Please Join Us in welcoming Father Gary Graf on Friday, December 4th @ 12 Noon
936 miles for immigrant families
Click below to register and purchase your ticket for the Gary Graf luncheon at the Union League Club.
$67 Nonmember* | $57 Member* | $670 Table* (10 seats) | All tickets include three course meal + presentation (*additional processing fee added on at checkout)
Tickets Go On Sale Friday, November 6th
Online reservations close Tuesday, December 1st @ 5pm. For any questions or reservations after December 1st, please call Judy Murphy at 312-466-9610
936 miles for immigrant families
Chicago pastor Father Gary Graf reflects on the roots, the highlights, and the meaning of his walk from Pope Leo's boyhood home to the Statue of Liberty.
Ever since his ordination in 1984, Father Gary Graf has been connected to the immigrant community in deep and lasting ways. He spent five years of his early priesthood at the Archdiocese's mission in Mexico and has worked largely among immigrants in the parishes he has served. As Operation Midway Blitz gripped Chicagoland, as fear took hold and children were separated from their parents, he felt compelled to do something, deciding on a cross-country pilgrimage to the Statue of Liberty to highlight the suffering of immigrant families. He walked 20 miles a day for almost two months, documenting his trip on social media. “Immigrants are not strangers," says Graf, "but rather our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters.”
More on Fr. Graf
Ordained in 1984, Father Graf has served in various parishes, including as pastor of the mostly Hispanic Our Lady of the Heights Catholic Church in Chicago Heights. He is a longtime member of Priests for Justice for Immigrants and has also been active in Catholic social justice initiatives, such as fasting campaigns in support of DACA protections. Before his 2025 journey, he spent five years as a priest in Mexico, where he developed a deep personal connection to the communities he served