Gregory John Hartmayer
Gregory John Hartmayer, O.F.M. Conv., a Conventual Franciscan, was born in 1951 in Buffalo, New York, and ordained a priest in 1979. After long service in Catholic education and parish work, Pope Benedict XVI named him Bishop of Savannah in 2011.
Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Atlanta in 2020 — the first Conventual Franciscan to lead a U.S. archdiocese — installed in a small ceremony during the COVID-19 pandemic. He shepherds an archdiocese of over a million Catholics.
Archbishop Hartmayer's handling of the ancient Mass is, by the standards of this unhappy era, among the gentler. When Traditionis Custodes came in 2021, he did not suppress the Traditional Latin Mass in Atlanta. His memo preserved it at two locations — the Fraternity of St. Peter's personal parish of St. Francis de Sales in Mableton, which continues to offer the old rite and its sacraments daily, and a weekly Mass at St. Monica in Duluth. Both remain active. He barred other priests from celebrating it publicly, which is a real restriction; but he kept the lamp lit where it was already burning.
He is no champion of the old rite, and traditional Catholics will note his 2024 LGBTQ+ commission with unease. But the test of this page is the Mass, and on that test he chose preservation over suppression — a choice that looks better with every diocese that chose otherwise.
A mixed record, then, and on the merciful end of the spectrum: a bishop who applied a restrictive law without zeal, and left the faithful of Atlanta a place to kneel. For that restraint, in these days, the traditional Catholic can be quietly grateful — while wishing the welcome were warmer.