Chicago’s Own Cardinal Wilton Gregory, America’s First Black Cardinal, Gears Up for Historic Papal Conclave

CHICAGO (WLS) — Cardinals from around the world are preparing for what will be the largest papal conclave in history, and the first African American cardinal in the U.S., who began his Catholic journey on Chicago’s South Side, will be there for the historic event.

Born and raised in Englewood, Cardinal Wilton Gregory said, as he carries his ministries from the Chicago area with him, his “heart will be pretty crowded in the Sistine Chapel.”

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Decades before he became the Catholic Church’s first African American cardinal, Gregory’s devotion was deepening as a young deacon on Chicago’s South Side.

“Lived there for 46 years, was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese in ’73. It’s always been a community that had a great diversity of cultural, language and ethnic people,” Gregory said.

Through ministries at now-shuttered St. Carthage, Mary, Seat of Wisdom in Park Ridge and our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glenview, Father Gregory then became Bishop Gregory of downstate Belleville.

In the throes of a global pandemic in November 2020, it was Pope Francis who named the then-archbishop of Washington, D.C. to the College of Cardinals.

“An activity that relied his ability to see the church in its great diversity, so when the college of cardinals gathers, as we sit around, we’ll hear different languages spoken, see different cultural facial expressions,” he said.

Cardinal Gregory and his longtime friend, Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, are part of the most diverse College of Cardinals in the Catholic Church’s centuries-long history.

As geographic and ideological factions take shape around the vision for the Church’s future, Cardinals Cupich and Gregory are both staying quiet ahead of their inaugural conclave.

Each spoke before departing for the Vatican last week.

“I think that we all just take time and suspend the noise out there, and we just give ourselves over to listening to what God wants us to do and listen to each other,” Cupich said.

And when asked about what that young deacon from the South Side of Chicago would be thinking about as he walks into his first conclave, Cardinal Gregory said, “The wonderful people that I grew up with on the South Side. My heart will be pretty crowded in the Sistine Chapel.”

The late Pope Francis named more than 100 of the 135 eligible cardinals who will choose his successor, three of whom have deep ties to Chicago.

Catholics in some circles are rumbling about a third cardinal with deep Chicago ties, Cardinal Robert Prevost, as a possible contender to serve as the next Pope.

Cardinal Prevost was born in Chicago, and worked for the Augustinian order for a time in 1999, but has spent most of his career outside of the country and now serves in Rome.

If chosen, Cardinal Prevost would become the first American pope.