Black president for U.S. bishops. (United States).

Washington--At age 11, Wilton Gregory decided that he wanted to become a priest. At age 12, he became a Catholic. At age 35, he became the youngest auxiliary bishop in Chicago's history. Now, at age 53, he has become the first black president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is one of 13 Afro-American bishops in the country.

The special need he sees at present is evangelization, or rather re-evangelization: "Many Catholics simply do not know their faith...there's a religious illiteracy that we have to grapple with, re-evangelizing many Catholics who have either grown disaffected or lost touch with their faith tradition, and reaching out to those who have no church home."

There are about 2.3 million African-American Catholics, but only a few hundred black priests. Gregory feels that the Church has not always served black Catholics well, and believes that it can learn from their spirituality: "Our enthusiasm, our spirit, our sense of love for God's word, our ability to pray and rejoice in the Lord's presence, those are our gifts that have touched the Catholic Church." He said that he hopes his election sends a "message of love" to blacks of all faiths.