On Aug. 27, Pope Francis will create 20 recent cardinals, including the present bishop of San Diego, Robert W. McElroy. Cardinal-designate McElroy can be among the many cardinals who vote for the following pope—assuming that happens before 2034, when he turns 80.
I even have heard loads of speculation of where the Vatican will move Bishop McElroy after he becomes a cardinal—Washington, D.C., Boston, even Rome. Personally, I prefer that he stays in San Diego. In a way, he can be representing the southwestern United States in the following papal conclave, and someone from our region of the country should get a vote.
The geographical center of U.S. Catholicism has shifted away from the East. It’s unlikely to shift back any time soon.
The explanation is easy. The church is growing fastest within the southern and western regions of america. Those two regions are where nearly all of U.S. Catholics live today, largely as a result of the growing Latino community. Actually, greater than 60 percent of Catholics within the Diocese of San Diego are Hispanic, by far the fastest growing ethnic group within the diocese.
The geographical center of U.S. Catholicism has shifted away from the East, and since Catholics within the South and West are likely to be younger than Catholics within the Northeast and Midwest, it’s unlikely to shift back any time soon. The Diocese of San Diego represents the longer term of the U.S. Catholic Church, and it is acceptable that it’s led by an lively cardinal who has Pope Francis’ confidence.
The Diocese of San Diego represents the longer term of the U.S. Catholic Church, and it is acceptable that it’s led by an lively cardinal who has Pope Francis’ confidence.
I can’t say that I do know Cardinal-designate McElroy well, aside from from his speeches and writings. But my friends and colleagues describe him as a deeply pastoral bishop. I briefly met him in 2017 while reporting on a conference of the World Meeting of Popular Movements in Modesto, Calif. The San Francisco native is pretty tall and smiles lots. During his address, he had the gathering of 700 members of grassroots organizations shouting, standing and clapping in approval. There have been many quotable parts of that speech, but the next perhaps grabbed essentially the most attention:
President Trump was the candidate of “disruption.” He was “the disruptor,” he said, difficult the operations of our government and society that need reform. Well now, we must all turn into disruptors.
The disruption he spoke of, to be clear, was consonant with Francis’ image of the church as a field hospital. “We must disrupt those that would seek to send troops into our streets to deported the undocumented, to tear moms and dads from their families,” Bishop McElroy said in the identical speech. He also said that as “disruptors” we must not portray refugees as enemies and that we must recognize Muslims as children of God. Further, we cannot allow medical care or food stamps to be taken away from the poor.
But people of religion must not simply be disruptors, he said. They need to even be rebuilders:
We’ve to rebuild this nation in order that we place at its heart the service to the dignity of the human person and assert what the American flag behind us asserts is our heritage: Every man, woman and child is equal on this nation and called to be equal.
It is obvious that in making Bishop McElroy a cardinal, the pope has elevated a voice very much in harmony along with his own. And while it is difficult to argue that relatively prosperous San Diego is a diocese on the periphery, Bishop McElroy has unquestionably kept his give attention to the margins.
It’s also necessary that Bishop McElroy has embraced Francis’ calls to synodality. His support of the synodal approach puts him in contact with the burgeoning Latino community in San Diego—lots of whom, studies show, are leaving religious practice. Nationally, he’s a stalwart voice in our Catholic conversations, contributing guiding insights because the church re-examines its role during a tumultuous time in america.
Not taking anything away from his national leadership, but I’m still glad he’s (relatively speaking) from my neck of the woods. So I hope Francis allows him to proceed his ministry in his home state. I might take it as an indication that the Vatican recognizes where the U.S. church is growing the fastest.
