Archbishop Wilton Gregory is set to become the first African-American cardinal in Catholic history

Saturday afternoon, if all goes as planned, Gregory will come out of his quarters to make history. In an installation ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. in Rome, Gregory will become the first African-American cardinal in Catholic history.

Gregory will be one of 13 men – and the only American – raised to the College of Cardinals during Saturday’s ceremony. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, two bishops will not be in Rome, another first in Church history, according to Vatican News.

“This has been a time to thank God for this unique moment in my life and in the life of the church in the United States,” said Gregory. “I hope this is a sign to the African American community that the Catholic Church has great reverence, respect and esteem for the people, for my people of color.”

As cardinal, Gregory will be one of the Pope’s closest advisers and one of the approximately 120 men who will elect the next pontiff. Before Francis chose Gregory as Archbishop of Washington last year, he was also a bishop of Belleville, Ill., And Atlanta. He was born in Chicago to parents who were not Catholics, but who converted to Catholicism by attending parish school.

The symbolism of Gregory’s selection

In elevating Gregory to the highest rank in the Catholic Church, Francis continues to pay close attention to racial dynamics in the United States.

Francis condemned the “tragic death” of George Floyd, the black man killed by police in Minnesota last May, and supported an American bishop who knelt in prayer at a Black Lives Matter protest.

“You will never find such people protesting the death of George Floyd, or joining a demonstration because there are slums where children lack water or education, or because there are entire families who lost their income, ”Francis said in the book, called“ Let Us Dream. ”

“On such matters, they never protested,” continued the Pope. “They are unable to step out of their little world of interests.”

Anthea Butler, a religion scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, said Francis’ education in Argentina, where he lived most of his life, gave him a window into racial attitudes in the Americas.

“He’s very aware of racial injustices and white supremacy,” Butler said, “and he doesn’t just realize what’s going on here and how things have escalated. You can’t live in Latin America and don’t not see the history of race and slavery. ”

Butler, who is African American, said she would have been in Rome for Gregory’s installation if not for the pandemic.

“For African-American Catholics, this is huge,” she said. “We have been waiting for a cardinal for a long time, and it is a recognition of the sacrifices that have been made by people of African descent in the Catholic Church.”

Gregory: ‘We haven’t seen the greatest pain’

The Catholic Church does not tell bishops in advance that they will be promoted cardinal, so Gregory learned the news from a friend on October 25, the day the Pope made the announcement from Rome.

And while that’s a cause for celebration, Gregory’s rise comes just weeks after the Vatican released a damning report explaining why he ignored accusations of sexual abuse and serial misconduct of a former Archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick.

“It’s not about the structures of the church, it’s about the mistakes, the bad judgments the church has made by not focusing on the people who have been hurt,” Gregory told CNN this week.

“We were so determined to care about clerics, priests or bishops, that we didn’t see that the greatest pain to endure was that of the injured.

While in Rome, Gregory said he had not seen or spoken with Pope Francis, who lives in the Vatican guesthouse where the future cardinal stayed.

But on Saturday, Gregory’s quarantine will be over. And the long wait of black Americans for a cardinal will finally end.