FROM FR. CHRISTOPHER GRAY
YOUR PASTOR
May 24, 2025
Pax Christi!
As I have repeated many times: since becoming your pastor in August 2018, I have never felt more blessed and excited to teach and share the Truth of the Catholic Faith.
This beautiful community, our wonderful family, St. Mary’s Catholic Church is a parish like no other. You transcend the political, cultural, and ecclesial divides which have plagued our nation and the Church for too long. You have offered me and so many others a way out of the “winter” our world finds itself in. St. Mary’s is a standard bearer of the springtime we all seek: the Paschal Mystery.
At St. Mary’s there is no left or right, no contemporary or traditional, no visitor or local. At St. Mary’s, there is but the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and the Faith, Hope, Love and Charity which flow forth from Him and His resurrection.
Thank you! I love this parish, I love this community, and I love each of you as my parishioners and friends.
You have faithfully continued the great mission that God first gave the Catholic miners in 1881. And I am so confident that you will continue it tomorrow and long after.
It is with this love and confidence in you, the St. Mary’s family, that I announce that I have obediently accepted the Diocese’s request that, on August 1, I become Pastor of the Cathedral of the Madeleine.
Our Parochial Vicar Fr. Paulraj Rayappa will also be departing St. Mary’s to become the Parochial Vicar for St. John the Baptist parish in Draper.
The official announcement will be published in the May 30 edition of the Intermountain Catholic.
The Very Reverend Arokia Dass David, your next Pastor.
The fantastic Very Reverend Arokia Dass David will become the new Pastor of St. Mary’s, joined by the wonderful and soon-to-be-ordained Reverend Kenneth Parsad (who many of you will remember from his pastoral year spent here at St. Mary’s) as Parochial Vicar. Both are good friends of mine, faithful shepherds, and will serve you so well.
The wonderful and soon-to-be-ordained Reverend Kenneth Parsad, your next Parochial Vicar.
Changes like this are not an easy decision for the Diocese; these assignments come from the prayerful reflection and discernment of our Bishop Solis and of representatives from among the priests for the good of the whole Catholic Church in Utah.
It is bittersweet that I will leave you later this summer. Even as I faithfully accept this new role, I will not deny that my first wish was to live out the rest of my priestly ministry in the mountains serving here with you.
But please know, the Diocese’s decision is a direct reflection on you, St. Mary’s, your love, joy, and the crucial role you play in building the greater Catholic Church of Utah. It was you who so lovingly helped form, support, and (charitably and constructively) challenged me as a first-time pastor. This is a testament to you. Again, thank you!
One of the greatest reflections of this was the crucial role St. Mary’s parishioners, volunteers, and supporters played in helping me organize the 2023 Diocesan Eucharistic Rally. It was you who helped bring all the faithful of Utah together, as the Body of Christ, to adore and proclaim the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
And so too now, as I leave you in a few months for the Cathedral, the mother church of our Diocese, my great hope is that we remain close, working together with your new priests, your new leaders, to continue to help build Christ’s Holy Catholic Church in Utah, the Body of Christ, for the salvation of souls and the greater glory of God!
In Christ,
Fr. Christopher Gray
Pastor
