What I Have Seen and Heard

ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY, Archbishop of Atlanta

Published: February 24, 2005

Welcome! Bienvenidos! In little more than a month since becoming the new Archbishop of Atlanta, I have heard those words hundreds of times. I do, in fact, feel the warmth of your welcome and the strong and important support of your prayers and best wishes. I am quickly becoming acclimated to my new home and deeply fond of my new Faith Family. Thank you from the heart for the gracious welcome that you have provided me. Everywhere I have gone I have encountered people who have gone out of their way to extend a sincere and gracious welcome.

As I have already mentioned to many people, I am beginning this weekly column in The Georgia Bulletin. It will be a vehicle for me to communicate with the people of our Archdiocese. I entitle it: “What I Have Seen and Heard,” taken from St. John’s First Epistle (1 Jn 1:3). St. John wrote to those early Christians and shared with them his witness of Christ Crucified and Risen from the dead. John urged his readers to believe more fervently because of his witness to Christ. With considerably less spiritual muscle than St. John, I too shall write to the Catholics of North Georgia and share with you “what I have seen and heard” among the people of our Archdiocese. I too shall urge you to deeper Faith in Christ Jesus through the many examples of joy, strength, patience, generosity, charity, and courage that I will and have already discovered in your midst.

My columns will touch upon a wide variety of matters typically based upon my encounters with you. Some of them will be topical, some will be anecdotal, some will exhort, others may even challenge. I pray that all of them will somehow inspire you and me to love the Lord Jesus and each other more perfectly.

Hospitality is a Christian virtue. From earliest times, the Church has urged all of its members to practice being hospitable and welcoming to those who enter a community. From my first impressions hospitality is a well-practiced virtue within this local Church—especially as it applies to the new Archbishop. But we can all improve in living this virtue. We can all be more welcoming to the stranger, to the immigrant, to those who come into our midst not speaking our language, not familiar with our customs, not knowing much about our way of life.

The Archdiocese of Atlanta has received many newcomers in the past few decades. Many of these people have come here searching for a better life, a better job, a new home. A tremendous number of them are our brothers and sisters in the Catholic Faith. We need to welcome them—sincerely and from the heart and to make them feel at home. We should attend to their needs, share our good fortune, and help them to know how truly welcome they are. I know that this local Church understands how to do that well from only the experience of one month in my new home!

Our Hispanic brothers and sisters come from many different nations. They are settling into nearly every corner of our Archdiocese. They are struggling to make a contribution to this new land. Some of them may lack proper legal documentation. Many of them do not speak much English. Most of them are young and away from their native lands for the first time. They do many of the jobs that keep the economy in Georgia sound and, in fact, growing. They frequently have young children who will become the next generation of Americans and North Georgia Catholics. They possess many gifts and talents to add to the life and vitality of this local Church. We must all welcome them and assist them to the best of our ability. We must do so because in welcoming them, we welcome Christ Himself: Bienvenidos!