Archbishop Wilton Gregory is my Easter
I need Lent. Call me crazy — a lesbian mom in a time of pain and turmoil in the Catholic church that raised me — but I treasure so much the practice of 40 days of fasting, of choosing something to sacrifice, of remembering what matters most and taking some deep breaths to retreat from the busy-ness with some intention.
I love Ash Wednesday. The earthy ritual of literally smearing ashes on my forehead — linked to the hundreds around me lining up for the same, linked to the parking lot attendant or the grocery clerk later this day — we will nod knowingly at each other’s ashy foreheads. From dust you came and to dust you shall return. I am a body, breathing, a soul yearning — just like everyone else in this crowd. This breath is fleeting — it will depart — the moments I have are precious and best be used purposefully. There are parts of me the Church can’t take but I love and claim the parts of her I need (including a Pope Francis who honors refugees and the working poor, who made Archbishop Oscar Romero a saint, who says “who am I to judge”?) . I have learned over the years to make my own Lent.
This year I attended Ash Wednesday services at the National Cathedral. I was so inspired last fall by the powerful ceremony honoring Matthew Sheparda young LGBT man killed in a violent hate crime twenty years ago. The ceremony interring Matthew’s ashes honored him and his incredible parents Dennis and Judy Shepard, who turned the pain of their own loss into powerful advocacy against hate in all its forms. This choice by the National Cathedral to honor Matthew and to stand visibly for the dignity of all people, made me feel welcome — made me seek it out on a chilly February morning to begin my Lent this year.
But this month as daffodils and tulips began unfurling their glorious color, the prospect of Easter opened wider for me with the news of Pope Francis naming our new Archbishop Wilton Gregoryhere in Washington, DC. He sees the LGBT community as part of the human family; he welcomed the amazing Rev. James Martin to speak at parishes in Georgia. But as important to me, he has urgency in speaking out against racism and white supremacyand is stalwart in his support of immigrants and immigration reform. He will be the first African American archbishop of Washington DC.
In a homily last year, commemorating the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (how many of us got to hear homilies on April 4 calling us to action against racism?!) Archbishop Gregory said “Xenophobia, racism’s clone, masquerades today as a patriotic response to the presence of immigrants and refugees who are in our midst,” he said. “Moreover, people in our nation continue to be victimized because of their color, or their first language, or their sexual orientation, or their religious beliefs like too many people did 50 years ago.” How perfect that his announcement was on April 4 — the day we honor MLK, Jr. giving his life as he stood in solidarity with striking sanitation workers in Memphis, TN.
I do not mean at all to gloss over the huge challenges he will face in restoring faith in an institution that has made grave mistakes and betrayed the trust of so many.
But sometimes terrible tragedies do create new opportunities. Sometimes something beautiful can take root and rise from ashes.
It took eleven long years of transforming agony into action before Matthew’s grieving parents Judy and Dennis Shepard could celebrate the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act. And Matthew was hardly the first — we lost hundreds of thousands of LGBT community members to AIDS and hate violence in our long “forty years in the desert” of a nation (and often our own families) turning away from our humanity. (And to be clear — we are not done. Six thousand people (mostly Black and Latino) died of AIDSjust last year and transgender Women of Colorface an epidemic of violence.
One leader cannot make change alone. He won’t be perfect; he will make mistakes. He will need people in the pews, as committed as he is to honesty and transparency, to fighting racism and advocating for our immigrant brothers and sisters, to welcoming LGBT people and their families. He will need brave parishonerslike the parents at this Catholic school in the Midweststanding in solidarity with a kindergartener who has two dads. He will need folks willing to put words into action and stand together against racism and hate crimes. But I know we have just as courageous and principled a community here. The arrival of Archbishop Wilton Gregory is an incredible opportunity, a stirring like spring, and I hope and trust he will find a community thirsty for renewal and eager to pitch in.
This year, Archbishop Wilton Gregory is my Easter.
