Rocco whispered the news of San Diego’s new bishop some hours before it became official. Robert McElroy has five academic degrees. Most recently he has been an auxiliary bishop and a parish pastor. Brief profile here, where he has written in the past.
The Temple Police are unimpressed, questioning the man’s Catholicity here, for example. Rorate Caeli has the bead on the situation with their complaint:
To no one’s surprise and a day after the news had been leaked to the “correct” blogs and websites …
Is that the problem? Self-styled “faithful” Catholic blogs are out of the loop. The way they talk about bishops, is it any wonder that the nice guys of the blogosphere are getting the juicy scoops? Sure, the pewsitters are going to get the news two days before Roman noon … just to pile up the research and the snipery. I think not.
Bishop McElroy is from frequent commenter Jimmy Mac’s neighborhood, the City by the Bay. Ever met the guy?
What I wonder about new bishops: how well do they preach? Can they sing? The main liturgical questions.
Catholic Sensibility 
Well, David Clohessy is not a fan, either, and he’s been amplifying on statements made in 2010 when McElroy was made auxiliary in SFO
http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2010_statements/070610_snap_responds_to_new_bay_area_catholic_bishop.htm
I observe that the margin of error has narrowed not only for bishops, but for just about everybody these days. A more prudent course for SNAP would be to continue a vigilance to which we all know they’re committed. That could be done from inside a bishop’s circle of trust. Professional women and men are not readily inclined to listen to every special interest group that pops up wanting attention when they’re new on the job.
I wonder why SNAP was focusing on McElroy’s statements as a bishop? Much more interesting is him serving as the secretary to Archbishop John Quinn, the progressive bishops’ brain trust, and later serving as Vicar General under Archbishops Quinn and Levada in a time when some clerical scandals came to light.
I’m not the biggest fan of Bishop McElroy for reasons that have nothing to do with theology, but I actually don’t know what he’s going to be like as an ordinary. For what it’s worth, I would expect him to be about as middle of the road (based on a spectrum of the Petersburg nutso Lynch on the left to Cardinal Burke on the right) as one could be. That’s a little too progressive by my lights, but I’m not expecting Che Guevara shirts and rainbow-colored clerics to suddenly be in-style for the San Diego priests.
Also missing from the stories is that this man is a physical giant. One always knows when he’s in the room.
San Diego has gained twice: they have “lost” Abp Cordileone (the tears of sadness continue to this day) and that are gaining a very pastoral bishop in the person of Robert McElroy. I was at a mass at my fomer parish at which he presided and preached. One could not have asked for a better experience.