Bishop Gregory promoted.

Atlanta GA -- Following the retirement, at age 76, of Atlanta Archbishop John Donoghue, Pope John Paul II has appointed the recently retired president of the U.S. bishops' conference, Bishop Wilton Gregory, of Belleville, IL, as his successor. The new archbishop is 57 years old with a doctorate in Sacred Liturgy from the Pontifical Institute in Rome. He has served the archdiocese of Chicago as a pastor and as auxiliary bishop. As Bishop of Belleville, he was vice-president and then president (2001-2004) of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, weathering the pressures of acting as spokesman during the U.S. "sexual abuse crisis" of 2002.