Fr. Kevin Gormley: 60 years of priestly ministry and fellowship
Young Kevin Gormley told the president of All Hallows Seminary in Dublin that he wanted to be a priest in San Francisco, where his brother was living.
The president said enough men from the seminary had applied to serve there, but the bishop of a recently formed diocese in Missouri needed priests.
“I didn’t even know where that was,” Fr. Gormley recalled. “I told him it doesn’t really matter where I go as long as the temperature is tolerable.”
Bishop Joseph M. Marling C.PP.S., this diocese’s founding bishop, assured him of mild and moderate weather.
“And I fell for it!” said Fr. Gormley.
Heat waves and cold snaps aside, he’d never trade these past 60 years of Priesthood in Missouri.
“It’s kind of a rural diocese, and I grew up in a rural part of Ireland,” he said. “It was a bit like home for me.”
Now living in Boonville since retiring from full-time ministry in 2015, Fr. Gormley observed his priestly diamond jubilee this June with a Mass and Sunday brunch at that city’s Ss. Peter & Paul Church.
A crowd of friends and neighbors, a few who remember his two years there as a newly-ordained associate pastor, turned out to celebrate and present the gift of airfare to visit his family back home.
“It was kind and beautiful,” he said.
Fr. Gormley previously ministered in Boonville, Taos, Loose Creek, Jefferson City, Mexico, Martinsburg, Wellsville, Tipton, Marshall and Sweet Springs.
“The Priesthood is my life,” he stated. “I could never think of any other life that would make me happier than I am.”
He said if he could go back 60 years and tell himself one thing, it would be that everything will be okay and that God will help him minister to thousands of people.
He recalled offering Mass the morning he departed for the United States 60 years ago, in the church where he had been baptized and received his First Holy Communion.
“At that time, of course, the priest said Mass facing the altar,” he recalled. “I had a nice cry there where people couldn’t see me. I had my back to them.”
He was leaving behind everyone and everything he had grown up with: his parents, brothers and sisters, friends, his home, his Gaelic football team.
“And then just wondering and praying it would all work out,” he recalled. “I had no idea because I had never been to Missouri.”
“Teach the nations”
The 12th of 13 children born to the late Patrick and Margaret Gormley, Fr. Gormley grew up on a farm in Co. Longford, about midway between Dublin and Galway.
His grandmother was always close by, helping his mother care for all the children.
“My parents never missed church, always spoke highly of the priests and prayed the Rosary daily,” he recalled.
After finishing Catholic grade school, young Kevin rode his bicycle 12 miles each day to get to and from St. Mary High School in Moyne.
Sensing that he might be called to be priest, he applied for and was accepted into All Hallows.
It was a time when Ireland had many more priestly vocations than it needed, making it a hub of missionary activity.
“Most of the students there went to England, Scotland, Australia or Africa and to the United States — a lot to California or Florida,” Fr. Gormley noted.
The seminary rector put him in touch with Bishop Marling in Jefferson City. On the bishop’s word, he agreed that this would be a good place to serve God and his people as a priest.
On June 21, 1964, in the All Hallows College Chapel, Bishop Patrick Dunne of Dublin ordained Fr. Gormley and his 37 classmates to the Holy Priesthood.
After some grieving before leaving for Missouri, the new priest felt God’s courage and consolation rush over him as he looked ahead to the life of a priest in the United States.
Prayer and work
Fr. Gormley quickly fell in love with the Church in this part of the world.
He feels fortunate that all of his assignments were in parishes with Catholic schools, which helped him stay close to young families and influence children with the Gospel values he received when he was their age.
Whenever he was assigned to a new parish, he would read the previous year’s worth of weekly bulletins.
“That gave me an overview of the characteristics of that parish,” he said.
In each new mission field, he worked to cultivate an understanding among his parishioners that all people are called to carry out the work of the Church every day.
“Serving the best I could in the parishes I was assigned to and getting to know and love the people,” he called it.
