Gregory vows to serve the truth

“I believe that the only way I can serve the local archdiocese is by telling you the truth,” Archbishop Wilton Gregory told his new flock at a press conference last weekend when he was introduced as the next Archbishop of Washington, D.C., writes Michael Sean Winters. He said this was “a moment fraught with challenges,” mindful that his immediate predecessor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, had resigned amid controversy over his handling of clergy sex abuse allegations in the 1990s, while the previous archbishop was the former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now removed from the clerical state.

Speaking of the unique challenges of leading a church in the nation’s capital, but in which some neighbourhoods remain mired in poverty, Gregory said: “The Archdiocese of Washington is home to the poor and the powerful, neither of which realises they are both.”

The next day, Gregory toured various ministries of the archdiocese, starting at the Catholic Charities agency, where he toured the chapel and visited volunteers who serve the poor. The archbishop then went to a Catholic elementary school where a second-grader asked what his favourite film was. “I love The Wizard of Oz,” Gregory replied.

Almost half the 228 students at the school benefit from a voucher programme that provides tuition assistance to poor families.