Pope Francis has appointed Robert McElroy, an auxiliary bishop in San Francisco and an outspoken campaigner for social justice, as Bishop of San Diego.
Bishop McElroy, who will be installed on 15 April, has spoken of the need for Catholics in America to prioritise action for the poor and excluded. He will succeed Bishop Cirilo Flores, who died last year from cancer.
The US-based Catholic website Crux, called him a “social justice” bishop.
His appointment to San Diego follows Francis’ appointment of Blase Cupich, widely seen as another moderate, to the archdiocese of Chicago.
Bishop McElroy has written regularly for the Jesuit-run magazine America and in one article in 2013 called on the US Catholics’ Bishops Conference to campaign for the poor at least as much as it campaigned on pro-life issues. In another, in 2005, he criticised clergy who believed Catholic politicians who supported legal abortion should be barred from receiving the Eucharist.
The archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, recently caused upset among teachers in Catholic schools by backing the addition of morality clauses to their contracts.
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