SAN DIEGO — 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.”
