The proceeds will go towards the needs of the local Catholic community.

There had been public and media criticism about the archbishop's new residence.

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Altanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory has apologised to Catholics in his archdiocese for failing to consider the pastoral implications of his plans.

He regretted the impression his new home sent to Catholics in his area who give to the Church while struggling to pay their own bills.

The example he set for following Jesus' was also not adequate, he acknowledged.

Archbishop Gregory will meet with his various councils for guidance; if they advise him to sell the home, he will seek a new residence elsewhere.

While the project could be justified financially, logistically and practically, these reasons were not sufficient, he wrote.

"What we didn't stop to consider, and that oversight rests with me and me alone, was that the world and the Church have changed," he wrote in his archdiocesan newspaper.

Pope Francis has called for a Church which is poor and is for the poor.

Archbishop Gregory wrote that the example of Pope Francis has "set the bar for every Catholic and even for many who don't share our communion".

In the US state of New Jersey, building plans for residences of two Catholic bishops are under fire from laity as being too lavish.

"Francis has very definitely sent out a signal, and the signal is that bishops should live like the people they pastor, and they shouldn't be in palaces," British papal biographer Paul Vallely told The New York Times.

"Where people are historically in that kind of accommodation it is one thing, but where people are building it, it looks extravagant," he said.

Archbishop Gregory's residence plans came after a multi-million dollar bequest from Joseph Mitchell, the nephew of "Gone with the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell.

Last month, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of German Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, better known as the "bishop of bling."

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst drew scrutiny of his own for renovation and building projects in his Limburg diocese estimated at US$40 million.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• New York Times
• Religion News Service
• Image: Yesworld

Atlanta diocese has seen its number of registered parishioners grow from nearly 322,000 in 2002 to one million in 2012. Charleston has expanded by 50 per cent in the last decade, while Charlotte and Little Rock have grown by a third.

"Instead of us closing parishes and closing schools, we're doing the opposite. We're in total growth mode," Deacon Sean Smith, chancellor for the diocese of Knoxville, to the National Catholic Register.

When Knoxville was established in 1988 it had 37 parishes. It has since added 14, the number of parishioners has doubled, and it expects to have 23 men in graduate seminary next year.

Deacon Smith said Catholics in the South, where they are a decided minority, must constantly defend their faith and, as a result, come to cherish it.

In a region where churches sit on seemingly every street corner and billboards belt out Bible verses and calls for repentance, local Catholics say they have found fertile ground for the renewal of the Church.

"Our Protestant brothers and sisters have done us a great favour. Talking about faith here in the South is like eating, breathing, and sleeping," said Randy Hain, co-founder of The Integrated Catholic Life, an online magazine.

"There's an openness about faith here which makes it easier to be open about your faith if you're Catholic."

Lisa Wheeler, founder of a Catholic marketing firm in the Atlanta area, said dialogue with Protestants has produced a steady stream of Catholic converts, who bring enthusiasm and passion for their faith.

Hain said that if Catholics in other areas were as open about their faith as Southerners are, there would be a resurgence in the Church.

"Let's worry less about offending others," he said. "Let's worry more about practising our faith."

Source:

National Catholic Register

Image: Diocese of Charlotte