Two weeks before the new president is sworn in, the Vatican is naming a prominent liberal cardinal and critic of President-elect Trump to lead the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

Pope Francis appointed the bishop of San Diego, Robert McElroy, to serve as the leader of the prominent archdiocese position at the nation’s capital.

Mr. McElroy will assume the position just days before Trump is sworn into office and succeed the first African-American archbishop of the nation’s capital, Wilton Gregory.

Mr. McElroy earned a doctorate degree in political science from Stanford University and a doctorate in theology from a Roman university. The newly-appointed archbishop is widely known for his liberal views. When Trump first took office, Mr. McElroy suggested Catholics should become “disruptors.”

“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,” he said at the time.

In 2022, Pope Francis made Mr. McElroy a cardinal, passing over San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, even though he had a higher rank at the time. Mr. Cordileone made headlines for banning Speaker Pelosi from partaking in communion until she publicly renounced her support of abortion access. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.

“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life,” it says.

Despite the church’s stance on the issue, Mr. McElroy publicly opposed a push to ban politicians who support abortion access from receiving communion. In a 2021 column published by the Jesuit magazine, America, he wrote, “The proposal to exclude pro-choice Catholic political leaders from the Eucharist is the wrong step. It will bring tremendously destructive consequences — not because of what it says about abortion, but because of what it says about the Eucharist.”

He also supports what he calls the “radical inclusion” of women and LGBT people in the Catholic Church. 

During a press conference on Monday, Mr. McElroy said he believes the idea of mass deportations, which Trump campaigned on, is “incompatible with Catholic doctrine.”

A church historian at Villanova University, Massimo Faggioli, told CNN the decision to appoint Mr. McElroy is a “bold move” by Pope Francis, and that the timing of the announcement before Trump’s inauguration is a “statement.”