Pope Francis, 88, still has some tricks up his sleeve.
The pontiff has appointed a sharp critic of Donald Trump to be the next archbishop of the nation’s capital—just in time for the president-elect’s return to office.
That cardinal, Robert McElroy, has been a vocal defender of migrants and was publicly critical of Trump during his first term. He famously urged parishioners in 2017 to be disruptors of Trump’s anti-migrant agenda.
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“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,” he said. “We must disrupt those who portray refugees as enemies rather than our brothers and sisters in terrible need.”
McElroy, 70, will soon have the opportunity to deliver similar directives just steps from the Oval Office. McElroy, a native of San Francisco, spent the last decade in San Diego.
Francis’ decision to choose a Trump critic is not coincidental, a church historian from Villanova University told CNN. The pope has opposed Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric over the years, with the most recent instance coming in September when he remarked that he could not endorse Trump or Kamala Harris in good conscience.
“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,″ Francis said at a news conference. “You must choose the lesser evil. Who is the lesser evil? That lady, or that gentleman? I don’t know. Everyone, in conscience, [has to] think and do this.”
Francis, an Argentine, made harsher comments against Trump in 2016. That’s when he told reporters the then-presidential candidate was not a real Christian.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” he said.
Trump has hit back at Pope Francis. He announced on Dec. 20 that his pick to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican was Brian Burch, an outspoken critic of the pope.
Francis had a much cozier relationship with Joe Biden, a devout Catholic who had a relationship with the pope even before he was elected president in 2020. The pope is set to have a farewell meeting with Biden on Friday before he bows out of the White House later this month.
