Posted on 01/29/2025 12:55:36 PM PST by ebb tide
Catholic America is reeling from the surprise of the new presidency’s political appointments at every level, which are decisively reshaping the political landscape.
One of the most unexpected developments has not come from the White House but from the Vatican: the retirement of Cardinal Wilton Gregory as Archbishop of Washington left a vacancy for Rome to fill following his resignation in 2022. This appointment has suddenly acquired political significance that eclipses accompanying pastoral and spiritual considerations.
According to the Catholic journal the Pillar, the papal nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, had already advised the Vatican that appointing Cardinal McElroy would be deeply polarising. He was not alone in holding this view.
Many conservative Catholics were alarmed and offended when McElroy was elevated to Cardinal over his archbishop, José Gómez, who, particularly as a Hispanic, would have seemed an obvious candidate for a “red hat.” His archdiocese, after all, comprised more than four million Catholics.
Rightly or wrongly, there was a perception that Gómez was being punished by Rome. During his tenure as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), he had drafted a statement that politely—if over-optimistically—praised President Biden’s piety and social conscience while simultaneously deploring his stance on abortion.
Then came the election of President Trump and his subsequent appointment of Brian Burch, the founder of the passionately pro-life and pro-MAGA organisation CatholicVote, as ambassador to the Holy See. This move appears to have acted as a catalyst for Pope Francis to override the advice of the papal nuncio and appoint Cardinal McElroy to Washington.
Cardinal McElroy has not concealed his disdain for Trump in public discourse. He has also been a vocal advocate for maintaining Biden administration policies on immigration. Beyond that, he has been a model progressive—supporting the admission of women to the diaconate, championing LGBT causes, and expressing the view that Catholics overemphasise their opposition to abortion.
Some critics interpret his appointment as a form of reprisal against the Trump administration. However, there is another, perhaps more significant, reason to be concerned.
One of the gravest shadows over the Catholic Church is not just the acts of sexual abuse but the institutional cover-up that has followed. For many, it is a truism that the cover-up often eclipses the original crime in moral offensiveness. The Church’s path to forgiveness and reparation lies in holding abusers accountable when the facts are clear. In this regard, the former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick has become synonymous with both abuse and institutional cover-up.
Pope Benedict XVI ordered McCarrick to maintain a low profile after his resignation in 2006. However, Pope Francis later rehabilitated him and used him as an unofficial emissary, particularly to negotiate the Vatican’s controversial pact with Beijing. Only the emergence of subsequent child abuse allegations prompted Francis to withdraw his support and laicise him.
How does Cardinal McElroy fit into this troubling narrative?
In 2016, McElroy, then Bishop of San Diego, was contacted by Richard Sipe, America’s foremost authority on clerical sex abuse (now deceased). Sipe, who had previously corresponded with McElroy about abuse in the Church, claimed to have interviewed 12 seminarians and priests who attested to propositions, sexual harassment, or sexual activity involving Cardinal McCarrick. Sipe repeatedly sought a meeting with McElroy to discuss these allegations, even going so far as to hire a process server to hand-deliver a letter. McElroy, however, stonewalled these attempts.
McElroy later defended his actions, stating that he had passed the information to Rome and dismissed Sipe’s claims as desperate and unreliable.
This raises a fundamental issue for the Catholic Church: trust. It is not merely the credibility of abuse experts that is at stake but whether the Church, as an institution, can summon the integrity to own its past failures, apologise, repent, and ensure accountability for abusers.
Pope Francis’ promotion of Cardinal McElroy poses a profound challenge for the Catholic community in Washington and beyond. By failing to hold McCarrick accountable, McElroy has contributed to a deeper erosion of trust in the Church’s ability to address abuse. This is no small matter.
It corrosively undermines the place and contribution of the entire Catholic Church—not only in the eyes of the new political regime but also across the United States and beyond.
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Pope Francis’ promotion of Cardinal McElroy poses a profound challenge for the Catholic community in Washington and beyond. By failing to hold McCarrick accountable, McElroy has contributed to a deeper erosion of trust in the Church’s ability to address abuse. This is no small matter.
Ping
JD and NY’s Dolan
Does the church encourage illegal activity?
No, the Catholic Church does not encourage it; but Bergoglio's "Sin-Nodal" church does encourage it.
The last archbishop was a black homosexual. That’s all anyone needs to know about the place.
Catholic Charities is going to be taking a big hit.
When was McElroy’s appointment to Washington announced? I thought it was before Trump picked Burch.
Trump announced Burch on December 20, 2024.
Bergoglio announce his boy, McElroy, on January 6, 2025.
It's the beginning of a mini cold war.
The Pope will lose ALL political battles with Trump. For example, for me, today, finding out what the Biden admin. sent to NGOs, especially to Catholic Charities, and then finding out what they do with the money was a revelation to me. I can’t be the only one surprised.
Well written. Thank you.
But. Gregory (even when in Atlanta, then before that in Chicago with Obama, never condemned ANYBODY in the Obama-Biden-Harris administration for their continuous fights to expand abortion, to fund abortion, and to promote sexual activity. To promote ANY kind of sexual activity.
Last four Archbishops of Washington DC
McCarrick
Donald Wuerl
Gregory
McElroy
All homosexuals that covered for each other.
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