Vatican
First African American cardinal appointed by Pope Francis
Rome/UNI: Pope Francis on Saturday confirmed the first-ever African American cardinal in the history of the Catholic church, along with with12 other new cardinals to the highest rank of the Catholic Church hierarchy.
In a scaled-down ceremony at St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday, the pope gave the 13 men their ring and traditional red hat, known as a biretta, an Al Jazeera report said.
Wilton Gregory, who has served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC since May 2019, thus became the first-ever African American to be appointed to the College of Cardinals.
Gregory, 72, has been an outspoken civil rights advocate who made headlines in June when he criticised US President Donald Trump for a planned visit to a shrine honouring former Pope John Paul II in the US capital, a day after the police had used tear gas to disperse those demonstrating the killing of George Floyd, to allow Trump to walk home after posing for pictures in front of a nearby church.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
