Father Gilday’s priestly life ‘came full circle’ as pastor of his home parish

Father Robert Gilday preaches a homily during a June 29 Mass at St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Church in Indianapolis. It was a liturgy that celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

The 20th-century American novelist and short story writer Thomas Wolfe famously wrote that “you can’t go home again” in his posthumous 1940 novel that had the phrase as its title.

But the story of Father Robert Gilday seems to prove the exception to Wolfe’s rule. For the last 22 years of his 50 years of priestly life and ministry, he served as pastor of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Parish, the faith community on the east side of Indianapolis in which he grew up.

When he was asked in 2003 to serve as Little Flower’s pastor, “I immediately said, ‘Yes,’ ” recalled Father Gilday, commonly known as “Father Bob” in the parish. “For me, this was coming home. My life came full circle. There were a lot of people I already knew who were still sitting in the same seats that they had sat in years ago.”

Father Gilday and the Little Flower community celebrated his ordination anniversary on June 29, just days before he retired from serving as the parish’s pastor and from active ministry in the archdiocese.

In an interview with The Criterion, Father Gilday spoke gratefully of Little Flower, both in the chance he had to lead it for 22 years, and in the seeds of his priestly vocation that were planted and nurtured there.

He cited his parents, the many priests who served at Little Flower as he grew up and the Oldenburg Franciscan sisters who staffed the parish’s school as fostering his calling.

“I decided I wanted to be a priest when I was 6. And it never changed,” Father Gilday said. “I was fascinated by the Mass, by the mystery of it. That was clearly my goal from day one, to become a priest.”

Making love ‘real, visible and present in the lives of people’

There were 54 boys in Father Gilday’s eighth-grade graduation class at Little Flower School in 1963. Six of them, including retired Father James Farrell, enrolled at the former Latin School of Indianapolis, the archdiocesan high school seminary at the time.

He later received priestly formation at the former Saint Meinrad College in St. Meinrad and at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Three of his classmates at the North American College are now cardinals: Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Cardinal Raymond J. Burke and Cardinal James M. Harvey. Others have served as bishops in the U.S.

“When we were little, cardinals seemed to be so otherworldly,” Father Gilday said. “Even your own bishop wasn’t someone you saw on a regular basis. But one of the things you realize is that they’re human beings like the rest of us.”

He and Father Farrell were ordained priests by St. Paul VI on June 29, 1975, in a Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in which 359 priests from around the world were ordained.

Father Gilday has clear memories of the pontiff welcoming him into the priesthood during the sign of peace in the ordination ritual.

“He was not seen to be a warm and fuzzy person,” Father Gilday said. “He had been a diplomat and was old. But, honestly, there was a real warmth in his eyes. That’s the primary image of the ordination for me.”

Some 70 people from Little Flower traveled to Rome for the ordination. One of them was Father Paul Shikany, who was an archdiocesan seminarian at the time.

Just as Father Gilday was led to his vocation by the priests and sisters who served at Little Flower, Father Shikany, who recently retired from active ministry, said Father Gilday helped him be open to a priestly calling as he grew up in the east side faith community.

“I just gravitated toward him,” said Father Shikany. “He was very kind to me and very supportive. There was a natural kind of friendship that developed over the years.”

During his 12 years of priestly formation in Indianapolis, St. Meinrad and Rome, Father Gilday’s conviction that he was called to be a priest never changed. His understanding of the nature of his vocation did.

“I had come to believe that love was the most important thing in life and in the Church, and that the role of the priest was to make that love real, visible and present in the lives of people,” he said.

‘Seeing Christ’ in ‘people who are wounded’

When Father Gilday returned to the archdiocese, he served as associate pastor at St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg and later at St. Matthew the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis. In 1980, he began ministering in canon law on a part-time basis in the archdiocesan Metropolitan Tribunal. That service became a full-time assignment in 1985.

Working through cases in which Catholics were seeking a declaration of nullity of a previous marriage (commonly known as an annulment) was the primary task for Father Gilday in the tribunal. He spoke about how he brought to this ministry his understanding of “the psychology of people in marriages.”

“That’s what I was good at, bringing in those kinds of insights,” he said. “I found learning about people’s stories fascinating. To me, it was kind of like a puzzle.”

It was also a chance for him to show compassion to people who were often suffering the pain of broken relationships.

“You’re dealing with a lot of people who are wounded,” Father Gilday said. “And we talk a lot about seeing Christ in people like that, people whom Pope Francis talked about as being on the margins.”

Retired Msgr. Frederick Easton led the tribunal as vicar judicial for most of Father Gilday’s service there. He appreciated how the priest would work with the tribunal staff on ways to speak pastorally and compassionately with people involved in often complex marriage cases.

“Many times, we would collaborate on that,” Msgr. Easton said. “We would talk to sort it out and come to a consensus.”

He also valued Father Gilday’s analytical mind.

“He could bring in ideas that would be challenging, other ways of looking at things,” Msgr. Easton said. “We would always appreciate it when he would chime in when we would discuss a case. He usually had something significant to say.”

Father Shikany, who had looked up to Father Gilday while a student at Little Flower School, later served with the priest on the tribunal staff.

“He was very helpful with logic, language and precise thought,” Father Shikany said. “That always was his gift.”

‘It’s a wonderful life’

Tom Costello was another person who, as he grew up at Little Flower, looked up to Father Gilday. And when the priest returned to the parish as its pastor in 2003, Costello was a member of its staff. He remained so during Father Gilday’s 22 years as pastor and continues as the parish’s music director.

Costello has clear memories of Father Gilday’s first homily to the members of Little Flower Parish as their pastor in 2003.

“He made it clear that this was their parish, not his,” recalled Costello, who is four years younger than Father Gilday. “That’s the way that his ministry continued all through his time here. He fostered and encouraged a strong sense of ownership in the parish.”

Costello was grateful for Father Gilday’s preaching, which he said helped him to grow much in his life of faith through the years.

“Father Bob gives brief, pointed homilies,” Costello said. “There’s always a message in his homilies, and they’re always right there. His message never gets buried. He’s said many times that his motto as a homilist is, ‘Be bright, be brief and be gone.’ ”

Little Flower will celebrate its100th anniversary later this year, just months after Father Gilday marked the 50th anniversary of his ordination.

Although he was 75 when he celebrated his ordination’s golden jubilee, the coming together of his anniversary and the parish’s filled him with life.

“It’s kind of energizing, life-giving,” Father Gilday said. “I see the connection. My life was formed in this parish.”

And that life for Father Gilday is the priesthood. It’s not something that he does. It’s something that he is.

“It’s a wonderful life,” he said.

I’ve never wanted to be anything else. I’ve never thought that I made a mistake. This is who I am. And that’s how it’s got to be. The whole idea of priestly identity is so important. It’s who you are.”
 

(For more information on a vocation to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, visit HearGodsCall.com.) †