JUDY VALENTE: When Wilton Gregory was a boy, he told his pastor he wanted to be a priest. But there was a problem.

BISHOP WILTON GREGORY: He's the one who said, "It might be best for you to be a Catholic first." My folks had placed my two sisters and myself in Catholic school in 1958. The church was a vibrant, active, exciting reality in the life of an 11-year-old.

VALENTE: A year later, Gregory converted to Catholicism while attending Saint Carthage Grammar School on Chicago's South Side. Following his ordination in 1973, he became an aide to the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

He was only 35 years old when Bernardin named him the youngest auxiliary bishop in Chicago's history. Now, as president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, he assumes a post Bernardin once held -- and may well become the first African-American cardinal.

SISTER ANITA BAIRD (President, Black Catholic Sisters Conference): I think what makes it significant is that once again it shows the universality of the Church that people of color -- African Americans -- have been a part of this Roman Catholic Church.

SHEILA ADAMS (Chicago Office for Black Catholics): He has been a role model for young black men to become priests. If we don't have black priests and sisters and brothers out there, then how will young people see the Church, how will they see themselves in the Church?

VALENTE: There are about 2.3 million African-American Catholics, but just a few hundred black priests.

Gregory feels the Church has not always served black Catholics well, and says it can learn from the spirituality of African Americans.

BISHOP GREGORY: Our enthusiasm, our spirit, our joy, our sense of love for God's word, our ability to pray and rejoice in the Lord's presence -- those are our gifts that have touched the Catholic Church.

VALENTE: Since 1994, Gregory has headed the largely white, rural, and conservative diocese of Belleville in southern Illinois.

LENA WOLTERING (Fellowship of South Illinois Laity): It's dangerous for black men to be on the streets of Belleville after dark. They will be stopped.

VALENTE: Gregory has traveled to all 28 counties of the diocese, preaching racial tolerance, but some activists feel he hasn't spoken out forcefully enough.

BISHOP GREGORY: In reference to questions of racism, there is no silver bullet. It is the long haul that will address the issue. For some people, confrontation is only confrontation when it's public. They're the "in-your-face" kind of person. I'm not convinced that "in-your-face" tactics always accomplish what you want.

VALENTE: In Belleville, Gregory inherited another challenging issue -- he took over the diocese at a time when nine of its nearly 100 priests had been implicated in a scandal involving homosexuality and pedophilia.

MS. WOLTERING: The priests' morale was at its very lowest -- the laity's morale was bottomed out. We were furious with the previous bishop, and he came in and did a very good job administrating.

FATHER CARL SCHERRER: He's a man of great integrity, consistent in his principles, and took action to deal with the situation in terms of both those who had been accused and those who were alleged victims to see that they got the help that they needed.

BISHOP GREGORY: Because of the trauma that the diocese was going through, people had little time or interest at that point in focusing in on the fact that I was African American. I was their bishop.