(OSV News) ─ Last year Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory became the first African American to participate in a papal conclave, which eventually elected Pope Leo XIV.
While there have been African cardinals from the earliest days of the Church, Cardinal Gregory is the first U.S. citizen of African descent to wear the red cassock.
The history-making prelate will concelebrate and preach at the Diocese of Phoenix's annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mass Jan. 17 at Xavier College Preparatory High School's Chapel of Our Lady in central Phoenix.
Following the Mass, the diocese's Black Catholic Ministry will host the MLK Service Awards and Prayer Breakfast, recognizing students who have found ways to embody Rev. King's legacy of justice, compassion and service in today's world. Cardinal Gregory will also celebrate Mass the next morning at St. Josephine Bakhita Mission Parish in Phoenix -- the diocese's personal parish for Black Catholics.
MLK Day is Jan. 19 this year. The U.S. federal holiday is celebrated on the third Monday of January, honoring the civil rights leader's life and achievements.
Cardinal Gregory, the retired archbishop of Washington, has had several firsts as an African American, including the first to be named a cardinal and first to serve as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. His tenure as USCCB president (2001-2004), when he was the bishop of Belleville, Illinois, came during one of the most difficult periods in the American Church's history when the sex abuse crisis rocked the nation.
In the history of the Church in the U.S., there have been 29 black bishops but only four archbishops, including Cardinal Gregory, who was Atlanta's archbishop (2005-2019) before being appointed archbishop of Washington on April 4, 2019. Pope Francis named him a cardinal on Nov. 28, 2020.
"Each one of these 'firsts' has allowed me to realize how graced I have been and also the need for me to leave a heritage that makes my people proud so that whoever might be next in those same offices will have an example in which to take pride and to expand upon in achieving even more significant contributions to our Church and society," Cardinal Gregory told The Catholic Sun, Phoenix's diocesan news outlet.
"One comment that I have repeatedly heard, especially since becoming a cardinal and that still manages to bring me to tears is: 'Honey, I never thought that I would live to see the day!'" added the prelate, who turned 78 Dec. 7.
As a young man in Chicago, the future cardinal was among 35,000 people to see Rev. King speak at the Chicago Freedom Movement rally July 10, 1966, at Soldiers' Field.
Ordained as a Baptist minister, the Civil Rights leader was well-versed in the church fathers, quoting St. Augustine in his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail," asserting that "an unjust law is no law at all."
He famously locked arms with leaders of many faiths, including Catholic priests and religious sisters, when peacefully marching for the rights of all. Following an audience with St. Paul VI in 1964, Rev. King referred to the pope as "a friend of the Negro people."
Rev. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his nonviolent struggle "for civil rights for the Afro-American population." Cardinal Gregory referred to this use of nonviolence as a "positive and effective response to oppression everywhere."
"Dr. King, although he was not himself a Catholic, lived Catholic social justice morality in an extraordinary fashion. He was saintly in the way that he followed the Gospel mandates to love one another as Christ has loved us," reflected the cardinal.
Cardinal Gregory noted that some of those who are not Catholic can still be counted among the saints in heaven, referencing Eucharistic Prayer IV: "Remember also those who have died in the peace of your Christ and all the dead whose faith you alone have known."
While he never met Rev. King, Cardinal Gregory did have the opportunity to meet his widow, Coretta Scott King, on multiple occasions during his ecclesiastical career.
When he was ordained as an auxiliary bishop of Chicago in 1983, she attended as a guest of then-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. When he became archbishop of Atlanta -- where the King family still lives -- the prelate met her when participating in celebrations honoring the slain Civil Rights leader.
"Several of these encounters would have taken place at the Ebenezer Church in Atlanta during the annual observance of Dr. King's January Commemoration," he recalled. "I was privileged to be invited to Coretta's funeral services."
Throughout his life, Cardinal Gregory has experienced the sting of racism, even within the Catholic Church. People today often engage in discriminatory behavior even if they aren't intending to, he noted.
"They might say things that suggest that they are surprised when people of color exhibit gifts that they might not have thought that we could even possess," the cardinal said. "I have had people tell me that they were surprised that I spoke so clearly and distinctly. What did they expect?"
While there are many examples of individuals who have modeled racial healing and harmony, including those of different faiths or no faith at all, religious faith in itself should be enough motivation to live justly, Cardinal Gregory said.
"That is why examples of bigotry in the behavior of those who claim a religious heritage is an amplified source of scandal and shame," he said.
Sister Thea Bowman's address to the U.S. bishops in Newark, New Jersey, in June 1989 "describes eloquently how the Catholic Church must throw open our doors and hearts to cherish and embrace the many cultures and gifts that people of color have to offer to the entire Church," he reflected.
Sister Thea, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, was nationally known as a dynamic evangelist before she died of cancer in 1990. As a candidate for sainthood, she has the title "Servant of God" and is among seven Black Catholics with active sainthood causes ─ dubbed the "Saintly Seven."
Evangelization means to be open to welcoming people as they are in order to introduce them to Christ, Cardinal Gregory said. One of the biggest challenges to this is inviting people to bring their own gifts to the Church.
"We have not done this perfectly throughout the centuries. A sad sign of racism is the attitude that one must 'become like me' in order to fit within the Church," he said. "If that were the case, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific lands would never be received and welcomed. It is the obstacle that too often prevents people of color to feel at home within the Church."
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit called the Church to welcome people from throughout the world and to spread the good news of the Gospel to all corners of the earth. This is still a challenge today, the cardinal said, exhorting the Church to "welcome the stranger."
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Tony Gutiérrez writes for The Catholic Sun, the news outlet of the Diocese of Phoenix. This story was originally published by The Catholic Sun and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.
