HOW ATLANTA, GA ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY REMARKS DIVERSITY IS AN ACT OF HUMANITY! (1919 hits)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF ATL, Ga, ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY!
Archbishop Gregory: Christ the Foundation of our Unity, Diversity a Gift God has Fashioned into the Heart Of Humanity
Atlanta Archbishop delivers homily at Catholic Cultural Diversity Convocation
NOTRE DAME, Ind.—Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta weighed in on the issues of unity and diversity in the Church during the homily, May 7, at a Mass for the Catholic Cultural Diversity Network Convocation at meeting at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Archbishop Gregory highlighted the differences between building unity as a nation and in the Church.
“Our efforts at national unity often depend upon bringing peoples’ diversity into something of an artificial harmony that seeks to minimize the uniqueness and distinctiveness of people. The Catholic Church on the contrary focuses upon what we all share in common which is our faith and our oneness in Christ,” Archbishop Gregory said.
“To be a Catholic one need not abandon one’s individuality. In fact, the Catholic Church is most perfectly herself when all of her children display that rich diversity that God has fashioned into the very heart of humanity,” the archbishop said. “We are most Catholic when we reflect our oneness of faith and worship that is achieved in response to our rich mixture of human variety through the grace of the Holy Spirit.”
Archbishop Gregory also reminded the congregation that the church’s mission is to go out and evangelize and invite others in.
“The apostolic activity of these early Christians,” he said, “reminds us that even in our beginning the People of God continually welcomed others into their fellowship. The Holy Spirit inspired those first Christians to see beyond the limits of their own ethnicity and religious backgrounds and comfort zones to bring Christ to the entire world.”
And he added, “Those challenges of bringing people together established the rich legacy that we continue even today as peoples from throughout the world find their rightful place around the Lord’s Altar.”
