ROME — The newly appointed Catholic archbishop of Washington, DC, said Monday that President Trump’s plans for deporting illegal immigrants is “incompatible with Catholic doctrine.”
Cardinal Robert McElroy, recognized as one of the most progressive bishops in the U.S. episcopacy and a vocal Trump critic, noted in a press conference that the Catholic Church teaches that “a country has the right to control its borders” and that “our nation’s desire to do that is a legitimate effort.”
“At the same time,” he continued, “we are called always to have a sense of the dignity of every human person. And thus, plans which have been talked about at some levels of having a wider indiscriminate massive deportation across the country would be something that would be incompatible with Catholic doctrine.”
“So, we’ll have to see what emerges in the administration,” he added.
The cardinal did not elaborate on which elements of Catholic doctrine he believes prohibit the deportation of migrants who enter a country illegally.
Pope Francis’s decision to move a noted liberal bishop to the nation’s capital surprised even progressive observers, such as Massimo Faggioli, who teaches at Villanova University.
Faggioli said:
Many of us thought he was too progressive to be the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and that appointing him to the nation’s capital was going to be too bold, too strong a statement, because he is far more progressive than the center of the [U.S. Bishops] on gay rights, synodality, immigrants, on almost anything.
But Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, said she believes McElroy is “the right bishop at the right time for Washington, D.C.”
McElroy’s words on immigration enforcement signal that the new archbishop will be “a very strong voice to counter the horrors that the Trump administration says it is planning to do,” McGuire said.
Predictably, the dissident “Catholic” LGBTQ+ advocacy group New Ways Ministry offered a glowing appraisal of the pope’s decision to place McElroy in the nation’s capital, saying it is thrilled with the appointment of such a well-known gay-rights advocate.
New Ways Ministry is “delighted” that Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy as the next archbishop of Washington, DC, Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director of New Ways Ministry, said.
Cardinal McElroy is a “brilliant theologian” and “astute political analyst,” DeBernardo gushed, and “the perfect person to lead this important archdiocese into the future.”
“Most importantly is that Cardinal McElroy has been appointed to the nation’s capital at a time when a new presidential administration and Congress have strongly indicated that legislation repealing civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ people are at the top of their agendas,” DeBernardo claimed.
“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,” he added.
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