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  Local Sex Abuse Crisis Prepared Gregory for National Stage
He Will Take Lessons, Experience to Atlanta

By Jennifer A. Bowen
News-Democrat [Belleville IL]
January 16, 2005

Bishop Wilton Gregory's tenure as head of the Belleville Catholic Diocese and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was one of compassion, strong convictions and a sense of pastoral care, those who watched him and worked with him say.

When he arrived in Belleville, the diocese was in turmoil over clergy sexual abuse scandals. The scandals on the local level prepared him to address the same scandal nationally as president of the bishops conference.

"Ten years ago he was the perfect person to go in to Belleville and resolve some of the sex abuse issues," said Robert Gilligan, director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois in Chicago. "He is, and was, passionate about those issues and he approached them with strong convictions."

His handling of the Belleville crisis prepared him to face the same issue nationally, and with conviction.

"He handled the sex abuse crisis in Belleville well, and he learned a lot about it before it blew up on the national scene," said the Rev. Tom Reese, an expert on the church hierarchy and editor of the national Catholic publication America Magazine.

"He didn't have to learn the ABCs of the issue because he'd already met with victims, talked with victims, met with experts, and had to deal with the local media on it. It was great preparation for having to deal with the crisis on the national level, and he could speak with confidence and authority, compassion and insight, and that was extremely important for the bishop's conference at the time."

One of his harshest critics, David Clohessy, head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Gregory did better than most bishops when it came to addressing and handling the sex abuse crisis.

In Belleville, Gregory handled the scandal well, Clohessy said, and for that, he deserves credit.

"He did remove priests, and did so publicly. He was honest about the reasons and none of this, 'Father is being treated for depression.' He met with parishioners to explain what was going on," Clohessy said. "For all that, he deserves credit. Could he have done more? Certainly. Did he do better than his colleagues? Absolutely."

He was elected president of the bishops' conference during a difficult time for the church, an indication of his colleagues' high regard for him.

"There's a hierarchy within the hierarchy, and usually that job goes to someone who's an archbishop," said Ronald Modras, a professor of theological studies at St. Louis University.

"The fact that after all the abuse scandals the bureaucrats in the Vatican felt and were admiring enough to promote him to the position of archbishop in Atlanta, that certainly speaks very well and very highly of him.

"During everything that was going on, he did not alienate those people, he did not make the people in the hierarchy angry with him. He did not let them down."

When he was elected president of the conference, the bishop probably didn't think he'd be spending most of his time addressing the scandals, Reese said. But he did.

"It's a tough organization to lead," Reese said. "It's like an association of governors. Everybody is king in their own diocese, and nobody likes to be told what to do. But somebody has to be the leader for some kind of unity on issues, and Gregory was willing to do that, even though he took some flak for some of his decisions."

One decision Gregory made that was viewed as a disaster by the conference was appointing former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating to the Bishops' National Review Board, charged with investigating the clergy sex abuse crisis. In June 2003, Keating stepped down as chairman of the board after he was criticized for his comments comparing the U.S. Catholic hierarchy to the Mafia.

"I think even he would admit that appointment was a disaster," Reese said.

Aside from the sex scandals, Gregory was a respected bishop who was viewed as truly caring for the diocese, the church and the parishioners. He has been described as passionate, modest, approachable and most of all, extremely pastoral in his demeanor.

"He is very approachable, and he has common sense," Modras said. "He really cares for people and has a strong pastoral sensitivity. He is a pastor, and that's one of the things that makes him outstanding."

Many of the things he was passionate about went on behind the scenes and out of the public eye. He was very passionate about, and defended, the religious liberties of Catholics in prison, Gilligan said, and he was concerned about food and nutrition programs for children as well as immigration-related issues, especially the increase of the Hispanic Catholic population.

"He has a very good balance of all aspects of church ministry," Gilligan said. "He's very insightful in terms of his ability to articulate church teaching and how it relates to public policy issues. That's a rare gift. Anyone who's met Bishop Gregory knows -- within five minutes of meeting him -- they know he has a strong sense of passion for his ministry. You know he's a person of faith and strong convictions. He has instant credibility with people because he cares. He's funny, and people can see that."

His promotion to archbishop in Atlanta was not a surprise to most people, Modras said, and it is certainly is a post he worked hard to earn, but he will be missed.

"I know some of us in St. Louis wish he was sent here rather than Atlanta," Modras said. "But I think he will do very well in Atlanta as an archbishop in a larger diocese."

Reese echoed Modras' sentiment.

"He has a very pastoral style," he said. "He comes across not just as a bureaucrat, but as someone who really cares about people and is compassionate. He's sensitive to everybody, not just one group or one faction in a group. He's willing to listen to people, and he's smart. I think the talents he showed off so well in Belleville and on the national scene will be the same ones that will help him do a good job in Atlanta."