Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory will celebrate a Mass marking the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on Tuesday May 9 at 4 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.
Cardinal Gregory was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago on May 9, 1973. The concelebrants at the anniversary Mass will include eight priests from the Archdiocese of Chicago who were ordained to the priesthood with him 50 years ago.
In 1983, Bishop Wilton Gregory was ordained as an auxiliary bishop in Chicago. Bishop Gregory was named as the bishop of Belleville, Illinois, in 1994 and served there for 11 years. While leading the Diocese of Belleville, Bishop Gregory was elected in 2001 as the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and he led the nation’s bishops as they implemented the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” Then-Archbishop Gregory served as the archbishop of Atlanta from 2005 until Pope Francis appointed him as the archbishop of Washington in 2019. The next year, Cardinal Gregory was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis.
Cardinal Gregory will be the principal celebrant and homilist at the 50th anniversary Mass, which will be livestreamed.
A worship aid is available for the Mass. St. Matthew’s Cathedral is located at 1725 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
To celebrate Cardinal Gregory’s 50th anniversary as a priest, the Catholic Standard newspaper of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington will publish a special edition on June 22, 2023, and the archdiocese’s Spanish language newspaper El Pregonero will publish a special edition on June 15.
