Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Archdiocese of Washington expressed concerns about increasing political polarization in the United States and urged Americans to remember “that which binds us together as a people.”
Cardinal McElroy made the comments at the University of Notre Dame Oct. 17. He spoke with University President Father. Robert Dowd in a conversation titled “Healing Our National Dialogue and Political Life.” The event was part of the university’s 2025-26 Forum on the theme “Cultivating Hope.” Cardinal McElroy holds doctorates in sacred theology and political science.
“The conflict between the two parties has done, I think, terrible damage to us,” Cardinal McElroy said, and noted that a “notion of warfare, of tribalism has seeped into us” when discussing political disagreements.
A person’s political beliefs, the cardinal explained, “has become shorthand now for worldview in the views of many, many people,” which he warned “is a very damaging development in our society” because it moves Americans away from focusing on a “shared purpose and meaning” when crafting political solutions.
The United States, Cardinal McElroy said, is not bound by blood or ethnicity, but rather “bound together by the aspirations of our founders.”
“What binds us is the aspirations of freedom, human dignity, care for all, the rights of all, the empowerment of all, democratic rights,” he said. “We’re proud to be Americans because of what our country aspires to be and to do.”
Cardinal McElroy said, “much of this needs to take place at the parish level” to facilitate dialogue among those who disagree with each other and argued that the founders “believed on a very deep level (that the country) could only succeed if religion flourished.”
“They believed that only religion could genuinely bring from the human heart a sense of the willingness to look past self-interest or group interest to a wider sense of what the common good is,” Cardinal McElroy said.
“So, for that reason, they thought religion was essential, not as a direct force in politics, certainly, or governance, but rather in contributing to the human heart and in the understanding of the issues that come forth,” he added.
Although Cardinal McElroy said the church does not have a specific political role, he said it does have “a moral role within the political and public order,” which “needs to be rooted in the moral understanding.” If a political question has a moral component, the cardinal said, “the church contributes to the public debate.”
“It speaks not in terms of the politics — or it should not speak in terms of the politics — but rather solely the moral questions involved,” Cardinal McElroy said.
Cardinal McElroy was appointed in January of this year by Pope Francis to serve as the archbishop of the nation’s capital and assumed the position March 11. He succeeded Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who retired.
In his installation Mass, Cardinal McElroy emphasized the importance of respecting the human dignity of all people, particularly the unborn, migrants, and the poor.
