Coat of arms before becoming a cardinal (used 2015–2022)
Robert Walter McElroy (born February 5, 1954) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as the sixth bishop of the Diocese of San Diego in California since 2015.
McElroy was educated by the Sulpicians at St. Joseph High School Seminary and St. Patrick Seminary in California, and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1980. He later received advance theological degrees from Santa Clara University and the Pontifical Gregorian University and has written articles for America, the official magazine of the Jesuits in the United States. Pope Francis created him a cardinal on August 27, 2022.[1]
Early life and education
Robert McElroy was born into a Catholic family in San Francisco, California, on February 5, 1954.[2] One of five children, he was born to Walter and Roberta McElroy.[3] He grew up in San Mateo county.[4] He earned a B.A. in history from Harvard University in 1975 and an M.A. in American history from Stanford University in 1976.[2][4][5]
On April 12, 1980, McElroy was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John Raphael Quinn at St. Mary's Cathedral for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.[2][4] McElroy was assigned to a pastoral position in St. Cecilia Parish in San Francisco, California. From 1982 to 1985, McElroy served as secretary to Archbishop John Quinn.[4] In 1983, McElroy was one of three priests who drafted a report for the archdiocesan Priests' Senate entitled "Ministry and Sexuality in the Archdiocese of San Francisco" that stated that "the homosexual orientation is not held to be a sinful condition" but called homosexual persons to "[live] out the demands of chastity within that orientation," endorsing a gradualist approach that "assists the person toward a progressive assimilation of the church's ethical values."[8]
In a 1989 PBS segment on the AIDS epidemic, McElroy expressed opposition to LGBT relationships. He criticized San Francisco's recognition of LGBT couples as domestic partnerships, arguing that it destabilized traditional family structures. He stated, 'It undermines the stability of the family. It is society saying "we don't care whether you live together, or whether you are married and raise a family within the context of marriage."'[9]
As a priest, McElroy authored The Search for an American Public Theology: The Contribution of John Courtney Murray (Paulist Press, 1989) and Morality and American Foreign Policy: The Role of Ethics in International Affairs (Princeton University Press, 1992). He has written four articles for America magazine.[4][10]
In 2005, McElroy published an essay on the denial of the Eucharist to public officials because of their political positions. He criticized those who adopt what he called the "sanctions position" for a lack of "pastoral solicitude", noted the expansion of grounds for sanctions from abortion to euthanasia and other issues by one diocese or another, questioned the lack of clarity as to what behavior triggers sanctions, and cited the occasions when John Paul II distributed the Eucharist to political leaders who favored legalized abortion. He proposed that the church's traditional "theology of scandal" should be invoked rather than employing Eucharistic practice as a means of discipline. He warned that imposing sanctions on individuals harms the church by appearing coercive, strengthens the argument of abortion advocates that the church is attempting to impose its religious beliefs on society at large, downplays the breadth of the church's social agenda, and tends to "cast the church as a partisan actor in the American political system."[11]
On July 6, 2010, McElroy was appointed an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and titular bishop of Gemellae in Byzacena by Pope Benedict XVI. On September 7, 2010, McElroy received his episcopal consecration from Archbishop George Niederauer, with Archbishop Emeritus Quinn and Bishop John Wester serving as co-consecrators.[12] As auxiliary bishop, McElroy was the archdiocesan vicar for parish life and development.[3]
did not go over well with many American Catholics, who criticized his statement for being radical, simplistic, and confusing. This rebuff stands in stark and telling contrast to the otherwise enthusiastic reception the new pope has met with in the United States. From the moment of his election, Pope Francis has captured the attention of the American people with his message and manner, even as he has challenged us all to deep renewal and reform in our lives. Americans take heart in the pope's call to build an ecclesiastical culture that casts off judgmentalism; they applaud structural reforms at the Vatican; and they admire Francis's continuing focus on the pastoral needs of ordinary men and women.[13]
On March 3, 2015, McElroy was appointed the sixth Bishop of San Diego by Francis, succeeding the late Bishop Cirilo Flores. The diocese serves about one million Catholics in San Diego and Imperial counties.[14] His installation took place on April 15, 2015, at St. Therese of Carmel Catholic Church.[15][16]
McElroy is widely regarded as a supporter of the progressive policies of Francis.[17] He has written frequently and extensively on social inequality and the Church's social justice mission.[5][18] In his first public appearance in San Diego, he pledged to champion the cause of the homeless, to support comprehensive immigration reform, and to ban anyone who has abused minors from serving in the clergy or other employment in the diocese.[19]
In a discussion over the formation of the 2015 document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), McElroy argued that the document focused excessively on abortion and euthanasia. He said that "alongside the issues of abortion and euthanasia, which are central issues in our effort to transform this world, poverty and the degradation of the earth are also central. But this document keeps to the structure of the world view of 2007. It tilts in favor of abortion and euthanasia and excludes poverty and the environment." He called for the document to be scrapped entirely. His comments were reported to have visibly irritated Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who was then serving as vice president of the USCCB and who later became its president.[20] In a speech delivered on February 17, 2016, McElroy called on Catholics "to recognize and confront the ugly tide of anti-Islamic bigotry" in the United States. He denounced as "repeated falsehoods" claims that Islam is a violent religion and compared these allegations to 19th century anti-Catholicism in America.[21]
McElroy is currently the vice-president of the California Catholic Conference and serves at the USCCB on the administrative committee, the ecumenical committee, the committee on domestic justice and the committee on international affairs.[3] In 2017 he preached at the funeral of Archbishop Quinn.
