An estimated 70 percent of the Catholic population in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Utah, is Hispanic—a 250 percent increase over the past 30 years. The increase is especially notable in a diocese that encompasses the entire state of Utah, nearly 85,000 square miles, where Catholics are a small minority compared to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the state’s predominant faith community.
More than just riding a demographic wave, the growth of this diocese’s Hispanic Catholic population can be largely attributed to the tireless efforts of one leader in particular.
During her 24 years as director of Hispanic ministry in the Catholic Church in Utah, Maria-Cruz Gray, pictured below, has left no community of the state untouched, no matter how small or remote. The result is that she has become a visible manifestation of the Church’s presence and care to 200,000 Hispanic Catholics.
But the key to Gray’s success was to make her ministry more than the mission of one woman. Everywhere she has gone in Utah, she has empowered a new generation of leaders for the Church, finding new difference makers in the most far-flung communities.
Empowering lay leaders
In her efforts to identify committed lay leaders across the state, Gray made sure that she went not only to the metro areas but also to places where Catholics are largely a minority and where people work difficult, laborious jobs in agriculture or mining. Many of the Catholic missions in these communities don’t have resident priests, adding urgency to finding committed lay leaders to ensure that the Church remains strong.
Gray has been instrumental in the formation of 116 Hispanic lay ecclesiastical ministers through the diocese’s EMAUS program. Many of them come from the outlying communities of the state. The program’s four-year intensive curriculum forms leaders in human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral areas. Gray guides these EMAUS groups, pictured below, so that these leaders can become active ministers themselves in religious education or respond to the pastoral and human needs of their communities.
“She has spearheaded several very significant programs that are illustrative of her service to the Church, providing pastoral outreach to the families of workers on the farms and ranchos. She has organized a group of ‘missionaries’ in the city who still provide food, clothing and personal supplies once a month to day laborers,” said Bishop Oscar Solís of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. “Her indefatigable spirit, vision and good works have benefited the diocese as a whole and, in particular, the Latinos.”
Gray sets a tremendous example for the new leaders she is identifying across Utah on how to always lead with compassion and energy. As a result, her diocese is stronger and its faith communities are more vibrant.
A family of leaders
Gray’s encouragement and example of service have even spread within her own family. She is immensely proud of her son, Father Christopher Gray, who was ordained to the priesthood in 2013 and is now pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Park City, Utah. The mother and son are pictured at his ordination below.
Father Gray admires just how many people across Utah simply know his mother, not to mention the impact she has had on them in growing their Catholic faith and becoming leaders for the Church. When she was recognized by the Spanish-language cable TV station KUTH Univision 32 for her humanitarian efforts in 2022, Father Gray said, “Mom helps people. All throughout our diocese I run into people who say, excitedly, that they know my mom. She takes the time to listen to everyone, to show warmth and interest, and to help them if she can.”
Gray’s late husband, Forrest, was a deacon for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, serving from 2004 until his death in January 2020.
Maria-Cruz Gray has said of her commitment to her faith,
We are one Church, professing one faith in one Lord, and we have one mission—to proclaim the Gospel or the good news of salvation to all people.”
She is not just committed to proclaiming the good news to the poor in spirit but also to the poor and downtrodden of society. Over the years she has worked with the government and other agencies to coordinate relief efforts and organize food and clothing drives like the one shown below to help those in need.
“On top of all she does in terms of teaching and ministering, her personal service to the poor is quiet and as hidden as is possible, but consistent and generous over all the years she has served in leadership for the diocese,” added Msgr. Colin F. Bircumshaw, vicar general for the diocese. “She is a true modern-day saint without the halo.”
Amid all that she has accomplished, Gray remains humble, but she cannot help from being visible and known to the hundreds of thousands of people she has touched in Utah over nearly a quarter-century of ministry.
Catholic Extension Society is honored to share the story of Maria-Cruz Gray, a finalist for our Lumen Christi Award. This award is Catholic Extension Society’s highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve. Visit this page to read the other inspiring stories from this year’s finalists.
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