Pope Francis on Jan. 6 named Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego, who has a record of support for the LGBTQ community, as the new Archbishop of Washington, D.C.

At the time he is officially installed at a ceremony scheduled for March 11 at D.C.’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, he will replace retiring Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who has served as Archbishop of Washington since 2019 and who also has been supportive of the LGBTQ community.

As Archbishop of Washington, McElroy will serve as leader of the Archdiocese of Washington, which includes Catholic churches and other Catholic facilities in all of D.C. and five Maryland counties – Montgomery, Prince George’s, Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the Mt. Rainier, Md., based LGBTQ Catholic organization New Ways Ministry,  released a statement praising McElroy’s appointment.

“New Ways Ministry is delighted that Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy as the next Archbishop of Washington, D.C.,” DeBernardo said in his statement. “Cardinal McElroy, a brilliant theologian and astute political analyst, is the perfect person to lead this important archdiocese into the future,” he said.

DeBernardo added, “Of course, the most exciting feature about this appointment for New Ways Ministry is the cardinal’s strong positive statements regarding LGBTQ+ issues. His particular angle in this area is one often overlooked by other church leaders: He constantly calls on members of the church to examine their negative attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people.”

Among other things, DeBernardo pointed to a statement by McElroy in 2024 criticizing church leaders in the U.S. who objected to Pope Francis’s Vatican directive allowing the church to bless people in same-sex relationships while not endorsing same-sex marriage.

“He stated that opposition to such blessings reveals ‘an enduring animus among far too many toward LGBT persons,’” DeBernardo quoted McElroy’s statement as saying.

DeBernardo cited these additional statements or actions by McElroy in support of the LGBTQ community and LGBTQ Catholics:

 • In a 2023 essay, McElroy objected to what he called the “profound and visceral animus” toward LGBTQ people reflected among some in the Catholic Church, referring to the anti-LGBTQ animus as a “demonic mystery of the human soul.”

• In 2018, he publicly criticized the way he said gay priests were being scapegoated by some for the clergy sexual abuse crisis, saying such abuse was a matter of power, not sexual orientation.

• Also in 2018, McElroy expressed support for a gay pastoral worker at a church in his San Diego Archdiocese, Aaron Bianco, who was subjected to threats and harassment from some fellow church members because he was married to another man. 

• In 2016, McElory was one of the first Catholic Church leaders to offer condolences to the LGBTQ community after the Pulse gay nightclub mass shooting, in which a lone gunman killed 49 mostly LGBTQ people and wounded 53 others at the Orlando, Fla., nightclub.

DeBernardo pointed to what he called the importance of Cardinal McElroy’s assuming a high-level church leadership position in the nation’s capital at a time when the incoming U.S. president, Donald Trump, and incoming Congress were not expected to be supportive of LGBTQ rights.

“We are confident that Cardinal McElroy can provide a strong Catholic voice affirming the human dignity of LGBTQ+ people and the need for laws that will protect them,” DeBernardo said in his statement.

“New Ways Ministry is grateful to Cardinal Wilton Gregory for his leadership in Washington over the past decade,” the statement says. “Cardinal Gregory, too, has shown great concern for the dignity and rights of LGBTQ+ people. His legacy as a prophetic leader will endure.”

Vince Rodriguez, president of the local LGBTQ Catholic organization Dignity Washington, shares DeBernardo’s view that McElroy will have a positive impact on the LGBTQ community and LGBTQ Catholics.

“I’m delighted, absolutely delighted about this appointment that the Pope has made,” Rodriquez told the Washington Blade. “I think it’s a pretty timely decision given the incoming administration and some of the pushback that we’ve seen on LGBT rights and what may be coming,” he said in referring to the incoming Trump administration.

“So, I think it will be good to have a voice here in Washington to hopefully challenge some of that,” Rodriguez said.

Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.