The promotion comes on the anniversary of Jan. 6, two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. McElroy, 70, was the outspoken bishop from San Diego who had criticized Trump’s deportation plans since his first term.

“President Trump was the candidate of disruption. He was the disrupter, he said,” McElroy said at the 2017 U.S. regional meeting of the World Meeting of Popular Movements. “Well, now, we must all become disrupters. We must disrupt those who would seek to send troops into our streets to deport the undocumented, to rip mothers and fathers from their families. We must disrupt those who portray refugees as enemies rather than our brothers and sisters in terrible need.”

The cardinal has also called for the ordination of women as deacons during his career. Francis has similar leanings, as he recently named Simona Brambilla to be the prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, a first for a woman.

His education includes a doctorate in theology from Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and a doctorate in politics from Stanford University. McElroy wrote his dissertation on American foreign policy.

McElroy is a native of San Francisco and succeeded Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in 2022. This was after Cordileone recommended Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) not receive communion due to her stance on abortion. McElroy rejected that recommendation.

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the previous archbishop of Washington, since 2019, is retiring. Gregory, 77, did not refuse Pelosi or President Joe Biden communion due to their stances on abortion. He was also the first black leader of the Catholic Church in Washington and the first-ever black U.S. cardinal.