Abuse Pointman New Atlanta Bishop

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, who was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for three years during the height of the clergy molestation crisis, has been appointed by Pope John Paul II to serve as Archbishop of Atlanta, the archdiocese announced Thursday.

Gregory, 57, who had been serving as bishop in Belleville, Illinois, will become Atlanta's sixth archbishop. He succeeds Archbishop John F. Donoghue, 76, who is retiring.

"I welcome the opportunity to serve the people of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. I am deeply grateful to the Holy Father for his confidence and support," Gregory said.

Gregory was the first black president of the bishops conference when he was elected in November 2001. At the time, his election was seen by black Catholics as long-awaited recognition of their presence in the church.

But sex abuse scandal, which erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston in January 2002, soon eclipsed his elevation to leadership.

Gregory has said the pressure of guiding the church through the height of the crisis "drove me to my knees" in prayer.

Under Gregory's leadership, the bishops now have a binding policy on how to respond to allegations that includes barring offenders from church work and a national lay watchdog panel to help enforce the plan.

"These have been three rocky years," said Russell Shaw, former spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "But the point is, Archbishop Gregory not only stuck it out, but he stuck it out with grace and courage and a great deal of skill."

Earlier this year, a national, church-sanctioned study documenting sex abuse by U.S. Roman Catholic clergy found that about 4 percent of clerics have been accused of molesting minors since 1950, a diocese said.

The survey compiled by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found 4,392 of the 109,694 clergy who served over that five-decade period faced allegations of abuse.

Dioceses nationwide received 10,667 abuse claims since 1950, according to the news release. Of those, claims by 6,700 were substantiated. Another 3,300 were not investigated because the accused clergymen were dead.