Updated

Pope Francis has selected a native Californian and history scholar to serve as bishop of San Diego.

The Vatican said Tuesday that his selection, Monsignor Robert McElroy, has been serving as an auxiliary bishop in San Francisco since 2010.

McElroy, 61, earned history degrees at Harvard University and Stanford University. He also studied at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and later obtained doctorates in moral theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and in political science at Stanford.