Atlanta Archbishop To Sell Buckhead Mansion
The Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta is selling a $2 million mansion the diocese acquired after several weeks of bad press over the acquisition:
Archbishop Wilton Gregory will vacate his $2.2-million Buckhead mansion in early May and move into another available archdiocese property.
The decision followed a Saturday morning meeting at the Archdiocese of Atlanta with three advisory councils.
“After consultation with the members and hundreds of well-meaning parishioners of differing points of view, as well as my own personal reflection and prayer, I have decided to sell the Habersham property and invest the proceeds from that sale into the needs of the Catholic community,” Gregory said in a statement.
Some parishioners have criticized the Catholic leader for living too opulent a lifestyle that’s out-of-steAp with the example set by Pope Francis. Gregory said earlier this week he erred in moving to a 6,196-square-foot house in the toniest section of Atlanta.
Gregory arrived at the meeting at the Archdiocese of Atlanta in his Lexus, according to news reports. About 60 people — including religious clergy and laypeople — attended the meeting, which started with a prayer led by Gregory, according to Patricia Chivers, spokeswoman for the archdiocese.
The campus was closed to media and a security guard was stationed at the entrance to verify all visitors.
Gregory isn’t the first Bishop to come under scrutiny for opulence since Pope Francis came into the Papacy, and he’s unlikely to be the last.
I guess he missed the class on “Optics”.
I can remember my parents scrambling around the house trying to find a $20 bill for the priest when he came for the yearly house blessing. When I asked my dad why we had to pay for it he said “God didn’t give him that Cadillac”. Some things never change.
I met Wilton Gregory about forty years ago. We were in a play together of all things.
At the time he seemed like a decent bloke but was obviously ambitious and would go far. Clearly, he has. Don’t sell him short. He’ll recover from this.
And to think, all it took was some public shaming. Did they really need Pope Francis for this?
@Tillman:
Apparently, yes. This is the, what, 4th (?) archbishop to come under fire for oppullence in just the last year? (Newark, Atlanta, and the German “Bishop of Bling.”
@Neil Hudelson:
That moniker demands a music career.