Wilton Gregory was born on December 7, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, to Ethel (née Duncan) and Wilton Gregory.[2] One of three children, he has two sisters: Elaine and Claudia.[3] Gregory's parents divorced when he was young, and his grandmother, Etta Mae Duncan, subsequently moved in with the family at their home on the South Side of Chicago.[4]
In 1958, Gregory was enrolled at St. Carthage Grammar School, a parochial school in Chicago. He later said that he decided then to become a priest, even though he wasn't a Catholic.[3] Gregory was baptized and received his first communion in 1959, and was confirmed by Bishop Raymond P. Hillinger later that year.[3]
At age 25, Gregory was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Chicago on May 9, 1973.[5][6] 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.[6] He completed his Doctor of Sacred Liturgy degree (SLD) there in 1980.
On December 29, 1993, John Paul II appointed Gregory as the seventh bishop of Belleville;[8] he was installed on February 10, 1994.
In 1998, Gregory was elected as USCCB vice president and as the chair of several committees.[9] Three years later, in 2001, he was elected as USCCB president, just the second African-American to head an episcopal conference.[10] During Gregory's presidency, the USCCB issued the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" in response to sex abuse cases by clergy. His term as USCCB president ended in 2004.
John Paul II named Gregory as the seventh archbishop of Atlanta on December 9, 2004.[12] His installation took place on January 17, 2005.[13] 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.[14]
Gregory has been active in the church in advocating for the prevention of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy and religious, and for implementing policies to protect the faithful from sexual abuse.[4] He has been one of the leading bishops in the United States regarding this endeavor.[4]Gregory wrote a bi-weekly column for the archdiocesan newspaper, The Georgia Bulletin entitled "What I have seen and heard".[15] In it, he regularly shared reflections about his faith, work, and experiences.[15]
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.[16] The archdiocese designed the residence to also serve as a banquet and conference facility.[17][a] In March and April 2014, Gregory apologized to parishioners of the archdiocese, saying that he had
"failed to consider the impact on the families throughout the Archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages, utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services".
Gregory ordered the archdiocese to sell the residence after living there only three month.[17][22][23] In November 2014, the archdiocese sold the property for $2.6 million and Gregory moved into a $440,000 home in Smyrna, Georgia.[24] At a 2017 conference at Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts, Gregory called Pope Francis's 2016 apostolic exhortationAmoris laetitia, on the pastoral love of families, as a;
"...document that recognizes the real and serious problems and challenges facing families today, but at the same time it is a proclamation of hope through the mercy and grace of God."
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."[25] 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. Grasz served there as a spiritual advisor to victims of sexual abuse.[26] Gregory refused to remove him, saying,
"Msgr. Gracz is following the admonition of Pope Francis to accompany people on the periphery of society. His priestly heart is not closed to those who find themselves misunderstood or rejected."[26]
Archbishop of Washington
On April 4, 2019, Pope Francis named Gregory as archbishop of Washington.[27][28] He was installed on May 21, 2019.[29][30] 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."[31]
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. Along with other religious leaders, Gregory immediately condemned the visit, saying,
"I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree… Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace."[32][33][34][35][36]
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.[37]
In September 2020, Francis appointed Gregory to serve as the apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Saint Thomas, a suffragan diocese of Washington.[38] 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.[39] These restrictions upset some Catholics who had become attached to the Extraordinary Form.[40][41]
Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Archbishop of Washington on 6 January 2025, and named Robert McElroy to succeed him.[42]
After the November 2020 US election of Joe Biden as president, Gregory emphasized the need to "engage and dialogue" with the new administration. He noted a "clear divergence of opinions" with Biden on abortion rights for women, but a closer alignment of views with him on the "respect for the dignity of our immigrant community"; on an "...end to capital punishment"; and "...the pursuit of racial and social justice."[49]
Gregory said he was "not going to veer" from the long-established practice of allowing Biden, a Catholic, to receive the eucharist.[50] When asked why, Gregory said, "I don't want to go to the table with a gun on the table first."[51]
Gun control
Gregory spoke out against the 2014 Safe Carry Protection Act, passed by the Georgia General Assembly.[52][53][54] The new law permitted licensed gun owners to carry guns in churches and other public places.[53][55][56] After the law passed, Gregory stated he would not allow guns in archdiocesan churches, except for those required by the military and police.[54][52][55] He stated that guns in churches placed vulnerable individuals, such as children, the disabled, and the elderly, at risk.[52][55] Furthermore, guns in church contravened Jesus' teachings of peace,
