Atlanta Archbishop Apologizes for Building $2.2-Million Home

Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory expressed regret to parishioners Monday for constructing a $2.2-million residence in the city’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood and said he would consider selling the house, the Associated Press reports.

Writing in the archdiocesan newspaper, Mr. Gregory said Pope Francis had “set the bar” with his call for church leaders to live more modestly and said he had not considered the cost to his own “integrity and pastoral credibility” in building the Tudor-style mansion after giving up his residence near Atlanta’s Christ the King Cathedral to ease a space crunch.

The project drew on a $15-million bequest to the archdiocese in 2012 from Joseph Mitchell, the nephew of Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell. It drew strong criticism from churchgoers, some of whom met with the archbishop to express concern.

The Atlanta controversy is one of several that reflect rapidly changing expectations for Catholic leaders amid Francis’ call on them to abandon opulent personal trappings, The New York Times writes. Among other examples, Newark, N.J.’s archbishop has come under fire for a $500,000 expansion of his weekend home, and the pope accepted the resignation last week of a German bishop who spent $43-million to renovate his house and other church buildings.