Pope Francis is moving the head of San Diego’s Roman Catholic Diocese to Washington, D.C., placing a prominent ally, as well as a supporter of migrant and LGBTQ communities, in the nation’s capital as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to launch mass deportations and a rollback of transgender rights.

McElroy, known for a pastoral approach to migrants and the LGBTQ+ community, will take over an archdiocese still bruised by a sex and mismanagement scandal.

Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, was named by Pope Francis on Jan. 6, 2025 as the new archbishop of Washington, succeeding Cardinal Wilton Gregory. (Photo from the Diocese of San Diego)