McElroy, like most members of the Church hierarchy, including Francis and the USCCB, opposed plans by U.S. President Donald Trump to a build a wall along the Mexico–United States border to limit illegal immigration. In March 2018, Trump visited California to view prototypes for the wall. After the visit, McElroy said,
"It is a sad day for our country when we trade the majestic, hope-filled symbolism of the Statue of Liberty for an ineffective and grotesque wall, which both displays and inflames the ethnic and cultural divisions that have long been the underside of our national history."[22]
At a 2018 meeting, McElroy was asked by several lay Catholics about an openly gay man, Aaron Bianco, who was working at St. John the Evangelist Parish. In response to one of their questions, McElroy said, "If the Church eliminated all the employees who are not living out the teachings of the Church in its fullness, we would be employing only angels."[23]
In 2020, three weeks prior to the US presidential election, McElroy criticized those questioning Biden's personal Catholic faith based on his positions on abortion, characterizing "the public denial of candidates' identity as Catholics because of a specific policy position they have taken" as "an assault on the meaning of what it is to be Catholic." McElroy said that although acts of abortion are intrinsically evil, legislation about it is a matter of prudential judgement, though he noted that the commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions that occur "has been eviscerated in the Democratic Party in a capitulation to notions of privacy that simply block out the human identity and rights of unborn children." McElroy stated that Catholic identity does not stand or fall on a single policy position. Catholic social teaching and identity encompasses such things as solidarity, compassion, love for the church, and "having a grace-filled relationship with God".[24]
On May 29, 2022 Francis announced his intention to make McElroy a cardinal on August 27, 2022.[25] On August 27, 2022, Pope Francis made him a Cardinal-Priest, assigning him the title of San Frumenzio ai Prati Fiscali.[26]
McCarrick Affair
In 2016, McElroy had two meetings with psychotherapist and clerical sex abuse expert Richard Sipe, during which Sipe made allegations about current and former bishops. McElroy had asked Sipe for any corroborating material to substantiate his allegations. McElroy later stated, "I asked if he could share this information with me, especially since some of his accusations involved persons still active in the life of the Church. Dr. Sipe said that he was precluded from sharing specific documentary information that corroborated his claims." Subsequently, Sipe had a letter discussing alleged sexual misconduct by retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and other clerics, disguised as a major donation, hand-delivered to McElroy's office by a process server. In addition to delivering the letter to McElroy, Sipe published the letter publicly on his website.[27]
A wide variety of allegations of sexual assault against adults and minors against McCarrick became public knowledge in June 2018 after an allegation of sex abuse of a minor was deemed credible by the Vatican.[28] Subsequently, McElroy released a statement in which he acknowledged meeting with Sipe and receiving his letter, but stated that "After I read [the letter], I wrote to Dr. Sipe and told him that his decision to engage a process server who operated under false pretenses, and his decision to copy his letter to me to a wide audience, made further conversations at a level of trust impossible." McElroy further stated that
"Dr. Sipe made many significant contributions to understanding the dimensions of clergy sexual abuse in the United States and to the assistance of victims. But the limitations on his willingness to share corroborating information made it impossible to know what was real and what was rumor."[27]
A 2018 article in America reported that "[McElroy] said that the material he received from Mr. Sipe was passed on to the proper governing bodies in Rome."[29]
Eucharist, LGBT
In America, McElroy called for a change in sacramental discipline related to the reception of communion by sexually active LGBT people. He emphasized "the privileged place" of conscience and that sexual activity does not lie at the heart of the hierarchy of truths. He also said: "The distinction between orientation and activity cannot be the principal focus for such a pastoral embrace because it inevitably suggests dividing the L.G.B.T. community into those who refrain from sexual activity and those who do not."[30]
In a February 2024 speech, McElroy said much of the opposition to Fiducia Supplicans was based on "enduring animus" against gays and lesbians.[31] He said further that Fiducia Supplicans was part of a "move toward decentralization" in the Catholic Church. He added "We have witnessed the reality that bishops of various parts of the world have made rapidly divergent decisions about the acceptability of such blessings in their countries".[32]
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