SR0143 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0143 LRB102 12648 ECR 17987 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Archbishop Wilton Daniel Gregory was born in Chicago in 1947; he attended St. Carthage Grammar School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, Niles College of Loyola University, and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary; and

WHEREAS, Archbishop Wilton Gregory was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1973 and later returned to Illinois after earning a doctorate in sacred liturgy in Rome; and

WHEREAS, Archbishop Wilton Gregory served as an associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Glenview, as a faculty member of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, Archbishop Wilton Gregory served as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Belleville for 11 years; and

WHEREAS, From 2001 to 2004, Archbishop Wilton Gregory served as the first African American president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; he also implemented the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People; and

WHEREAS, In 2006, Archbishop Wilton Gregory was inducted into the Martin Luther King Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta; and

WHEREAS, From 2005 to 2019, Archbishop Wilton Gregory served as the archbishop of Atlanta and led that archdiocese through a period of growth; and

WHEREAS, In 2019, Archbishop Wilton Gregory was appointed the seventh archbishop of Washington, D.C. where he created an anti-racism initiative to combat racial injustice; and

WHEREAS, Archbishop Wilton Gregory has worked to establish truth as the guiding principle for his work as well as that of his congregations and communities; and

WHEREAS, On October 25, 2020, Pope Francis announced that Archbishop Wilton Gregory would be raised to the position of cardinal at a consistory on November 28, 2020; and

WHEREAS, Archbishop Gregory is the first African American cardinal in the history of the Roman Catholic Church; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we declare November 28, 2021 Archbishop Wilton Gregory Day in recognition of his achievements.