Mons.Gregory � il nuovo presidente della Conferenza Episcopale USA, � un attivo oppositore della pena di morte.

NOV. 13/01

U.S. Catholic Bishops Elect Black Leader

By Hanna Rosin

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops elected their first black president yesterday, a milestone for a church growing increasingly ethnic while its leadership has remained almost entirely white.

The election of Bishop Wilton Gregory, 53, of southern Illinois as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops answers a long-standing complaint among Catholic minorities that the American hierarchy talks about social justice but doesn't live it.

"More than a dozen bishops said to me, 'Wilton, this is good for us,' " said a tired and ebullient Gregory yesterday, during the conference's semiannual meeting in Washington. "This is putting our lofty principles into action. It is celebrating that we are a universal church, multiracial, multilingual."

In other ways, Gregory's election upholds recent traditions of the U.S. Catholic Conference. Fellow bishops describe him as temperate, a peacemaker, "a balanced man," said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington. "A man in the center who can reach both sides."

During the reign of Pope John Paul II, the body of American bishops has grown increasingly conservative. But its leadership at the U.S. Catholic Conference, the church's collective voice in America, tends to remain moderate.

Gregory, a Chicago native, is a protege of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the American church's most famous consensus-builder. When Illinois moved its execution chamber from Chicago to a city in Gregory's diocese, he became an active opponent of the death penalty. Three years ago, the bishops elected him vice president over Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis, a high-profile conservative. The vice president is almost always elected president.

Gregory's election is especially notable, given that only 14 of the nation's more than 300 bishops are black. Black Catholics number only about 3 million out of 64 million members nationwide, but the community has a long history in America and is quite active.

Most of the church's recent growth among American minorities has come from Latinos, especially new immigrants. In a generation, Catholic sociologists say, the church in America is expected to be less than half white.

Gregory rose quickly through the ranks of the Catholic clergy. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, he was ordained in 1973 and quickly moved from parish priest to seminary teacher to chair of the liturgy committee at the U.S. Conference.

In 1994, when Gregory was 47, the pope appointed him one of the church's youngest bishops, in charge of 28 counties in southern Illinois. He inherited a diocese where 11 priests had come under investigation for sexual misconduct in two years. Gregory was praised for restoring the diocese's reputation.

He is an expert on liturgy, and his sermons are described as formal. At the same time, he is "easygoing, very approachable," said James Morgason, the vicar general at the Bellevile diocese. "When he celebrates Mass, he is reverent but not distant."

Gregory was a young priest when, in 1979, the U.S. Catholic Conference published its breakthrough paper on racism, "Brothers and Sisters to Us." In it, the bishops examined their own role in promoting discrimination and vowed optimistically to help eradicate racism from American society.

Three years ago, when Gregory was elected vice president, the group acknowledged that "hope in the possibility of achieving that goal has diminished, not only in the church but throughout society," a new paper read. "Sadly, many people of color see the church as a white racist institution."

In the tight community of black Catholics, Gregory is known for his creative efforts at bridging that gap through enculturation. He has worked to blend gospel music and "a more emotional style of worship" with Catholic liturgy, said Diana Hayes, one of only six black Catholic theologians in America.

"The question has always been: 'Are they authentically Catholic? Are they really black?' " said Hayes, who teaches at Georgetown University. "His election is saying not only do we affirm you, but you are vital to our church."

Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., was elected vice president, which puts him in line for the presidency in 2004.