Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, bishop of San Diego, has been appointed by Pope Francis to become the new Archbishop of Washington, D.C., it was announced Monday.
McElroy, 70, will succeed retiring Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory in March. Until a new bishop is named, a Diocesan administrator will oversee the San Diego diocese on an interim basis, according to the Diocese of San Diego.
McElroy was named bishop of San Diego in 2015 and elevated to cardinal in 2022.
"I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the Catholic community in our nation's capital and for the confidence His Holiness has placed in me, but I have truly loved the last ten years I've spent as bishop of San Diego," McElroy said in a statement. "I have never in my life felt more welcomed, more supported or more rewarded than I felt sharing my ministry with the priests, the women religious, and the faithful parishioners of our diocese."
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