WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Catholics turned out for a protest against the installation of Cardinal Robert McElroy as the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
LifeSiteNews journalist Doug Mainwaring covered the protest, which took place outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on March 11, just prior to the Mass installing McElroy to lead the Archdiocese of Washington. Mainwaring appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room to speak about the protest:
The stated purposes of the protest were twofold: 1) to ask Vice President JD Vance to open a RICO investigation into the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB’s) use of $100 million to resettle migrants and refugees, and 2) to criticize McElroy for allegedly covering up abuses by ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Among the protesters was Rachel Mastrogiacomo, a survivor of ritual sexual abuse perpetrated by then-Fr. Jacob Bertrand, formerly incardinated in the Diocese of San Diego, where McElroy was previously bishop.
Pope Francis appointed McElroy to lead the Archdiocese of Washington in January after accepting the resignation of Cardinal Wilton Gregory. McElroy has a history of making statements and supporting causes that contradict Catholic teaching.
The prelate has issued calls to admit the divorced and “remarried,” and people actively engaged in homosexual lifestyles, to receive Holy Communion. McElroy has staunchly opposed Church teaching on the “intrinsically disordered” nature of homosexual activity, decrying the Catechism of the Catholic Church as employing “very destructive language” on the issue.
