SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego is scheduled for a coronary bypass surgery on Monday. He is expected to make a full recovery, though he will not return to work until after Christmas.

“I have great confidence in the medical staff who are carrying out this operation and, generally, patients are able to return to work in about four weeks,” he told the diocese’s priests in a letter.

“Of course, God will be in charge of all this,” he added.

The 67-year-old bishop began discussing the possible surgery with doctors after he received results from medical tests over the summer, the diocese said in a statement on Friday.

Bishop McElroy was born in San Francisco and ordained a priest there in 1980. He served as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of San Francisco from 2010 to 2015, when he was named Bishop of San Diego.

He is currently president of the California Catholic Conference and a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

His predecessor in San Diego, Bishop Cirilo Flores, died in September 2014 at the age of 66 after only one year in office. Flores had suffered a stroke and was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.