About Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory

■ Pope Francis named 13 new cardinals in October, including former Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who is the current archbishop of Washington, D. C.

■Gregory become the first Black U.S. prelate to earn the coveted redhat.

■ He previously was a leader of the Catholics in Atlanta and North Georgia beginning in 2005, moving from the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois. Last year, Francis selected Gregory to lead the prestigious diocese in the U.S. capital.

Background

Wilton Daniel Gregory is72( born Dec. 7,1947). Heis from Chicago andwas ordained a Catholic priest there in1973, according to the Atlanta Catholic website archatl.com. The Atlanta Arch diocese The Atlanta arch diocese covers 69 North Georgia counties, including Athens and all of metro Atlanta. It cover san area with an estimated 1.2 million Catholic sin 103 parish es and missions, according to the church.

Past leader of U. S. bishops

Gregory was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2001- 2004. During his term, in June 2002, the bishops implemented the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” which lays out a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, according to the USC CB website.

It also includes guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and prevention of future acts of abuse.

Catholic church sex abuse cases

Gregory has written and spoken about the church’s response to sex abuse allegations. In August 2018, hewrote an open letter to Atlanta Catholics following a Pennsylvania grand jury report that outlined decades of sexual abuse by priests and cover- upsby church authorities.

All Catholics, he wrote ,“including so many good and generous priests, are rightly angered, confused, and embarrassed by this testimony that the leadership of the church failed to care for our people with compassion and honesty.”