Following an public outcry from the parishioners over a front-page story about his new home on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month, Roman Catholic archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta has expressed his deepest apologies in the archdiocese's newspaper. The Los Angeles Times said that Gregory earned the ire of the public when he torn down a ranch home donated to the Church by a nephew of "Gone With The Wind" author Margaret Mitchell to build in its place a Tudor-style mansion for his use.
"I am disappointed that, while my advisors and I were able to justify this project fiscally, logistically and practically, I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility with the people of God of north and central Georgia. I failed to consider the impact on the families throughout the archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages, utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services," Gregory wrote in the paper.
Despite the fact that the Church's high official Pope Francis has practiced frugality well into his papacy, and even urging officials and the clergy to do the same, the order might have fallen on deaf ears in the archdiocese of Atlanta. Gregory reportedly ordered to tore down the existing 2,400-square foot home owned formerly by Mitchell and had rebuilt a new, albeit larger one at 6,000 square feet to accommodate meetings and events for the Church. Gregory had claimed that he had let parish priests living from the Cathedral of Christ site to live in his old home to open up space in the Church for the growing number of parishioners. Gregory is supposed to live in the mansion, of which the archdiocese has spent $2.2 million to build it.
The 66 year-old archbishop also claimed in his statement published on their paper that he will be meeting with advisors to decide on what to do with the new, massive mansion.
