San Diego Cardinal-to-Be: No American Should be Elected Pope, Including Himself

Underneath the quiet shade of a magnolia tree, Bishop Robert McElroy advised of the flood of texts that awoke him at 3:30 a.m. Sunday.

The religious chief of San Diego and Imperial County Roman Catholics on Tuesday stated he noticed solely titles: congratulations, congratulations, congratulations.

“Congratulations on what?” McElroy thought.

It was information that Pope Francis had named him to the Sacred School of Cardinals — the one lively American west of Houston. Francis wished to have a cardinal on the West Coast, McElroy advised.

Now addressed as cardinal-elect, McElroy, 68, was requested if he stated slightly prayer.

No, an enormous one, he replied — “a number of prayers as a result of I used to be shocked and so shocked by this. Prayer of thanksgiving.”

However as a 25-minute press convention wrapped up on the diocesan Pastoral Middle in Bay Park, McElroy was requested in regards to the prospect of his changing into pope.

He replied in a blink.

“I don’t assume an American needs to be pope,” he advised a group of TV crews.

The US has a lot energy “in so many ranges,” he stated, that having an American pope can be a “counterpoint to the witness that the church has to proceed to be giving.”

He added: “I might oppose any American being elected pope” regardless that he didn’t assume it might ever be within the playing cards.

On international journeys, he stated, “you see all of those totally different views, and the world seems fairly totally different from our reference factors. That doesn’t imply our reference factors are improper. However it means these wider views should be added to it.”

McElroy parried queries on critical points — the priest-abuse scandal, his protection of giving communion to politicians who assist abortion rights and whether or not married males, and even ladies, needs to be allowed to turn out to be ordained clergymen.

And in addition some much less critical: How properly did he converse Italian? Did he return to sleep after the early morning texts?

(He stated he studied Italian extra 30 years whereas finding out for a doctorate in ethical theology from Pontifical Gregorian College in Rome. “I can use it a bit once I’m over there, however I’m actually removed from fluent.” And no — he didn’t return to sleep. He was beneath strain to launch a response assertion.)

McElroy additionally gave an replace on his well being within the wake of four-way bypass coronary heart surgical procedure in November, revealing he was handled at Scripps Mercy Hospital.

His chest was opened, he stated, not due to a coronary heart assault “episode” however as a result of fluid was present in his lung — and 4 blocked arteries.

He stated he was “shocked” at having no issues. He felt “no ache” afterward, a relative rarity, his medical doctors stated.

On what he known as “the abuse disaster” — a serious situation amongst 8,000 attending church “listening classes” with him in late 2018 — he stated: “Clearly folks had been indignant about the way it was dealt with.”

He supplied Tuesday: “We will’t change it by placing it behind us. We have to at all times keep in mind what occurred, and the way we received into a really unhealthy sample.”

The most important disgrace wasn’t the actual fact particular person clergymen abused minors — “all teams in society (endure) that,” he stated.

“The nice drawback within the church was once they received reassigned after it was recognized they’d abused,” he stated. “That was a horrible, sinful sample within the lifetime of the church.”

McElroy once more decried the communion ban on abortion-rights supporting leaders like Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was first hit by Salvatore Cordileone, the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco (and former San Diego prelate), after which in different dioceses.

He stated he wrote his first article on the difficulty in 2004 when Catholic John Kerry was operating for president.

He stated it was “damaging” to forbid political leaders from receiving communion based mostly on their actions in public coverage.

“Partly as a result of it diminished the eucharist, for my part,” he stated. “It contributes towards the weaponization of the eucharist. And much more so, it contributes towards the elevated partisanship inside our society.”

He bemoaned a deep division “seeping into the lifetime of the church. That’s an awesome tragedy. So it’s vital that we not go in that route.”

In 2019, as the one North American attending a gathering of Amazon Basin bishops at a Vatican synod, McElroy heard how some areas of 9 international locations may supply Mass solely yearly — a “radical scarcity” of clergymen, he stated.

So by a two-thirds vote, he stated, options had been proposed — together with ordaining choose married males as clergymen and permitting ladies to turn out to be deacons — one step beneath the priesthood.

“No less than these are stay points now,” stated McElroy, who will obtain his crimson cardinal cap Aug. 27 at St. Peter’s in Rome.

(Southern California, particularly within the Hispanic-heavy areas of San Diego, aren’t hurting a lot for clergymen, he stated, however a youth outreach technique devised earlier than the pandemic nonetheless must be rolled out.)

In a slender courtyard, McElroy stood solely toes away from the statute of Saint Martin de Porres — apt for a pandemic period press convention.

Born in Peru within the 1570s — the illegitimate son to a Spaniard and a freed slave from Panama — Martin grew to become the patron saint of individuals of blended race, innkeepers, barbers and public well being employees.

“Throughout an epidemic in Lima, lots of the friars within the Convent of the Rosary grew to become very sick,” stated one biography. “Locked away in a distant part of the convent, they had been refrained from the professed. Nonetheless, on a couple of event, Martin handed by the locked doorways to look after the sick.”

Like Martin, McElroy attends to his flock. He recounted his comparatively mundane schedule Sunday after being elevated to the heights of the Catholic Church.

After speaking congratulatory calls from long-ago folks in his life, together with highschool classmates and Stanford roommates, McElroy returned to the enterprise of a bishop.

He attended a ten:30 a.m. affirmation at St. Thomas Extra Church in Oceanside and later drove to Brawley for a affirmation there at 6 p.m.

He hasn’t spoken with Pope Francis for the reason that information.

“It will not be a traditional factor to talk to the pope,” stated McElroy, stressing his pleasure about with the ability to keep in San Diego.

“That delights me,” he stated.