Wilton Daniel Gregory facts for kids
Quick facts for kids His Eminence Wilton Daniel Gregory |
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| Cardinal, Archbishop emeritus of Washington |
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Cardinal Gregory in 2024
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| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese | Washington |
| See | Washington |
| Appointed | April 4, 2019 |
| Enthroned | May 21, 2019 |
| Predecessor | Donald William Wuerl |
| Successor | Robert W. McElroy |
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| Orders | |
| Ordination | May 9, 1973 |
| Consecration | December 13, 1983 by Joseph Bernardin |
| Created Cardinal | November 28, 2020 |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Wilton Daniel Gregory |
| Born | December 7, 1947 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Denomination | Catholic (Latin Church) |
| Residence | Washington, D.C., US |
| Parents | Ethel Duncan Wilton Gregory, Sr. |
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| Alma mater |
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| Motto | We are the Lord's |
| Styles of Wilton Daniel Gregory |
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| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
Wilton Daniel Gregory (born December 7, 1947) is an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Washington from 2019 to 2025. Pope Francis made him a cardinal in 2020, the first of African-American descent.
Gregory previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1983 to 1994; as Bishop of Belleville from 1994 to 2004; and as Archbishop of Atlanta from 2005 to 2019.
Gregory was the first African-American president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from 2001 to 2004. .....
Contents
Early life and education
Wilton Daniel Gregory was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ethel (née Duncan) and Wilton Gregory. One of three children, he has two sisters: Elaine and Claudia. Gregory's parents divorced when he was quite young, and his grandmother, Etta Mae Duncan, subsequently moved in with the family at their home on the South Side. In 1958, he was enrolled at St. Carthage Grammar School, where he decided to become a priest even before he converted to Catholicism. He was baptized and received his First Communion in 1959, and was confirmed by Bishop Raymond P. Hillinger later that year.
After graduating from St. Carthage in 1961, he attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary South and Niles College in Chicago, and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein. After ordination, he completed a doctorate in sacred liturgy (SLD) at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute at the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome.
Ordination and ministry
At age 25, Gregory was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Chicago on May 9, 1973. After his ordination, the archdiocese assigned him as an associate pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Glenview. In 1976, the archdiocese sent Gregory to Rome began graduate studies at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm. He completed his Doctor of Sacred Liturgy degree (SLD) there in 1980.
After returning to Illinois, Gregory was assigned to teach liturgy at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary. He also served as a master of ceremonies under Cardinals John Cody and Joseph Bernardin.
Episcopal ministry
Auxiliary bishop of Chicago
On October 31, 1983, Gregory was appointed by Pope John Paul II as an auxiliary bishop of Chicago and Titular bishop of Oliva. Gregory received his episcopal consecration on December 13, 1983, from Bernardin, with Bishops Alfred Abramowicz and Nevin Hayes serving as co-consecrators.
Bishop of Belleville
On December 29, 1993, John Paul II appointed Gregory as the seventh bishop of Belleville; he was installed on February 10, 1994.
In 1998, Gregory was elected as USCCB vice president and as the chair of several committees. Three years later, in 2001, he was elected as USCCB president, just the second African-American to head an episcopal conference. ..... His term as USCCB president ended in 2004.
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Archbishop of Atlanta
John Paul II named Gregory as the seventh archbishop of Atlanta on December 9, 2004. His installation took place on January 17, 2005. He was the third African-American archbishop in the United States; the first two men, Eugene A. Marino and James P. Lyke, were also archbishops of Atlanta.
..... He has been one of the leading bishops in the United States regarding this endeavor.Gregory wrote a bi-weekly column for the archdiocesan newspaper, The Georgia Bulletin entitled "What I have seen and heard". In it, he regularly shared reflections about his faith, work, and experiences.
In 2014, Gregory was criticized after the archdiocese used $2.2 million from a bequest to build a new archbishop's residence in the Buckhead section of Atlanta on church property. The archdiocese designed the residence to also serve as a banquet and conference facility. Gregory ordered the archdiocese to sell the residence after living there only three month. In November 2014, the archdiocese sold the property for $2.6 million and Gregory moved into a $440,000 home in Smyrna, Georgia. Gregory said that Francis "challenges the church and its pastors to move beyond thinking that everything is black and white, so that we sometimes close off the way of grace and growth."
In 2018, a group of Catholics petitioned Gregory to remove Monsignor Henry Gracz from the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta for allegedly contravening Catholic teaching. .....
Archbishop of Washington
On April 4, 2019, Pope Francis named Gregory as archbishop of Washington. He was installed on May 21, 2019. In an August 2019 interview with Crux Magazine, Gregory criticized rhetoric from President Donald Trump, saying, "I fear that recent public comments by our president and others and the responses they have generated, have deepened divisions and diminished our national life"; he called for an "end" to "the growing plague of offense and disrespect in speech and actions."
In June 2020, Trump visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington. Before the visit, police forcibly dispersed a group of protestors in front of the shrine. During that visit, held to promote an executive order on religious freedom, Trump and his wife Melania Trump stood in front of the statue of John Paul II for a photo opportunity for journalists. The National Catholic Register subsequently reported that the White House had privately invited Gregory to the National Shrine event. Gregory had declined the invitation, citing a prior commitment.
In September 2020, Francis appointed Gregory to serve as the apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Saint Thomas, a suffragan diocese of Washington. Gregory would deliver the invocation at the ceremony memorializing victims of the coronavirus pandemic prior to Biden's inauguration. Like his predecessors, as archbishop of Washington, Gregory serves as the chancellor of Catholic University of America.
Following the release of Traditionis custodes, which severely restricted the use of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, Gregory promulgated new liturgical norms in accordance with the motu proprio. He restricted celebrations of the extraordinary form in the archdiocese, to 3 locations, and prohibited these celebrations during Christmas, the Easter Triduum, Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday, as well as prohibiting the celebration of other sacraments in that form. These restrictions upset some Catholics who had become attached to the Extraordinary Form.
Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Archbishop of Washington on 6 January 2025, and named Robert McElroy to succeed him.
Elevation to cardinal
On October 25, 2020, Francis announced he would raise Gregory to the rank of cardinal at the consistory of November 28, 2020. At that consistory, Francis created him a cardinal-priest, with the titular church of Immacolata Concezione di Maria a Grottarossa. Gregory became the first African-American cardinal from the United States, In December 2020, Francis named Gregory as a member of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life at the Vatican.
Viewpoints
Gun control
Gregory spoke out against the 2014 Safe Carry Protection Act, passed by the Georgia General Assembly. The new law permitted licensed gun owners to carry guns in churches and other public places. After the law passed, Gregory stated he would not allow guns in archdiocesan churches, except for those required by the military and police. He stated that guns in churches placed vulnerable individuals, such as children, the disabled, and the elderly, at risk.
LGBTQ relations
..... In October 2020, Gregory was interviewed in an Associated Press article that noted, "Gregory has drawn notice for his relatively inclusive approach for LGBT Catholics, and said it was essential that they be treated with respect."
Honors
- Honorary doctorates from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Xavier University in Cincinnati, McKendree University, Lewis University, Fontbonne University, Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and Boston College in 2018
- The Great Preacher Award from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2002
- Induction into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 2006
See also
In Spanish: Wilton Daniel Gregory para niños
- Cardinals created by Pope Francis
- Catholic Church hierarchy
- Catholic Church in the United States
- Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
- List of Catholic bishops of the United States
- Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops
