Washington D.C., Mar 11, 2025 / 20:25 pm (CNA).
Cardinal Robert McElroy emphasized the importance of Christian hope, mercy, and respecting human dignity in a homily in the nation’s capital during his solemn installation Mass in which he assumed the role as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington.
More than 100 priests, bishops, dozens of religious sisters, and hundreds of Catholic laity attended the Mass on Tuesday afternoon at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The basilica sits adjacent to the campus of The Catholic University of America in the Brookland neighborhood of the city.
McElroy is replacing Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who is retiring from his position at the age of 77.
“With jubilant hearts, we say ‘welcome,’” Gregory said during a brief speech before the Mass began, which yielded a round of applause from Mass-goers.
McElroy devoted his first homily as the archbishop of Washington to highlight the need for Christian hope, which is the theme of the 2025 Jubilee Holy Year. He also spoke at length about the importance of mercy, compassion, and respect for human dignity.
The cardinal called on Catholics to be “pilgrims of hope in a wounded world” and pointed to the hope displayed by St. Mary Magdalene in Tuesday’s Gospel reading. John 20: 11-18 recounts Magdalene’s arrival to Christ’s empty tomb, where she weeped when she saw his body was gone, but maintained hope in Christ before ultimately encountering the resurrected Christ.
“She realized that every presupposition that she had about her life, her mission, her purpose in the world, needed to be changed,” McElroy said, and urged the faithful to “embrace the same risen Lord that Mary Magdalene encountered in the garden.” McElroy referenced Francis’ emphasis on mercy and compassion, saying the pontiff understands that “all of us are wounded, all of us are in pain, [and] all of us are sinners in need of mercy and forgiveness.”
“Mercy and compassion must be our first impulse when confronted with sin and human failure,” McElroy said.
“For hope arises when we confront ourselves as we truly are, understanding that the bountiful, merciful love of God is without limit, and undertake the call to live out the teachings of the church and be sacraments of mercy to others,” he added. “We are a Church which believes that love and truth do meet. That is precisely our glory as the children of God.”
The cardinal stressed the human dignity of every person, such as the unborn, migrants, and the poor.
“The search for genuine encounter and unity lie at the heart of God’s vision for our world, alongside special care for those who are most vulnerable among us,” he said. “What hope we could bring to our world as the Church of Washington if we could truly help our society to see others more as God sees them: beloved children, brothers and sisters.”
The Mass was multilingual, including some prayers and readings in English and Spanish. The intercessions included several additional languages, including Haitian Creole, Tagalog, Igbo, and Chinese. The intercessions included prayers for Pope Francis, civil and political leaders, unborn children, migrants and refugees, and increased vocations.
At the end of the Mass, McElroy led the congregation in a decade of the rosary to pray for the continued recovery of Pope Francis, who has spent weeks in the hospital.
McElroy is taking charge of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. less than two months after President Donald Trump’s inauguration for his second non-consecutive term. Days after his appointment in January, the cardinal wished Trump success in the White House but also criticized his plans for mass deportations of immigrants who entered the country illegally.
“We are called always to have a sense of the dignity of every human person,” McElroy said on Jan. 6. “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.”
McElroy mostly avoided a discussion of politics during his homily, but spoke about concerns he has with division in the country.
“God is the Father of us all, and God sees us as equal in dignity and moral worth,” he said in the homily. “How deeply that contrasts with the world that we have made. Divisions of race and gender and ideology and nationality flourish in the world of politics, religion, family life and education.”
Pope Francis announced in early January that the 71-year-old McElroy would leave his post at the Archdiocese of San Francisco to assume his new role in the Church. McElroy, who holds a doctorate of sacred theology and a doctorate of political science, was made a cardinal by Francis in 2022.
Other concelebrants included Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop emeritus of Washington. Former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich were also in attendance.
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The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is NOT THE CATHEDRAL FOR THE ARCHBISHOP OF WASHINGTON.
McElroy is not some royal potentate who needs to have a huge shrine to usher in his reign of terror. I’m surprised that he didn’t have them sing “Zadok the Priest.”
McElroy was a poor choice for bishop, a poor choice of cardinal and a poor choice for Washington, no doubt orchestrated by Cupich and Wilton Gregory.
Perhaps the Shrine was chosen because it could hold more people?
mrscracker, then there’s always a local stadium which could hold 60,000-70,000.
The whole intent of the Mass of Installation is that the bishop is installed at his CATHEDRA i.e. his CHAIR which is located in his CATHEDRAL. The CHAIR for the archbishop of Washington is NOT located at the Shrine. The bishop’s chair has huge significance. Let’s remember that bishops are not the equivalent of rock stars.
Lord, give us back our Church.
Well, that may be so, but who would wish to squish himself among McElroy’s adulators? As McCarrick’s pick, McElroy is.
