MCLEAN (VA)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
February 15, 2025
Outgoing Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory was investigated under the norms of Vos estis lux mundi last year, with Vatican-appointed bishops exonerating the cardinal after allegations were made by a local priest who was himself facing a canonical process for sexual abuse.
Sources close to the Diacastery for Bishops in Rome told The Pillar Feb. 15 that a complaint of sexual harassment was received against Cardinal Gregory in early 2024 but that an independent investigation returned an exoneration of Gregory.
The news of Gregory’s having faced a Vatican investigation comes amid widespread rumors among the Washington presbyterate that the cardinal’s retirement, announced by the Holy See last month, was linked to a Vos estis report concerning Gregory.
An official close to the investigation told The Pillar that the complaint was made by a Washington priest, ordained within the last ten years, who was himself under a canonical disciplinary process, after he allegedly “groomed” a minor female before initiating a sexual relationship with her when she turned 18 years-old.
According to sources with knowledge of the allegations and investigation, the priest alleged that Gregory had “put his hand on his crotch” during a round of golf only a few months after Gregory’s arrival in Washington in 2019.
An official close to the Dicastery for Bishops told The Pillar that “the complaint was made in the course of a clerical disciplinary process being undertaken under the authority of the Dicastery for Clergy.”
“Because the complaint concerned alleged potential sexual misconduct by a bishop — now a cardinal in fact — the dicastery authorized an investigation under the norms of Vos estis,” Pope Francis’ 2019 legislation issued in the wake of the McCarrick scandal.
“Two bishops were tasked with conducting the investigation and making a report [to the dicastery], which they did. The conclusion was that there was no case to answer for Cardinal Gregory.”
The Pillar has confirmed that the disciplinary process against the Washington priest remains ongoing and that, because no alleged sexual misconduct occurred while the alleged victim was under 18, the matter was forwarded to the Dicastery for Clergy from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has exclusive competence over clerical sexual abuse of minors.
News of the Vos estis investigation into Gregory, and the cardinal’s exoneration, comes amid rumors circulating amongst some local clergy that the investigation and its conclusions triggered the announcement of the cardinal’s departure from office in January of this year, with the Vatican announcing that next month Cardinal Robert McElory of San Diego would succeed Gregory in the capital see.
However, an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State told The Pillar Feb. 15 that there was “absolutely no connection” between the Vos estis investigation and Gregory’s resignation being accepted.
“The two had nothing to do with each other,” the official said. “It is nonsense to say so. Gregory was appointed at the age of 71 and it was understood that he would only ever serve three years — at the most — over the [normal retirement age of 75].”
Before Gregory’s resignation was announced, it was widely understood and reported that the cardinal’s health and energy levels had been in decline and that, at the age of 77, a new archbishop was expected to be selected by Pope Francis.
A source close to the Dicastery for Bishops told The Pillar that the allegations made by the Washington priest had been assessed as “not rising even to the level of a [canonical] crime had they been found credible, and they were not.”
The speculation over the investigation into Gregory, and the circulation of rumors among Washington clergy about the timing of his resignation points to the Vatican’s continued practice of secrecy when dealing with accusations and investigations concerning bishops, in contrast to how similar cases are handled involving priests.
Although multiple Vos estis cases have been undertaken by the Vatican concerning U.S. bishops since the law’s promulgation in 2019, the details are rarely officially announced or confirmed.
Several such cases have led to the exoneration of the bishops concerned, including Bishop John Brungardt of Dodge City, who took the unusual step of publicly stepping back from ministry while his case was considered before returning after being cleared.
In other cases, like that involving Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, formerly Bishop of Brooklyn, bishops have continued in ministry before being eventually vindicated by a Vatican investigation, as did Bishop Robert Guglielmone of Charleston.
Other cases involving U.S. bishops have not been as transparent about the results.
In January last year, Archbishop John Nienstedt, the former archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, asked the Holy See for clarity about the “imprudent” actions he was determined to have committed in a recently-concluded Vos estis investigation.
The archbishop said a Vos estis investigation into him had concouded that “the available evidence did not support a finding that I had committed any canonical delict,” but that he had engaged in several “imprudent” actions — without any details of said actions being given — and banning him from public ministry in his former archdiocese.
Gregory was appointed on April 4, 2019, in the wake of his predecessor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s resignation amid the scandal surrounding Wuerl’s own predecessor in Washington, former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, was was accused of sexual abuse of seminarians and minors and eventually laicized in a canonical process conducted by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Gregory arrived in Washington promising a new era of transparency in the archdiocese. “I believe that the only way I can serve this local archdiocese is by telling you the truth,” the archbishop said at his first press conference in the District of Columbia.
“I will always tell you the truth,” he promised.
The Archdiocese of Washington did not respond to questions from The Pillar.