Maria-Cruz Gray recognized

Intermountain Catholic

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Maria-Cruz Gray (left) receives the Southwest Liturgical Conference Faithful Servant Award from Bishop John C. Wester. Also pictured is Cynthia Goerig, chair of the Faithful Servant Award Committee.

SALT LAKE CITY — Maria-Cruz Gray, director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City Hispanic Ministries Office, received the 2011 Southwest Liturgical Conference’s Faithful Servant Award. She was presented with the award at the banquet Feb. 4, at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center.

The Faithful Servant Award is annually given to someone within the conference’s 27 diocese who has made a significant liturgical contribution in the Southwest.

The Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City, described Gray in three words: vision, work and heart. "Maria has a wonderful vision for our diocese particularly in terms of forging a path for our Hispanic ministry and our service to this local church," he said. "Approximately 80 percent of the Catholics in Utah speak Spanish."

Gray, who also is the head of the Hispanic Commission, works tirelessly, he said. "Maria is at the Pastoral Center on the weekends, late at night and all over the diocese with an incredible amount of energy. She works for the people that she loves so much.

"Maria has a huge, loving, profoundly deep heart," he said. "She is constantly with the people. When we had the terrible Crandle Canyon Mine disaster seven years ago, she commuted back and forth many hours each way, to be with the people."

After the local immigration raids by federal authorities, Gray visited with the families who were left to pick up the pieces after relatives were deported, the bishop said.

"Maria is, in my view, and I know in all of our views in Utah, very deserving of this award and I thank you very much for selecting her for it," Bishop Wester said.

Gray and her husband, Deacon Forrest Gray, have a son, Christopher, who is studying for the priesthood. "I believe it is true as Pope John Paul II said, ‘the home is the first seminary,’" the bishop said. "Maria and Forrest have instilled in their son a deep love for the priesthood and he began studying a long, long time ago."

Gray thanked the board for the award. "Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think that this would happen to me. Our Lord has such a wonderful sense of humor. I am doing something I love to do and I get a prize besides. I am receiving this award in the name of the Hispanic Catholics of Utah, especially the missions in rural Utah. They work very hard to somehow have liturgical celebrations week after week, and when possible partake in the Eucharist. And as the bishop said, how can we forget the wonderful and painful celebration at San Rafael Mission in Huntington when the mine collapsed taking some of our brothers away."

The Diocese of Salt Lake City covers the entire state of Utah: 85,000 square miles with about 49 parishes, 18 missions and six stations. "It is a great privilege to be able to visit them and feel so welcome," Gray said. "It is a wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord by serving our brothers and sisters. Of course, this would not be possible without the blessing and generosity of our bishop, John C. Wester; our vicar general, Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald; and so many people who allow me to spend time away from my office: priests, deacons and lay ministers and my office staff, Marilyn Acosta and Sandra Maxwell, and above all my husband, Deacon Forrest, who has been so understanding and willing to drive under less than ideal weather conditions."

In Spanish, Gray said that she shares her prize with all the people of the diocese, her heroes, and she gives thanks to God for giving her the opportunity to serve. "I ask the Lord and Our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, that one day soon we may be able to feel safe and secure in this precious nation where we have chosen to serve the Lord," she said.