Pope Francis on Sunday named as cardinal San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy, a Jesuit who had spoken out against the calls for bishops to exclude pro-choice politicians like President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Holy Communion over their stances on abortion. 

Pope Francis rejected elevating San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who recently announced that pro-abortion politician Nancy Pelosi was to be refused communion.

McElroy has strongly asserted his views that the Eucharist ought not be denied to politicians who support the legalization of abortion.

In a May 5, 2021 essay, Bishop McElroy decried what he called “a theology of unworthiness” to receive the Eucharist, whereby those who practice it focus too strongly, in his view, on discipline. 

McElroy has also supported female deacons and “LGBT youth” according to CNA.

In 2019, McElroy told the National Catholic Reporter that he is in favor of ordaining women to the diaconate, saying that “My view on it is [that] women should be invited into every ministry or activity we have that’s not doctrinally precluded.” Pope Francis has asked two commissions to study the question of a female diaconate in the Catholic Church, the second of which was instituted in 2020 following discussion of women deacons during the 2019 Amazon synod.

In February 2021, McElroy was one of several U.S. Catholic bishops who signed onto a statement in opposition to “violence, bullying or harassment” directed at those who identify as LGBT. The statement reads in part: “All people of goodwill should help, support, and defend LGBT youth; who attempt suicide at much higher rates than their straight counterparts; who are often homeless because of families who reject them; who are rejected, bullied and harassed; and who are the target of violent acts at alarming rates.”