He realized that God had endowed him with a gift for recognizing talent and leadership potential among his parishioners, and convincing qualified people to serve on boards and commissions.
He always believed in the importance of the two main elements of diocesan Priesthood — spiritual leadership and parish administration.
“Of course, the primary portion is to be a spiritual leader, which includes the fidelity to prayer and to the Mass and to the Sacraments,” he stated.
He also made a point of involving himself in the everyday lives of his parishioners.
“To be a good priest, I believe that there should be a balance between prayer and work,” he stated. “The sanctuary priest is not enough. We have to be a man for the people.”
Papal blessing
One of Fr. Gormley’s happiest memories is from 1986, while he was on sabbatical in Rome. He and 35 other priests from North America concelebrated Mass with Pope St. John Paul II in his private chapel.
Afterward, the Pope greeted each priest.
“I shook hands with a saint!” Fr. Gormley said.
A decade previously, he was pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City when Gov. Joseph Teasdale, who was Catholic, got elected.
“‘Walking Joe’ was a daily communicant,” Fr. Gormley recalled. “He and his bodyguard were in St. Peter’s Chapel every day at noon.”
Fr. Gormley and the late Monsignor Ralph G. Kutz helped the governor and his wife, Theresa, adopt a son.
“I got to baptize that child,” said Fr. Gormley. “And guess what they named him: Kevin! So I was very honored.”
Support group
Years ago, Fr. Gormley and a handful of other priests of the diocese formed a priests’ support group, carving time out of their busy schedules each month to pray and socialize together.
“That has been very good for me — getting to know those guys in a very intimate way,” he said.
Each July, the group spends a week together at the Lake of the Ozarks, talking, praying, resting and dining together.
“We share a lot of what’s going on in our lives,” he said. “We rejoice with each other. If one of us is down and needs encouragement, we’re there to help him.”
He believes it’s essential for priests to foster camaraderie among themselves, especially now, with more of them living in rectories alone.
“We share the good points and bad points of the past months, and we give and get affirmation for who we are,” he said.
Several members can’t attend the gatherings anymore because of health, but those who can, do.
And they all still pray for each other.
Here and there
Fr. Gormley retired from full-time ministry in 2015 but never stopped being a priest.
He moved to Boonville because it’s centrally located, making it easier for him to cover for priests who are away from their parishes.
He wound up offering Mass in parishes throughout the diocese, along with a few weddings and funerals.
He occasionally administers the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick to people who are gravely ill.
He doesn’t venture out as far as he used to, but he does still fill-in at nearby parishes and hears confessions at seasonal Reconciliation services.
He offers Mass daily.
He’s made over 60 visits to his homeland since becoming a Missouri resident — each year for vacation and for the funerals of his parents and several of his siblings.
He had 44 nieces and nephews when he was ordained, “and so many more now.”
“I’ve been to all of Ireland and they bring me to those places,” he said.
He’s convinced of the importance of staying close to his family of origin.
“That gives you a sense of belonging and ‘groundedness,’ and not just in the family of the Church,” he said.
Beyond the wave
When Fr. Gormley returned home to celebrate his priestly jubilee this year, his large, extended family unveiled a concrete bench, inscribed with his name, ordination date, and the Diocese of Jefferson City, in a flower garden outside the home he grew up in.
“It’ll probably last longer than a tree,” he surmised.
He said he’s intensely grateful for his first 60 years of Priesthood. He asks for prayers for the gift of discernment — specifically, the wisdom to know what God wants him to do at any given time, and the strength to keep doing it.
An engaged U.S. citizen for nearly half a century, he remains proud of and committed to his Irish heritage.
He has empathy for the new waves of missionary priests who come from other parts of the world to serve in the diocese.
“You have to adjust to a lot and learn an awful lot,” he said.
But is it worth it?
“Absolutely!” he said. “I consider it such a great honor to be here.”
