San Diego bishop says he was ‘stunned,’ ‘humbled’ by being named a cardinal – Catholic Review

SAN DIEGO (CNS) — Cardinal-designate Robert W. McElroy instructed reporters Could 31 that when he discovered he’s among the many 21 new cardinals Pope Francis will create Aug. 27, “I stated an enormous prayer.”

“I stated a number of prayers as a result of I used to be shocked and so shocked by this,” stated the 68-year-old prelate who heads the San Diego Diocese. He’s the one American within the group the pope introduced Could 29.

“It was prayer in gratitude for my household and the many individuals who’ve helped kind me over time and thanksgiving to God for all their roles in my life,” he stated throughout a 25-minute information convention held exterior the diocesan pastoral heart.

After the consistory, he might be amongst 132 cardinals underneath the age of 80, who might be eligible to vote in a conclave. The variety of these over 80 might be 97, bringing the overall variety of cardinals to 229.

A local of San Francisco, Bishop McElroy is the sixth bishop of San Diego. He was put in April 15, 2015. Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco April 12, 1980, he was an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese from September 2010 till he was named to move the Diocese of San Diego in 2015.

“By naming Bishop Robert McElroy as a cardinal, Pope Francis has proven his pastoral look after the church in america,” stated Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, who’s president of the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops. “I’ve recognized and have had the privilege of working with Cardinal-designate McElroy for a few years.”

As brother bishops, he stated, they’ve labored collectively “on many points and initiatives in service” to the USCCB and the California Catholic Convention, which is the general public coverage arm of the state’s Catholic bishops.

“His robust religion and the pastoral concern for the devoted he has proven in his diocese will serve the worldwide church effectively,” Archbishop Gomez stated in a Could 29 assertion. “Please be part of me in praying for the continued ministry of Bishop McElroy.”

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco additionally despatched his congratulations to Cardinal-designate McElroy.

The San Diego bishop instructed reporters he didn’t know forward of the pope’s announcement he can be made a cardinal. He awoke that morning to a flood of calls, texts and emails congratulating him.

“I assumed to myself, ‘Congratulations on what?’” he stated.

Cardinal-designate McElroy stated he’s deeply honored to be named to the School of Cardinals and likewise is completely happy to know he might be staying in San Diego. “That delights me,” he stated.

In an announcement he launched Could 29, he stated he was “shocked and deeply stunned by the information” the pope had named him a cardinal.

“My prayer is that on this ministry I is perhaps of further service to the God who has graced me on so many ranges in my life. And I pray additionally that I can help the Holy Father in his pastoral renewal of the church,” he stated.

Main the Catholic neighborhood of San Diego and Imperial counties, which make up the diocese, “is my privilege,” he added.

Cardinal-designate McElroy stated on the information convention he believes the pope “wished to have a cardinal on the West Coast.”

“There’s no cardinal now west of Houston,” he stated, referring to Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. “There was a need to have a cardinal on the West Coast, in order that was a part of it.”

However he stated one more reason for the pope selecting him could possibly be that San Diego is a border diocese with ministries that replicate the precedence the pontiff locations on the church and society welcoming migrants and refugees unconditionally.

“As you understand this pope may be very involved about migrants and refugees, and we’re a diocese on the border so we face all of these points and now we have a really massive immigrant inhabitants right here and significantly inside the Catholic neighborhood,” Cardinal-designate McElroy added.

Just like the pope, the San Diego prelate talks usually of “mutual accompaniment” by a bishop with the devoted.

“This picture of the church because the pilgrim individuals of God calls for that the ministry of a bishop be enmeshed in a tradition of mutual accompaniment that suffuses the native church,” then-Bishop McElroy stated in his homily throughout his set up Mass as San Diego’s bishop.

“The theological basis for this tradition of mutual accompaniment lies within the priesthood of all believers and the common name to holiness,” he stated.

He was one among solely two U.S. bishops personally named by the pope to take part within the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon Oct. 6-27, 2019. The opposite was Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston. The synod was predominantly comprised of Latin American prelates.

The one different American there was Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, who participated in his function as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Household and Life.

Because the synod opened, the San Diego bishop stated ecology and synodality have been on the coronary heart of the Amazon discussions. He has urged his brother bishops within the U.S. to completely embrace the pope’s “Laudato Si’” encyclical on caring for the setting.

“Pope Francis has a sequence of initiatives that he’s attempting to carry to the lifetime of the church,” Cardinal-designate McElroy instructed reporters Could 31. “And I’ve tried to take these initiatives and plant them right here.”

When requested about prohibiting Catholic politicians from Communion based mostly on their public insurance policies supporting legalized abortion, he stated such a transfer “is damaging … partly as a result of it diminishes the Eucharist for my part and it contributes towards the weaponization (of Communion), and much more so, it contributes to the elevated partisanship inside our society.”

“We sadly reside in a society which is deeply divided alongside partisan and ideological traces, and we see a few of that seeping into the lifetime of the church,” he stated. Such division is “a terrific tragedy,” he stated. “I feel it’s essential that we not go in that course.”

Requested in regards to the clergy abuse disaster, he stated that “the good downside within the church was once they (priest abusers) bought reassigned after it was recognized that they had abused. That was a horrible, sinful sample within the lifetime of the church.”

“We are able to’t change it by placing it behind us. We have to at all times keep in mind what occurred, and the way we bought into a really dangerous sample,” he stated.

On Aug. 13, 2019, then-Bishop McElroy gathered all 2,500-plus diocesan workers for the primary time within the diocese’s historical past to announce an growth of the struggle in opposition to the sexual abuse of kids not simply inside the native church however within the higher society.

Amongst different actions, he referred to as on each diocesan worker to report youngster abuse they suspected was occurring, not simply so-called mandated reporters obligated by legislation to take action, comparable to lecturers and monks.

He additionally introduced formation of a activity drive to develop programming to boost consciousness among the many diocese’s households at colleges and parishes of the epidemic of kid abuse and what they might do to forestall it and to assist its victims to heal.

Cardinal-designate McElroy additionally gave an replace on his well being. In November 2021, he underwent four-way bypass coronary heart surgical procedure. It was a deliberate process that he and his docs started discussing following take a look at outcomes he obtained over the summer season of that 12 months. Fluid was present in his lung and docs discovered he had 4 blocked arteries.

He had no problems, he stated, and “felt no ache” after the surgical procedure.

Because the information convention wrapped up, he was requested if it have been potential he might grow to be pope sooner or later.

“I don’t assume an American ought to be pope,” he replied, explaining that the U.S. has energy “in so many ranges,” that if the church have been led by an American pope, it will be a “counterpoint to the witness that the church has to proceed to be giving.”

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