What’s it like to be an archbishop? Cardinal Sean O’Malley in Boston lets us know regularly in his engaging, self-named blog. And now Wilton Gregory of Atlanta is getting into the act, with a lengthy look at one day in his life in the Georgia Bulletin:

A recent 14-hour day spent with Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory began with prayers in an intimate chapel and stretched into a dark drive home as an excited radio announcer declared the Philadelphia Phillies baseball’s world champions.
In between, the archbishop heard a youngster proclaim he knew the archbishop’s grandchildren (chalk it up to a case of mistaken identity) and received greetings from Mexican sisters working in the archdiocese. He poured sacred chrism oil during the ritual to dedicate a new church in Lawrenceville.

Spending a day with the archbishop does not reveal the soul of a man, but it does provide a glimpse of him as more than the beloved celebrant at confirmations, dedications and other signature church events.

As a leader of the fast-growing Catholic Church in the Bible belt, Archbishop Gregory serves as the spiritual head of the 750,000 Catholics here in North Georgia.

In addition, the archbishop is essentially the CEO of a multimillion-dollar organization. He shares personality traits familiar to any experienced executive. He delegates issues that he doesn’t need to chime in on. He hates getting copied on e-mails when someone else can handle the issue. He dislikes voice mail and lost time so much that he had private phone numbers installed that connect him directly to his executive assistant and other top officials in the archdiocese.

His profile is even higher than that of his peers because he shepherded his fellow bishops as president of the Catholic bishops’ conference for three years, which included the intense times of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Church observers speculate he may be a candidate to serve as the archbishop of New York.

He allowed The Georgia Bulletin to share a day with him, answering the door of his stately Buckhead home promptly at 8 a.m.

Continue for the rest, and some great pictures by Michael Alexander. There’s also a delightful slideshow at the Bulletin website.

And another member of the episcopacy is poised to get into the act: my own bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will soon appear on my channel, NET, in a regular program called “On the Road with Bishop DiMarzio.” (Yes, that was a shameless plug…)

Photo: by Michael Alexander