Fr. Lourduraj Gally Gregory becomes an American citizen after 10 years in Salt Lake City

Friday, Aug. 21, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — After discerning and considering his family in India, Father Lourduraj Gally Gregory, Saint Patrick Parish pastor, raised his right hand and repeated the Oath of Allegiance to become an American citizen during a naturalization ceremony held at the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City Aug. 7.  

Parishioners from Saint Patrick and Saint Ambrose, where Fr. Gally was first assigned, were in the audience to support him. 

“I’ve waited 10 years for this,” Fr. Gally said, as he introduced himself to the audience of new citizens and guests. 

Fr. Gally returned later that day to the St. Patrick Parish rectory to find it decorated with red, white and blue balloons, an American flag on his door and a crowd of people inside the house and on the porch waiting to congratulate him. 

“It was a happy surprise,” he said, before heading out the door to open the parish carnival. 

Fr. Gally was ordained a priest in 1987 in the Archdiocese of Madras-Myleapore in India, where he served 14 years as a pastor and school administrator. In 2002, a new diocese was formed out of the archdiocese called the Diocese of Chingleput, where Fr. Gally served for two more years. 

In 2004, he was given permission by the Presbyterate to go abroad. He applied to five dioceses in the United States. Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, then vicar general, replied in 10 days, Fr. Gally said. 

“Msgr. Fitzgerald said in a letter, ‘You are most welcome to come here; we have a placement for you … and don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything,’” Fr. Gally said. “That touched me, and I still appreciate Msgr. Fitzgerald for that.”

Fr. Gally arrived Aug. 2, 2004 and became the associate pastor and hospital chaplain at St. Ambrose Parish with Father William Wheaton, pastor, for five years; then for one year with Father Andrzej Skrzypiec, pastor. 

During the first year Fr. Gally was at St. Ambrose, he had to learn the American culture and the ways things are done in the U.S. For example, Fr. Gally had only operated a scooter, and had never driven a car; he had to learn how to shop in a grocery store and the malls downtown. 

He passed the written test for his driver’s license the first time he took it, but it took him five times to pass the driving test. 

“When he did pass it, everybody at the DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles] clapped for him; they drew a smiley face on his test, they were so excited,” said Melanie Elizondo St. Ambrose secretary at the time, who took him for the test. 

Elizondo also taught Fr. Gally how to shop. 

“He was amazed at all the items as we went up and down every aisle at the store; what he particularly liked is that he could read all the nutrition information on items, and he read a lot of labels that day,” Elizondo said. “Then he wanted to know where the live chickens were; he found out they only come in a package.”

Running water out of the tap also amazed Fr. Gally, Elizondo said. In India he had to heat tubs of water to bath. He also had to learn to cook and iron for himself; in India he either had servants, the nuns or his mother to cook, clean and sew for him.

Although the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church was the same in both cultures, “I had to learn relational and sensitive cultural issues,” Fr. Gally said, adding that the St. Ambrose people “enjoyed my innocence. Fr. Wheaton was a very good mentor for me.”

Fr. Gally realized why he was pursuing the priesthood when he was in the minor seminary, he said. “When I was very young, four of my siblings died of smallpox, but I survived because God had a plan for me,” he said. “Maybe that is why I am here today in Utah.”