More than eight years ago, when Donald Trump was still a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, he stood before voters and made a promise.
“I will always tell you the truth,” Trump said in August 2016, at a rally in battleground North Carolina.
America is sharply divided on whether Trump has since come even close to keeping that promise. But he will be sworn in next month for a second term of office, and is likely to promise anew a commitment to truth and transparency.
While political Washington prepares for that change of administrations, ecclesiastical Washington is also talking about coming change: rumors are swirling among D.C.’s presbyterate that Cardinal Wilton Gregory’s retirement will be announced soon — possibly even before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
Sources close to the Dicastery for Bishops have confirmed that the cardinal’s retirement is imminent.
At first glance, Gregory and Trump may not seem to have much in common. But on April 4, 2019, when he was announced as Washington’s archbishop, Gregory repeated Trump verbatim.
He stood before reporters and DC Catholics, and made a pledge.
“I believe that the only way I can serve this local archdiocese is by telling you the truth,” the archbishop said that day.
"I will always tell you the truth,” he promised, echoing the then-and-future president.
Now, with seemingly little left of his term of office, Gregory has time yet make good on that promise.
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When Archbishop Gregory took over the Washington archdiocese, he stepped into the heat of the Theodore McCarrick scandal, with headlines emerging daily about McCarrick, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, and ongoing allegations nationwide of episcopal abuse, misconduct, cover-up, or neglect.
Gregory was already 72 when he was appointed to Washington, and had likely expected to finish his ecclesiastical career in Atlanta, where he had been archbishop for some 15 years.
But as Wuerl retired amid scandal, Gregory was convinced to take the Washington job because many in Rome — and at the apostolic nunciature — believed his unassuming and pastoral style would calm the roiling waters of the Washington archdiocese.
From the beginning, he was hit with questions about both McCarrick and Wuerl — Catholics wanted to know what Wuerl had known about his disgraced predecessor in office, and about what Washington’s files and records might reveal about McCarrick’s network, his activities, and his circle of influence in the life of the Church.
Gregory initially told Catholics in Washington that before he gave them answers, he needed to study the situation, and get up to speed on what could be known. While he praised Wuerl for “acknowledg[ing] he’d made mistakes,” Gregory also distanced himself from his predecessor, lamenting a culture of clericalism and self-protection that Gregory described as “circling the wagons.”
“I think this moment has shown the folly of that approach to episcopal governance and episcopal collegiality,” the archbishop said.
But whatever his intentions for culture change, Gregory — by most accounts — seemed to adopt a “circle the wagons” style of his governance himself.
The archbishop’s communications office is notoriously known, among both the Catholic and secular press, for declining questions — and often refusing even to acknowledge they’ve been asked.
Gregory is now dealing with a financial crisis in the archdiocese — and sources in the chancery say the cardinal’s staff have dealt swiftly with the whistleblowers who’ve raised questions.
Most concretely, Gregory has been criticized for declining to release the financial records of Theodore McCarrick’s unmonitored archdiocesan designated fund — one from which he drew his living expenses as diocesan bishop, and from which he is believed to have given significant financial gifts to other diocesan bishops, Vatican officials, and proteges. It has long been speculated that access to McCarrick’s financial records would indicate both those who might have protected him, and those who might themselves be implicated in allegations of misconduct.
While Gregory promised transparency, requests for those records have long gone unheeded. The cardinal likely has concerns about liability, advice from attorneys, and the firm belief that ignoring McCarrick questions will make them go away.
But on other side of the ledger is a lingering promise: “I will always tell you the truth.”
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Cardinal Gregory's term in office has mostly been less turbulent than his predecessors, though there has been some controversy. Still, if he doesn’t release records or answer question, Gregory will most likely be remembered for what he didn’t do in Washington — namely, usher in the era of culture change he promised, or push out the “circled wagons” of clericalism which he attributed to his predecessor.
That means Gregory’s successor is likely to face the same questions at his inaugural press conference that Gregory did five years ago.
Of course, the next man for Washington is not yet determined.
Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville has been a rumored pick. But The Pillar has confirmed that Bishop Shawn McKnight is also in the mix, and presently front-runner for the job. According to sources close to the dicastery, McKnight is the preferred candidate of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who was dispatched by Pope Francis to find a solution to gridlock, after the pope grew frustrated with lobbying from Cardinals Joseph Tobin and Blase Cupich for Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego.
Whoever gets the job, Gregory’s successor will likely be grateful to start things off with a clean slate. But that’s mostly now up to Gregory.
For his part, the cardinal has often stressed that he is a pastor, and not a politician — a cleric, not a campaigner. That may well be true.
But politician or not, almost no one in Washington can escape the specter of his own broken promises — and clerics are not exempted from that reality.
Cardinal Gregory likely knows all that. He knows he was brought to Washington because of his reputation for integrity and plain dealing.
But it remains to be seen whether Gregory will finish his term by keeping his word.