The Chair for the archbishop of Washington is the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.
Maybe McElroy will not speak to/for the Catholics in Washington. The Wikipedia entry for the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle notes the Chair there as ‘Sede Vacante.’ Redux is right. The National Shrine is not McElroy’s See. If McElroy is not installed in his See, perhaps he is not really the licit apostolic successor, not the archbishop, of the Archdiocese of Washington. YeGads!
Thanks for elaborating on my point, meiron. The installation of a bishop at his CATHEDRA In his CATHEDRAL carries huge significance. Nowadays, the spiritual takes back seat to the cult of personality.
Archbishop McElroy’s emphasis on hope, compassion, and human dignity aligns with Pope Francis’ teachings. His message is timely, reminding the faithful to hold onto faith in a challenging world.
Regard Informatika
The fact that he does not know what those words mean, outside of the realm of platitudinous manipulative cover while undermining the precepts of the faith that make them possible, perfectly aligns with the cynicism of Francis.
Hope that those whom you love do not go to Hell for following these bishops.
Two points:
FIRST, we read: “The Mass was multilingual, including some prayers and readings in English and Spanish. The intercessions included several additional languages, including Haitian Creole, Tagalog, Igbo, and Chinese”–
Including English as the national language, but then the identity politics of fully replacing the not-listed, universal, and perennial Latin?
SECOND, a reference, a political catch-all about: “Divisions of race and gender and ideology and nationality flourish in the world of politics, religion, family life and education.” A “doctorate in political science”, no less!
But, yes, much of genuine value in Cardinal McElroy’s homily, but might we still contrast the loose ends with an impolitic remark by the attending Cardinal Wuerl who, in his better days in 2012, was invited to Rome to launch the Year of Faith?
About divisions within our nation and world, and that are deeply tectonic and more than political, Wuerl clarified: “It is as if a tsunami of secular influence has swept across the cultural landscape, taking with it such societal markers as marriage, family, the concept of the common good and objective right and wrong.”
Latin would have been appreciated but there are a great number of folks in the DC area who speak other languages besides English. I don’t think one language is more important than the other in the liturgy if you don’t first go with Latin.
Latin as a universal liturgical language sure made a lot sense I think.
Yes, indeed. If we truly want universality at Mass, we’d use Latin. Every time you use ten different languages you are excluding the vast majority present who do not speak that language. Just suppose you speak in Haitian Creole. In Washington DC, maybe 3% of those present speak Haitian Creole. So, you’ve successfully excluded 97% of those present. How’s that for universality and inclusiveness? All that is is virtue signalling.
McElroy’s comments were the standard disingenuous word salad replete with all the meaningless buzzwords that Francis bishops utter so effortlessly. Is that because they deliver the same dreary thing with only minor variations time after time? It’s all employed in the service of the Marxist agenda they have devoted their lives to furthering. They abuse language as much as they do the faithful. In their mouths “dignity”, “compassion”, “woundedness” etc. are drained of all content.
Over the last twenty-five years, the Cardinal Archbishops of the Diocese of Washington DC, one of the most important in the world, have been McCarrick, Wuerl, Gregory and now, McElroy. A worse quartet one could hardly devise. It is particularly telling that the latter three are protégés of the first. There was no reckoning in the wake of the McCarrick scandal. The McCarrick clique retains control of the top of the top of the hierarchy.
Yes. Latin definitely made more sense in that respect.
Cdl McElroy’s epithet, “God is the Father of us all, and God sees us as equal in dignity and moral worth” is in essence indistinguishable from Baha’i, the religious doctrine of the 19th century Persian [today Iranian] Baháʼu’lláh, who taught three principles of belief: that God is one, the unity of humanity, and that all religions are in harmony. The reader may be surprised that Baha’i is considered the world’s second, not in numbers, rather as an ‘internationally represented’ system of belief.
There is a closeness of the ideology of Baha’i with Masonic wisdom, and arguably its affinity with what McElroy perceives as the central theme of religious belief, to repeat, “God is the Father of us all, and God sees us as equal in dignity and moral worth”. Ideologically it’s the trend of thought of this pontificate, a unity of love that holds no bounds, no exclusive requirements, and consequently all embracing. Accommodation of LGBT, remarriage outside the Church, accent on environment rather than personal mores and abortion are indicators. Should it be any wonder why this phase of Catholicism has such great appeal to the Left agenda of environment, egalitarianism in religion and politics, of comparability with progressivism?
Cdl McElroy’s appointment to America’s prestigious Wash DC Archdiocese is more than a religious statement because it infers, at least by suggestion, the establishment of an ideology in place of Roman Catholic Christianity.
Persia was the home of Zoroaster, who taught good and evil are inherent features of reality, that ultimately they compliment each other and are destined for reconciliation.