Robert McElroy, bishop of San Diego, California, since 2015, was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2022. He wrote The Search for an American Public Theology: The Contribution of John Courtney Murray (Paulist Press, 1989) and Morality and American Foreign Policy: The Role of Ethics in International Affairs (Princeton University Press, 1992).
The nature of the synodal assembly — bishops, laywomen and men, religious, priests and deacons, with the pope, dialoguing and voting equally — highlights that we all are journeying together, says Cardinal Robert McElroy.
Commentary: The very notion of dialogue has atrophied throughout our American culture, as partisan, racial, economic and ideological divisions have undermined civility and the basic proposition that we can learn from a dialogue with those with whom we disagree.
We live in a real world that confronts us with limited choices in this political season. Discernment must begin with an evaluation of the principles of Catholic social teaching applied to the current historical moment.
It is primarily through the votes of Catholic women and men, rooted in conscience and in faith that the Church enters into the just ordering of society and the state.
It is my reluctant conclusion that the church in the United States is now adrift on many levels, and that a fundamental moment of renewal is needed. A synodal pathway would an opportunity to set that type of renewal in motion.
