Exactly two weeks before Donald Trump began his second term as president, Pope Francis appointed one of the Catholic Church’s most progressive voices as the new Archbishop of Washington. Was it a provocation?

Absolutely not, say Vatican insiders. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be fireworks in the future.

A Trump critic, Cardinal Robert McElroy, 70, was formally introduced in St. Matthew’s Cathedral as Washington’s new archbishop on Jan. 6. 

McElroy came to the job from rights California, where he had emerged as a leading Catholic voice championing the rights of refugees and migrants, confronting climate change, and issues related to LGBTQ communities.