Just months after his May 2019 installation as the archbishop of Washington, then-Archbishop Wilton Gregory participated in the annual Unity Walk that is sponsored each year in the District of Columbia by the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington.
Speaking to the gathering of Muslims, Jewish, Protestant, Roman Catholic and other faith leaders, the new archbishop of Washington lamented the divisiveness among the various faiths.
“There are so many forces in American society, in human society actually, that simply tell us we were not intended to live together in peace or in harmony,” he said. “This celebration (Unity Walk) is the anti-venom to that thinking – not only were we intended to walk together, we are intended to live together in harmony.”
That call is one the cardinal has made repeatedly in his time as archbishop here.
Interfaith accord has been a goal the cardinal has sought to achieve for many years, because as he once said, “The role of religion is to provide a moral voice based on the highest principles of our religious beliefs that challenges and encourages society.”
In a February 2024 Catholic Standard column marking the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the cardinal encouraged people “to pray and to work for unity among the Christian churches, something which Christ Himself eagerly desires.”
“Christian unity would be a welcome endeavor as a sign that even our theological, organizational and liturgical differences are not insurmountable barriers to conversation, to dialogue, and to mutual respect,” the cardinal wrote.
He also observed that such unity can begin to be achieved if we “are on our knees asking the Holy Spirit to bridge the chasms that continue to separate us.”
The Catholic Church’s good relations with other Christian denominations is not the only goal of the cardinal. At a May 17, 2023 interfaith dialogue of religious leaders at the Embassy of Argentina to the United States, he stressed harmony among all faith traditions.
“Fraternal encounter is really the only way that we will be able to go forward,” Cardinal Gregory said. He called hatred, bigotry, antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism “a human disaster ... tearing us apart, they are as destructive as tsunamis, as earthquakes, as hurricanes.”
Cardinal Gregory then said, “Encounter is the antidote for fear and hatred.”
Speaking after Pope Francis’s historic 2021 visit to Iraq, Cardinal Gregory said that trip was “a step forward in strengthening the relationships between Catholics and other believers and to be with other religious leaders as a moment of fraternity.”
Writing about that visit in his regular Catholic Standard column, the cardinal said interfaith dialogue and interactions are “a gift that our Church offers ... and it serves as a model of how we are all called to respect and to encounter other people.”
While Cardinal Gregory has reached out to all faith traditions, his ministry has been marked by a particular closeness with the Jewish faith. Outside of the archdiocese, the cardinal is Catholic co-chair of the National Council of Synagogues. The council meets at regular intervals to discuss theological and pastoral issues of common concern.
When he was named to that post, the cardinal said such dialogue is vital because “the friendships and the collaboration that these conversations generate are blessings for both of our communities.”
On the 2019 feast of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement for the Jewish community, then-Archbishop Gregory joined Rabbi M. Bruce Lustig, senior rabbi at the Washington Hebrew Congregation and other Jewish scholars for a panel discussion on anti-Semitism and addressing hatred in today’s culture.
“We cannot live apart,” then-Archbishop Gregory said. “If we live apart, we allow the hatred that seems to need the soil of ignorance to develop, to take root. The involvement we have as Jews, as Christians, as Muslims, as Hindus, ... has never been more needed. We need to work collaboratively and closely to respond to these issues of hatred and violence, no matter who the target might be.”
Following a spate of antisemitic attacks in Washington and other parts of the country in late 2019 and early 2020, Cardinal Gregory issued a statement to “our Jewish brothers and sisters” where he condemned the acts. He said he stood “in support of and solidarity with all members of the Jewish community,” and urged “Catholics of the archdiocese to accompany and support our Jewish neighbors in these tragic times.”
In a 2020 address to the American Jewish Committee, then-Archbishop Gregory said “ignorance of the other is the soil in which hatred and bigotry grow. If we do not know each other, share our fears and share our hopes, we make it possible for hatred to grow.”
He also said it is vital for all faiths to teach their young members that all religions call for respecting the lives of others.
“Whether we are Jewish or Catholic, there is a huge mountain we have to climb to make sure our young people know their religious heritage,” he said. “This is a hopeful moment if we as Catholics and Jews and Americans can seize on the openness many young people have and say this is a part of our religious heritage.”
In all his interactions with other faiths, Cardinal Gregory has repeatedly stressed – as he did in a 2019 statement – that “we must work together with all people of good will to eradicate all attitudes of hatred and bigotry ... and seek to build bridges of trust, mutual respect, and dialogue among members of all faith communities.”
