This article is reprinted with permission of The Triangle Tribune.
RALEIGH – The Black experience from segregation to integration remains near the heart of Wilton Daniel Gregory, the first African American ever elevated to the Roman Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals, the body that elects each pope.
Gregory, also Archbishop of Washington, D.C., was back in Raleigh Nov. 8 at Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, where he served as homilist at the “Mass of the Faithful” celebrating the Diocese of Raleigh’s 100th anniversary. Gregory’s cardinal-specific red cassock was accented by a bishop’s pectoral cross, this custom-made version in the red, black and green colors aligned with African American heritage.
"He's the same man I knew all those years ago,” said Father John Durbin, a diocesan priest and pastor of Saint Andrew the Apostle Parish (Apex), who first met Gregory while undertaking seminary studies in Rome. “He has a great sense of humor. He's a wonderful, loving shepherd.”
Gregory’s latest visit to Raleigh during African American Catholics History Month was one of thanksgiving. Eucharist – the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ shared during Mass – means “thanksgiving.” Gregory was elevated to the College of Cardinals two days after Thanksgiving Day in 2020. His relationship with the diocese includes his time as Archbishop of Atlanta (2005-19), the metropolitan province that includes Raleigh.
"The faith that we have and that we love can only be passed on actively,” Gregory said after Mass. “Catholics don't just pass on their faith by having Catholic babies. They pass on their faith by being engaged in the mission of the Church. That's what evangelization is."
Gregory praised the Diocese of Raleigh for its evangelization leadership, specifically in school integration when the idea was unpopular. Cardinal Gibbons High School (formerly Cathedral Latin) was North Carolina’s first integrated high school in 1954. "You've got a strong foundation of faith, and leadership, too,” he said. Raleigh Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama, who presided at the Nov. 8 Mass, was among Gregory’s auxiliary bishops in Atlanta.
Gregory’s personal thanksgiving to Raleigh is affirmed by his own journey that follows the footsteps of two diocesan priests: Monsignor Thomas Paul Hadden (died 2012) and Bishop Joseph Lawson Howze (d. 2019). Gregory, like Hadden and Howze, is a convert to Catholicism. Hadden graduated from Saint Monica Catholic School, which served Raleigh’s Black Catholics during segregation, before he became the first African American student to graduate from the Pontifical North American College in Rome, the city where he was ordained. Howze was the first Black priest ordained on the Diocese of Raleigh’s soil.
"Those wonderful men,” Gregory said of Hadden and Howze, “they grew because (previous Raleigh Bishop Vincent Stanislaus Waters) planted well, and he watered well." A tear flowed from Gregory’s eye and his voice wavered as he contemplated the legacies of those who paved his journey.
Gregory was ordained a priest in his native Archdiocese of Chicago on May 9, 1973. Howze’s ordination was May 7, 1959. In 1973, Hadden became the first Black rector of a U.S. Catholic cathedral, and Howze was consecrated an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi.
Hadden served Raleigh’s then Sacred Heart Cathedral until 1983 – the same year Gregory was consecrated an auxiliary bishop of Chicago. Gregory’s Dec. 13 consecration came one week before Hadden’s 25th anniversary of priesthood ordination on Dec. 20.
“Even the challenges that you have faced have rendered you even more resilient and faithful,” Gregory told the assembly of the diocese’s perseverance.
Gregory’s emotion was shared by Vicki Hewitt-McNeil, a previous member of Saint Monica Parish and student at the school. “I never thought I'd see this happen – for any African American to become a cardinal – and I'm here,” Hewitt-McNeil said after attending the Nov. 8 Mass. “All of them (Gregory, Hadden and Howze) have been through their own struggles. If they didn't have each other, they would have never been recognized for their abilities, leadership and contributions."
Gregory will turn 77 on Dec. 7. As prescribed by Canon Law, he submitted his letter of resignation as Archbishop of Washington on his 75th birthday. Pope Francis has not named his successor. Gregory will be eligible to vote in an election of a new pope until his 80th birthday.
"I'm still plugging along,” he said.