WASHINGTON — More than 3,500 people crowded into the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on March 11 for the Solemn Mass of Installation of Cardinal Robert W. McElroy as the archbishop of Washington.
Nearly 300 priests attended, as well as about 70 bishops and archbishops and seven cardinals. Their lengthy procession into the basilica, accompanied by soaring choir music, opened the nearly two-hour liturgy, celebrated in English and Spanish.
Dozens traveled from the Diocese of San Diego, including Auxiliary Bishops Ramón Bejarano, Michael Pham and Felipe Pulido, priests, deacons, religious women, Pastoral Center leaders and staff, and lay community leaders. Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix, a former auxiliary bishop in San Diego, also turned out.
On March 17, a special diocesan committee is to elect an administrator for the San Diego Diocese until Pope Francis names a new bishop, a process that is likely to take at least six months.
In the nation’s capital, Cardinal McElroy takes over the archdiocese at a time when the new Trump administration has slashed assistance to the poor and mobilized to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
Pope Francis’ representative in the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, celebrated the installation Mass. He read the pope’s official letter appointing Cardinal McElroy to lead the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Washington, which serves the District of Columbia and five Maryland counties.
“In the guidance of the Diocese of San Diego, you distinguished yourself with prudence and priestly quality,” he read. “Consequently, it is our wish to entrust to you this ministry, which is by no means of small importance.”
Departing from the letter, Cardinal Pierre asked, “Would you agree?” to applause.
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy noted that the Catholic Church is celebrating a Jubilee Year highlighting the power 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,” he said. “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 Magdalene encountered in the garden so many centuries ago.”
Members of the cardinal’s family, clergy and lay leaders from the Archdiocese of San Francisco traveled to Washington. Monica Williams was one of them. She is the director of Catholic cemeteries in the archdiocese. She was a student at St. Cecilia Parish in San Francisco, where she first met then Father Robert McElroy, who was serving his first assignment as priest.
Speaking at a lunch reception before the installation, she reflected on the significance of the day.
“I have followed his vocation and ministry,” she said. “I was thrilled when he was made bishop in San Francisco and then when he was assigned to San Diego. I was absolutely delighted when he was elevated to cardinal.
“But this is really a day for the American Church to celebrate.”
