Cardinal McElroy appointed new Archbishop of Washington

Vatican News

After accepting the resignation from the pastoral governance of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Washington by Cardinal Wilton Daniel Gregory, Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Robert Walter McElroy, who has led the diocese of San Diego since March 2015, as the new Metropolitan Archbishop.

Born on 5 February 1954 in San Francisco, California, the Cardinal attended Saint Joseph Minor Seminary, earning a baccalaureate degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Master's degree in History from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

After completing his ecclesiastical studies at Saint Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, he received a Doctorate in Moral Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a Doctorate in Political Science from Stanford University.

He was ordained a priest on 12 April 1980 for the Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Francisco. Appointed titular Bishop of Gemelle di Bizacena and Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco on 6 July 2010, he received episcopal ordination on 7 September 2010. While leading the Diocese of San Diego, Pope Francis created him a Cardinal in the consistory of 27 August 2022.