Our People

Funeral Homily for Fr Clem Gailey

By Most Rev. Julian Porteous
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
10/11/2005

In this Mass we commend Fr Clem Gailey to the Lord whom he has served with singular devotion. Fr Clem was ordained here in this Cathedral in 1942. He has been a priest for sixty three years. It was his personal wish that his funeral Mass be celebrated here at St Mary’s. His deep Catholic instincts caused him to desire a funeral in the Cathedral Church. A Cathedral Church is the church of the bishop, successor to the Apostles. Fr Clem in this wish reflects his sense of unity with the apostolic core of Catholic faith.

It was his wish, also, that the Mass be celebrated in the Tridentine Rite. His love for the traditional liturgy which he celebrated for the first twenty five years of his priesthood made the latter years of his priestly life a personal burden for him. A quiet, gentle, retiring man, Fr Gailey treasured this form of the Liturgy of the Church. He loved the Mass and had great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

The Tridentine Mass carries a deep sense of reverence for divine mysteries. The Latin language, long the language of the Church in its sacred actions, was dear to him. In this Mass today we honour his wishes and also allow its dignified reverence to carry our prayers for a devout priest.

The Mass is simply the heart of our Catholic faith. Its liturgical expression has long been the source of unity and catholicity. It is a burden on the hearts of us all to witness the way that the Mass is to be celebrated as ordained by the magisterium becoming a source of division. We all believe in its essential meaning – it is the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ; it is the central act of worship of the Church. We must dedicate ourselves to finding paths to a full restoration of unity under the successor of St Peter.

Fr Gailey served as Assistant Priest in a number of parishes over a seventeen year period before becoming Priest in Charge of the new Parish of Forestville in 1959. He began with literally nothing, living initially with the Augustinians at Manly Vale. He struggled over many years to establish the parish – obtaining a presbytery and building a first church, dedicating so much time and effort to provide a school relying upon volunteer labour highly organized into teams working on weekends, and finally completing a second Church in 1967. Fr Clem showed great administrative capacity as he devoted his energies to establishing a viable parish community, and was able to engage the generous support of the parishioners anxious to provide the necessary facilities for a fully operational parish. He was singularly successful in completing this task.

He would see his original parish divided to establish the parish of Davidson in 1975. After twenty seven years as Parish Priest Fr Gailey retired in May 1986. He had dedicated the bulk of his priestly service to the parish of Forestville. Today we acknowledge his steady, pioneering priestly work in Forestville, a work that others found easy to build upon.

A priest’s life can be measured in terms of his practical achievements, but it is the hidden work with individuals that cannot be assessed or calculated. A priest is firstly a man of God. The oft quoted words of the Letter to the Hebrews captures the role of the priest standing before God on behalf of his brethren: “Every High Priest has been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in their relations with God” (Heb. 5, 1). A Priest is set apart – his ordination, his embracing of celibacy, his devotion to the Divine Office, his faithful celebration of the Sacred Mysteries, his silent prayer - all express this particular “being set apart”. A priest orients his life in a very particular way around the service of God. A priest is the instrument of the action of God, particularly in the Sacraments. A priest carries the burdens and struggles of his brethren and intercedes before God on their behalf. He carries in his heart the needs of his people. He lifts up his hands before the Lord on behalf of his brethren.

The Prophet Jeremiah (3, 15) gives the promise of the Lord that he will give the people “shepherds after my own heart”. A Priest as true shepherd configures his heart to that of God. He senses the pulsing love of the Lord for his people. The priesthood is not the possession of the priest, he knows that he shares in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ. Christ alone is the Eternal High Priest. A priest unites himself with Christ the Priest. He acts in persona Christi capatis.  Christ becomes the principle of his being. A man of prayer, a priest is drawn more and more into the divine mysteries that he celebrates. He becomes more and more one with the salvific work of the Lord realized particularly in the Holy Mass.

We honour this faithful priest today. A man who loved and lived his priesthood. A man who was close to the Blessed Virgin Mary – never missing his daily rosary. In this Mass which he deeply loved, we commend him to the Lord whom he served with steady conviction and great simplicity of spirit.

May the Lord grant him eternal rest and receive him into his Kingdom.