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. At 35, he was the youngest bishop in the country. 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. 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. In 2002, in recognition of Gregory's handling of the
sex abuse scandal,
Time Magazine chose him as a Person of the Week.
Archbishop of Atlanta as 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. Gregory was active in the church in advocating for the prevention of
child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and religious, and for implementing policies to protect the faithful from sexual abuse. In it, he regularly shared reflections about his faith, work, and experiences. The archdiocese designed the residence to also serve as a banquet and conference facility. 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 months. In November 2014, the archdiocese sold the property for $2.6 million and Gregory moved into a $440,000 home in
Smyrna, Georgia. At a 2017 conference at
Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts, Gregory called
Pope Francis's 2016
apostolic exhortation Amoris 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." 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. 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.
Archbishop of Washington On April 4, 2019, Pope Francis named Gregory as archbishop of
Washington.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. 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 Washington, D.C. (2019) 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 Vice President Joe Biden's inauguration as president. Like his predecessors, as archbishop of Washington, Gregory served 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 three locations. He also 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 Gregory's resignation as archbishop of Washington on January 6, 2025, and named Cardinal
Robert McElroy from the
Diocese of San Diego to succeed him.
Elevation to cardinal (2019). 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 in Rome. Gregory became the first African-American cardinal in history. In December 2020, Francis named Gregory as a member of the
Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life at the Vatican. Gregory participated as a
cardinal elector in the
2025 papal conclave that elected
Pope Leo XIV. == Viewpoints ==