy preached on hope. He recounted the story of the 2010 cave-in at a copper mine in Chile, where 33 men were trapped in darkness for 69 days but never gave up hope that they would be rescued. He quoted one of the miners who said, “We had some terrible moments, but we placed our lives in the hands of God and knew that God would find a way to stand with us. That was our hope.”
Cardinal McElroy asked the local Church of Washington to embrace this type of Christian hope:
The disciple, a constant encounter with the Passion, Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the essential foundation for bringing a truly Christian notion of hope into our lives and into our world. For as Saint Paul says so penetratingly, we are already citizens of heaven even as we live upon this earth. God’s power over death itself and the light of the Resurrection recalibrate every major element of our understanding of the meaning of our lives on this earth. They recast the standards by which we must judge our opportunities to ennoble this world in which we live. And they constitute an unending reservoir of peace which finds in the Risen Christ both the beauty of God’s love and the power of God’s glory.
In the light of the Resurrection, we as a local Church must unswervingly understand our vocation as disciples of hope. 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 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.
Welcome to the Archdiocese of Washington, Cardinal McElroy. I hope and pray for you.
Image: Cardinal McElroy displays the letter from Pope Francis appointing him as Archbishop of Washington. YouTube Screenshot.
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
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