Wilton Gregory new archbishop in Washington

Wilton Gregory has been appointed the new archbishop of Washington.

The piece below is an extract from The National Catholic Reporter.

In the weeks leading up to today's announcement, Rocco Palmo published an NCAA-style bracketwith the different candidates for the vacancy in Washington listed. The list had some errors. 

For example, two names that figured prominently in the discussions, Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas and Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, were not on Rocco's list. But, what caught my eye was something different. All 15 bishops on Rocco's list are identified by their surname except one: Wilton. In fact, as I started to write this column and found myself writing the words "Archbishop Gregory" it seemed odd. I do not know the archbishop well, but in those times when we have been at a conference or a meeting together, everyone calls him as "Wilton." That tells us something about the man.

The new archbishop also has been a leader on Laudato Si', publishing an "action plan" that is the single best resource I have seen published by any diocese in the country. I came across it when the Archdiocese of Boston was using it as the content for a new interactive platform they were launching. 

The guide lists a variety of things people can do, each one denoted "easy" or "moderate" or "advanced." One of the easy items is "Create or expand your library" and the guide recommends books by Passionist Fr Thomas Berry or Franciscan Sr Ilia Delio, or the late Jesuit theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I am not sure those authors would have been included on a list of recommended books in, say, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Archbishop Wilton Gregory will be the first black archbishop of Washington. In 2009, when controversy erupted over the decision by the University of Notre Dame to award an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, unspeakably disrespectful things were said about our nation's first black president. 

Black Catholics, many of them quite conservative, experienced that disrespect in ways it is difficult for white people to grasp. It was deeply painful. 

The appointment of a black archbishop will be a shot in the arm to the black Catholic community in the nation's capital, a city that is historically black and in which black Catholics have long played a vital part. 

And, at a time when our nation is dealing with white nationalism in ways we had thought consigned to the past, Gregory's intelligence, charm and moral rectitude are a standing rebuke to the bigotry that too often drips from the president's lips.

The fact that the new archbishop is already 71 indicates that the new archbishop will have, at most, nine years to accomplish any particular objectives. I do not know if that is enough time to tackle the enormous problems at the Catholic University of America, of which he is now chancellor. 

But, he can make a start. The school's embrace of libertarian economics in its business school and celebration of anti-Francis ideology in its theology department is an embarrassment to the bishops who own the school. Archbishop Wilton does not strike me as the kind of person who warms to confrontation, but I hope that is a side of personality I have simply not witnessed. He will not be able to cajole the school back into sound Catholic teaching, he will have to lay down the law.