Meet the Speaker: Cardinal Robert W. McElroy

Cardinal Robert W. McElroy was appointed by Pope Francis to be the sixth bishop of San Diego in 2015, where he led a diverse community of nearly 1.4 million Catholics. Pope Francis then elevated him to the College of Cardinals in May 2022 and named him the eighth archbishop of Washington on Jan. 6, 2025.

A member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal McElroy is a steadfast advocate for the Church’s social justice mission, seeking to address the causes of social inequality, homelessness and immigration reform.

In his installation homily delivered at the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., on March 12, Cardinal McElroy emphasized the role of the Church in addressing suffering, saying, “We are called to be pilgrims of hope in a wounded world, not ignoring the suffering that abounds, but seeing it as a call to strive even more deeply to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives and our nation and our world.”

Cardinal McElroy, who was born in San Francisco and grew up in nearby San Mateo County, has said he felt called to the priesthood from a young age. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American history from Harvard University and a master’s degree in American history from Stanford University before entering St. Patrick’s Seminary, where he earned a master’s degree in divinity.

Following his ordination in 1980, Cardinal McElroy continued to pursue advanced studies and received a licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, a doctorate in political science from Stanford University and a doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He has written two books, “The Search for an American Public Theology” and “Morality and American Foreign Policy.” He has also written articles on theology and public policy for a variety of journals.

Cardinal McElroy is no stranger to Notre Dame. In August, he, along with Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, led a delegation, including Father Dowd, to Japan as part of a “Pilgrimage of Peace” to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The pilgrimage included Notre Dame faculty, staff and students, along with representatives from other U.S. Catholic universities. In 2023, then-Bishop McElroy came to the University of Notre Dame to lead a discussion on the moral challenges of war and nuclear arms, as part of the 2022-23 Notre Dame Forum on the theme “War and Peace.”