McElroy Already On The Warpath Against Trump

In an interview five days before he would be installed as the new archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy expressed concern about the personal impact of the Trump Administration’s controversial policies of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and the widespread firings of federal workers.

When asked what his message would be to the immigrant community at this time, Cardinal McElroy said, “Sorrow. Love, embrace, compassion. Advocacy and solidarity. And all done in God’s name.”

In the wide-ranging March 6 interview with the editors of the Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, the cardinal also addressed his initial approach to leading the archdiocese, what he sees as the Church’s main pastoral challenge in today’s world, and what he has learned from Pope Francis’s example.

Asked about the firings of federal workers, Cardinal McElroy said, “That is going to be a deep wound and a growing wound, I fear, within our parishes and for individuals, because so many of the people who are being fired are people who have been in jobs, where they require talents and skills and, also (they) have had a sense of security in those jobs. So it’s particularly harsh when this comes down on them so abruptly.”

The day before, Washington’s archbishop-elect had celebrated an Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, and he greeted people afterward.

“I can’t tell you the number of people as they were coming out, I was saying hello as they were coming out, they would ask me to pray for them, for various things, (and) how many said, ‘Please pray for me. I’ve lost my job,’ or ‘my wife has lost her job,’ or ‘I think I’m going to lose my job.’ It’s much in the consciousness of people now, and I fear the ripple effects it will have, not just within the economy of this area, but also within the culture of the area,” Cardinal McElroy said.

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