When he took possession Sept. 27, 2021 of his titular church in Rome – Santa Maria Immacolata a Grottarossa (Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Grottarossa) – Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory greeted parishioners of the church in Italian.

The following is an English translation of what Cardinal Gregory said:

“My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“I greet you with joy in my heart on this first official visit to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary titular church and parish. I am deeply grateful to Pope Francis for assigning me as the Cardinal Priest of this beloved community. I am particularly thankful because the Immaculate Conception is also the Patroness of the Church in the United States of America. 

“Whenever I recall Our Lady’s title, I will be united with you and your families and clergy in prayer. I also hope that you will remember me and the Archdiocese of Washington in your prayers as we are now joined in devotion and affection through the intercession of her whose Son established the Church as one family of faith, hope, and love.

“Immaculate Mary, pray for us.”

Following an ancient tradition, a titular church is assigned to each clergyman when he is elevated to the College of Cardinals. The church is located within the boundaries of the Diocese of Rome and symbolizes the relationship of that cardinal to the pope, who serves as bishop of Rome.

Father Valerio Bortolotti, pastor of Santa Maria Immacolata a Grottarossa, welcomed Cardinal Gregory to the church by noting the parish was established in the 1920s for workers at a local brick factory and that Pope (now Saint) John Paul II visited there in 1986 and crowned a statue of Mary.

“Here today a Cross and a Mother is the treasure that you take possession of,” Father Bortolotti told Cardinal Gregory. “Today you are here to listen to Mary's words: ‘whatever He tells you, do it,’ and to receive from this Mother an encouragement. You are here to dream of how to evangelize your faithful by showing them the sign of the Cross that saves.”

Father Bortolotti said that as Cardinal Gregory takes possession of his titular church, the cardinal would “experience how in lowliness God does great things. My parishioners and I are witnesses to this, conquered and fascinated by Jesus through Mary here in this lowly remote church, an oasis of peace for those who discover it.”

Calling Cardinal Gregory “our dearest Eminence,” Father Bortolotti said parishioners of the church “want to pray for you and ask that the Immaculate Conception guide you along your path and that, with the sign of the Cross, you lead to faith those the Lord has entrusted you with.”

The priest then recited the prayer offered by St. John Paul II during his 1986 visit to the parish and that has been prayed after every Mass there since that visit:

‘‘We turn to you, Holy Immaculate Virgin. Within you begins the mystery of the redemption that frees us from death, because the inheritance of sin has not reached you.

“You are full of grace, and in you the kingdom of God opens up for us, the new future of man, who can, in faith, contemplate in you the work of his renewal and the foundation of his hope of immortality.

“You bring to us, in your purity, the Son of God, the ‘light that has come into the world.’ and you lead all of us on the paths of holiness so that we can meet Christ, now and forever.

“We invoke you, guide us along our path, Holy Virgin, so that by working the truth we may come to the light of your Son, we seek the grace of his word, we faithfully walk the way that leads to the mountain of God, to the gentle port where our loved ones have come and where, with Jesus, you are waiting for us.”

After taking possession of the church, Cardinal Gregory said, “I hope that the people of the (Roman Catholic) Archdiocese (of Washington) come to know that this parish is part of my pastoral responsibility and that they too will pray for the parish.

“Once the COVID is over and people can travel, I hope the people of the Archdiocese of Washington might take a cab out here and say, ‘That’s where the archbishop’s titular church is’,” Cardinal Gregory said.

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated on Dec. 8 and commemorates the fact that from the moment she was conceived in the womb of her mother St. Anne, the Blessed Virgin Mary was kept free from original sin. Although the feast dates back to the seventh century, the Catholic Church did not declare the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as infallible doctrine until 1854.

Our Lady under this title is the patroness of the United States, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is dedicated to her. In the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, parishes in Mechanicsville, Maryland and Washington, D.C., are named in her honor.