ATLANTA, Georgia, DEC. 9, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II accepted the resignation of Archbishop John Donoghue, 76, of Atlanta and appointed Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville to succeed him, the Vatican press office announced.
Archbishop Gregory, 57, recently completed a three-year term as president of the U.S. bishops’ conference.
Wilton Gregory was born in Chicago on Dec. 7, 1947. He attended St. Carthage Grammar School, Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, Niles College of Loyola University, and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.
Three years after his ordination to the priesthood, he began graduate studies at the pontifical liturgical institute Sant’Anselmo in Rome. It was there he earned a doctorate in sacred liturgy.
He was ordained a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese on May 9, 1973. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Chicago on Oct. 31, 1983.
Appointed bishop of Belleville, Illinois, on Dec. 29, 1993, he was installed on Feb. 10, 1994.
Bishop Gregory served as vice president of the episcopate from 1998 to 2001, when he was elected president, serving until last month. Previously he served as Chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy and as a member of the Committee on Doctrine, the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, and the Committee on International Policy.
Archbishop Donoghue was appointed to his Atlanta post on June 22, 1993.
The Atlanta Archdiocese comprises 69 counties in the northern part of the state of Georgia. It has a Catholic population of about 371,000 in a total population of nearly 6 million.
