Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy as Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Sister Simona Brambilla, an Italian Consolata missionary, as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

President Biden has canceled his upcoming trip to Italy, including an audience with Pope Francis, to “remain focused on directing the full federal response” in the wake of the devastating wildfires raging in California.

“Today we know how to turn our eyes toward Mars or virtual worlds, but we struggle to look into the eyes of a child who has been left on the margins and is being exploited and abused,” the pope said at his general audience Jan. 8.

Pope Francis today named Cardinal Robert McElroy as the archbishop of Washington, tapping one of his most like-minded allies to head the Catholic Church in the U.S. capital at the start of Donald Trump’s second administration.

In a groundbreaking decision, Pope Francis has appointed the Italian missionary nun, Simona Brambilla, M.C., as prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Pope Francis has appointed San Diego’s Cardinal Robert W. McElroy—seen in Rome as one of the intellectual heavyweights in the U.S. hierarchy—as the new archbishop of Washington D.C.