"Rather than make guns more available as a solution, we need leaders in government and society who will speak against violence in all aspects of life and who teach ways of reconciliation and peace and who make justice, not vengeance, our goal."[52][55][57]
LGBTQ relations
In 2003, Gregory criticized the 2003 US Supreme Court decision on Lawrence v. Texas that laws criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults were unconstitutional.[58] When asked in 2019 by a transgender person about whether the Catholic Church had a place for them, Gregory responded:
"You belong to the heart of this Church. And there is nothing that you may do, may say, that will ever rip you from the heart of this Church. There is a lot that has been said to you, about you, behind your back, that is painful and is sinful. And so that’s why I mentioned my conversations with Fortunate Families. We have to find a way to talk to one another. And to talk to one another, not just from one perspective, but to talk and to listen to one another. I think that’s the way that Jesus ministered. He engaged people, he took them where they were at, and He invited them to go deeper, closer to God. So if you’re asking me where do you fit? You fit in the family."[59]
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."[60]
The Archdiocese of Chicago is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church located in Northeastern Illinois, in the United States. The Vatican erected it as a diocese in 1843 and elevated it to an archdiocese in 1880. Chicago is the see city for the archdiocese.
Francis Eugene George was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the eighth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago in Illinois (1997–2014) and previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Yakima in Washington State and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC), it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States and the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Archdiocese of Washington is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church for the District of Columbia and several Maryland counties in the United States.
The Archdiocese of Atlanta is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northern Georgia in United States. The archdiocese is led by a prelate archbishop, who also serves as pastor of the mother church, the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta. As of 2023, the archbishop of Atlanta is Gregory Hartmayer.
John Francis Donoghue was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte in North Carolina from 1984 to 1993 and as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta in Georgia from 1993 to 2004.
Donald William Wuerl is an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Washington from 2006 to 2018. He previously served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle and Bishop of Pittsburgh. Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal in 2010.
William Edward Lori is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as the 16th archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Maryland since 2012.
Edward Kenneth Braxton is an American Catholic prelate who served Bishop of Belleville from 2005 to 2020. Braxton previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis from 1995 to 2000 and Bishop of Lake Charles from 2000 to 2005.
Blase Joseph Cupich is an American prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal who serves as archbishop of the Latin Church Archdiocese of Chicago in Illinois.
Mitchell Thomas Rozanski is an American Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of St. Louis since 2020. He previously served as Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts from 2014 to 2020 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 2004 to 2014.
Luis Rafael Zarama Pasqualetto is a Colombian-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as the bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh in North Carolina since 2017. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta from 2009 to 2017
Robert Walter McElroy is an American Catholic prelate who was elevated to the cardinalate by Pope Francis in 2022 and was also appointed as Archbishop of Washington in 2025. He has served as the Bishop of San Diego since 2015 and continues in that position until his installation as the Archbishop of Washington, which is scheduled for March 11, 2025.
Gregory John Hartmayer, O.F.M. Conv. is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A Conventual Friar Minor, he serves as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta in Georgia, having returned to the archdiocese where he worked from 1995 to 2011. From 2011 to 2020, Hartmayer served as bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia.
David Prescott Talley is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, serving as bishop of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee since 2019.
Bernard Edward "Ned" Shlesinger III is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was appointed as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta in Georgia in 2017.
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1 2 3 Bennett Kinnon, Joy (December 1, 2002). "Bishop Gregory: Powerful Black Bishop Helps Catholic Church Confront Sexual Abuse Problems and a New World". Ebony.
↑ Gregory, Wilton D. (May 1, 2014). Viewpoints: What I have seen and heard: Decrying the state's new gun law. The Georgia Bulletin. Smyrna, Georgia: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta.
↑ "Conference President Criticizes Supreme Court Decision | USCCB". www.usccb.org. June 23, 2003. Retrieved January 10, 2023. Respect for the purpose of human sexuality and the family needs to be reaffirmed in our society; and anything which reduces respect for them—such as yesterday's Supreme Court decision—is to be deplored.
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