SALUTE TO WILTON CARDINAL GREGORY. ARCHBISHOP OF WASHINGTON. D.C.
WHEREAS, on November 28, 2020 during a consistory convened at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, His Holiness, Pope Francis elevated 13 bishops and priests to the College of Cardinals; and
WHEREAS, among those so elevated was a son of this city's Englewood neighborhood and the first African American to be designated to the highest conclave within the Roman Catholic church. The Archbishop of Washington, D.C. will now and forever be addressed as His Eminence, Wilton Cardinal Gregory; and
WHEREAS, Cardinal Gregory's family and friends called him "Butch" when he was raised by his mother and grandmother with his two younger sisters in an apartment on East 71st Street and attended St. Carthage Catholic School just down the block. In those days, Englewood was a diverse community, exposing the future prelate to people of African-American, Jewish, Polish, German, Irish, and Asian descent in his formative years; and
WHEREAS, Cardinal Gregory was baptized into the Roman Catholic faith at 11 years of age. It was his grandmother, Etta Mae Duncan, who envisioned the value of a parochial school education. She made a deal with the pastor of St. Carthage parish that she would clean the rectory and do the laundry in lieu of tuition for her three grandchildren.; and
WHEREAS, it was the social views and religious examples of Monsignor John Hayes and Father Gerard Weber, the pastor and priest of St. Carthage, along with the nuns at the school, that set Cardinal Gregory's feet upon the path toward priesthood. He matriculated to Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, then Niles College of Loyola University and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary before earning his doctorate in sacred liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute (Sant' Anselmo) in Rome in 1980; and
WHEREAS, Cardinal Gregory was ordained a priest on May 9, 1973, by John Cardinal Cody and served as associate pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in suburban Glenview. Ten years later, Joseph Cardinal Bernadin appointed him auxiliary bishop. He became the Bishop of the Bellville, Illinois appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1993 and Pope Francis named him archbishop of Washington, D.C. on April 4, 2019; and
WHEREAS, among his many leadership positions he has held and accolades he has been awarded, Cardinal Gregory was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2001. In 2006, he was inducted into Morehouse College's Martin Luther King Board of Preachers and honored that same year with the Cardinal Bernardin Award from the Catholic Common Ground Initiative; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable Roderick Sawyer, Alderman of the 6* Ward, has informed this august body of the unique and high honor that has been bestowed on this exemplary spiritual leader and native son; now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED That we, the Mayor and members of the City of Chicago City Council, gathered together this 16th Day of December, 2020 AD, salute the elevation of His Eminence Wilton Cardinal Gregory and wish him every success in his holy office.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED That suitable copies of this resolution be prepared and presented to Wilton Cardinal Gregory and his family.
RODERICK T. SAWYER Alderman - 6th Ward