By DEXTER DUGGAN
San Francisco-born Robert McElroy might have become the archbishop of the City by the Bay, while San Diego-born Salvatore Cordileone could have been bishop of that metropolis next to Mexico, but the might-have-beens and what-ifs of life must defer to realities. Even if those realities might resemble playing musical chairs.
Ordained an auxiliary bishop for San Francisco in 2010, McElroy was announced as the sixth bishop of San Diego on March 3. Cordileone, ordained auxiliary bishop of San Diego in 2002, became archbishop of San Francisco in 2012 after a stop as bishop of Oakland beginning in 2009.
And who fills the episcopal seats depends on who sits on a certain throne in Rome.
As different as north and south are in the California context, McElroy’s appointment turned topsy-turvy the expectations of those who were hoping for some Church stability after novice Pope Francis had a chance to settle into his pontificate.
Francis’ daunting appointment of “progressive” Blase Cupich last September to head the consequential Archdiocese of Chicago apparently heralded more of the same.
McElroy’s new role is “being called the ‘Cupich appointment of the West,’ and not without reason,” said the well-read Whispers in the Loggia blog on March 2. Whispers said he’s “known as one of the Stateside bench’s most outspoken progressives.”
Pope Benedict XVI had named Cordileone to the Oakland and San Francisco posts. Cordileone’s father, Leon, had been born in San Francisco before the family moved to San Diego.
Under the headline “Pope Francis sends ‘social justice’ bishop to San Diego,” the Crux blog on March 2 wrote, “McElroy’s appointment to San Diego is the latest sign that Pope Francis intends to make his mark on the Church in America.”
In a March 3 news release, Cordileone extended “heartfelt congratulations” to his departing auxiliary, McElroy, saying in part:
“San Diego’s unique position as a major metropolis separated by an international border from another major metropolis, Tijuana, presents distinctive challenges and opportunities. Bishop McElroy’s proven record of outreach to the poor and marginalized, along with his ability to understand and articulate the complexities involved, will serve him well in responding to Catholics of the Diocese of San Diego, as he builds upon the many graces they have received from God, and helps Catholics confront their needs with hope and confidence in the Lord.”
Barbara Simpson, a veteran San Francisco conservative commentator, is well-acquainted with McElroy’s reputation, and less hopeful about the appointment. She told The Wanderer on March 3:
“McElroy is a known leader of the social-justice wing of the Catholic Church. He fit in very well in liberal San Francisco, especially his views on homosexuality, which have been described as ‘friendly and compromising,’ and ‘elastic.’
“But he may find some push-back with the move south — less acceptance of his focus on ‘poverty, exclusion, and inequality,’ social-justice activism, and tolerance of gay issues. The border problems, with illegal aliens and drug-cartel activities, are acute,” Simpson continued.
“The area is largely Republican and has a heavy military population. How McElroy will be received remains to be seen, with his strong views and activist tendencies on all these issues, as well as his desire to replace ‘rule-keeping’ with compassion for Catholics who often go their own way,” she said.
Simpson said the Pope’s “proclivity for supporting progressive governance” makes it “fitting” that he named McElroy, “thus spreading the Pope’s social-justice views in the United States.”
San Diego’s Jim Holman, publisher of the online California Catholic Daily, told The Wanderer on March 3, “In some ways a liberal bishop may be no worse than a weak one. But Church liberals usually are totalitarian, so we’ll have to see.”
There was an assumption in news coverage that a prelate can’t care about the poor unless he’s a “progressive.” Where does that leave traditionalist Catholics, hoping to maintain the faith?
The major San Diego news platform, U-T San Diego, quickly headlined on its website March 3, “Pope’s champion to lead local Catholics.”
The U-T San Diego story reported: “‘To have someone who is so progressive, so open, so in line with our new pope, nothing but good can come from this,’ said Francie Wright, principal of Holy Trinity Catholic School in El Cajon, who heard about McElroy’s selection while at work. ‘We’ve taken our hits as a Church, now it’s time to move forward’.”
The San Diego website continued: “‘He’s a very thoughtful, helpful, wonderful man,’ said Mary Lyons, president of the [Catholic] University of San Diego, who once tried to recruit McElroy for the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies. ‘I’m very happy, very excited’.”
That university is considered by many local Catholics to have deviated far from an orthodox position. In recent years the school has held an annual scandalous on-campus homosexual “drag show” as Lent draws to a close. The Diocese of San Diego repeatedly has averted its eyes from this.
U-T San Diego also reported: “In one his writings, McElroy urged the Catholic Church to ‘elevate the issue of poverty to the very top of its political agenda.’ He also has argued that the Church’s positions on hot-button issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage shouldn’t overshadow its commitment to economic justice and human rights.”
All too predictably, the Associated Press reported that McElroy quickly called for “comprehensive immigration reform” as the newly named bishop, quoting McElroy as saying Americans sometimes fall short “in how we deal with immigrants, and how we must really confront the issues of immigration and resolve them with justice and have a comprehensive immigration reform that will do that.”
Nothing was mentioned in the story about the dominant problem of massive lawbreaking immigration.
Responding to an email inquiry by The Wanderer, San Diego-area Catholic activist Allyson Smith commented on March 3:
“Although I don’t want to pass judgment prematurely, Bishop McElroy appears by many accounts to be very ‘progressive.’ I’m concerned about the fact that he’s contributed frequently to the liberal Jesuit magazine America, that the National Catholic Reporter seems to love him, and that he is apparently unwilling to enforce canon 915.”
Canon 915 says that those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion. Radical pro-abortion Democrat “Catholic” politicians Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden are appropriate examples.
The traditionalist Rorate Caeli blog observed that McElroy “has been a leading public critic of the enforcement of canon 915 against pro-abortion politicians.”
Smith said, “I hope Bishop McElroy will not place social justice and immigration issues on an equal or greater footing than abortion and marriage; time will tell. Please pray for him and for our diocese.”
The website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gives the following information about Bishop McElroy:
Bishop McElroy has served as an auxiliary bishop of San Francisco since 2010. He succeeds the late Bishop Cirilo Flores, who died September 6, 2014.
The appointment was publicized in Washington, March 3, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Robert Walter McElroy was born February 5, 1954. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1975, a master’s degree in American history from Stanford University in 1976, and a master of divinity degree from St. Patrick Seminary, Menlo Park, Calif., in 1979. He was ordained a priest for the San Francisco Archdiocese April 12, 1980, and named a monsignor in 1996.
Following Ordination, he was parochial vicar of St. Cecilia Church in San Francisco, 1980-1982; and secretary to Archbishop John R. Quinn, 1982-1985. He studied for a licentiate in sacred theology at the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, Calif., in 1985; and for a doctorate in sacred theology at the Gregorian University, Rome, 1985-1986. He studied for a doctorate in history at Stanford from 1986-1989.
From 1989-1995, he was parochial vicar at St. Pius Church, and was vicar general for the San Francisco Archdiocese, 1995-1997. From 1997-2010, he was pastor of St. Gregory Parish in San Mateo, Calif. He was appointed a bishop by Pope Benedict XVI on July 6, 2010, and consecrated on September 7 of that year.
He is author of The Search for an American Public Theology: The Contribution of John Courtney Murray, Paulist Press, 1989; and Morality and American Foreign Policy: The Role of Ethics in International Affairs, Princeton University Press, 1992. He also has been published in journals and America magazine.
The Diocese of San Diego covers 8,852 square miles in Southern California and has a total population of 3,236,492 people, of whom 998,127, or 31 percent, are Catholic.
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