“A beautiful gift” is the way Therese Norris describes her brother’s priesthood 25 years after Bishop Robert J. McClory’s ordination, a thought echoed by his two older brothers, Michael McClory and Dan McClory.
All three siblings plan to attend his silver jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving on May 10 in the Diocese of Gary, where he has led the faithful since his episcopal installation on Feb. 11, 2020.
“His presence, his priestly guidance, the sacraments we have received from him, his wisdom and knowledge – all of it is really, really a blessing,” said Norris, who resides in the family’s home state of Michigan. “We have so much access to the path to God through Bishop Bob. I know he was a great comfort to my parents as they aged. “It is all very humbling and I am in awe at the access we have to his guidance,” she added.
Middle brother Dan McClory, who has lived in California and Italy for more than 40 years, recalls being in a Rome hotel when his younger brother, a lawyer for several years, called to announce that he was switching careers. “He said, ‘I have some really important news’ and I asked if I should sit down. He told me, ‘I’ve been thinking and praying and I have decided my calling is the priesthood.’
“I was surprised, not because he wasn’t a religious person, but because he had had accomplishment after accomplishment, from becoming a national debating champion in college to earning a master’s degree at Columbia University to graduating from the University of Michigan School of Law and working for a good law firm in Detroit; he had a lot going for him,” Dan McClory explained.
“What I remember saying to him is, “That’s great, and I’m sure you thought about it a lot, but don’t lose your ambition. You have become very accomplished and have been a high-performance person. When you serve God, you don’t wear your ambition on your sleeve, but keep achieving, keep being outstanding … and he has continued accomplishing, adding a great number of skills and putting them to good use.”
Himself a successful businessman, the bishop’s brother agreed that Bishop McClory is a better priest than he would have been an attorney. “He could have been a TV talk show host, a $25M-a-year venture capitalist or one of 100,000 great U.S. lawyers, but his impact on people and their lives is far greater as a priest.
“He always applied himself and got things done. He got to stand up and deliver, and now he’s doing it for God,” added Dan McClory.
Just two years older than the brother she calls ”Bishop Bob,” his only sister saw him as excellent priest material. “He was always gentle, kind and sweet, a good person with good judgement even as a youngster. He worked hard in school and continued using his gifts as he grew.”
When Robert McClory told his mother he was entering the seminary, she had an even bigger surprise for him, recalled his sister. “She told him that at his confirmation, our brother Mike had his hand on Bob’s shoulder as his sponsor, and my mom heard God say: ‘He will be a priest.’ At first she thought, does God mean Mike or Bob? Then she heard it again,” said Norris, but she never revealed that ‘prediction’ until her youngest son had made up his mind.
“When she told him, he said, ‘Gee, Mom, it would have been easier if you had told me earlier.’”
Norris agrees Bishop McClory is a better priest than lawyer. “He would have had a good career, but his heart and soul would not have been fulfilled,” she said.
“Bob always had a strong faith and was in practice just a few years – working in business planning and litigation just a few blocks from my office – when he came to me and said, ‘You know, I’m going to be leaving the law to enter the seminary,’” recalled Mike McClory, a Michigan judge five years older.
What Mike McClory remembered most in 2020 about his youngest brother growing up is that he was “very earnest, a hard worker and always a good leader. We were never in school together, but we did a lot of the same activities, and he came out better.”
Dan McClory said the best part of his younger brother becoming a priest was seeing “the effect it had on my parents, especially my mother, who almost became a nun herself. The joy of that fulfillment meant she couldn’t stop smiling.” While neither parent lived to see him ordained and installed as a bishop – Ann McClory passing away in 2017 and Jim McClory in 2019 – “They saw him become a monsignor,” noted Dan McClory.
“Bob has always had a connection with our (three) children,” Dan McClory said. “He checks in with them, knowing about their graduations and marriages. He’s on top of all that with all nine nieces and nephews.”
Having a brother who is a priest “gives me and interesting topic to talk about,” quipped Dan McClory, who continued, “I’m really able to connect with him because he’s so multi-faceted …having an extraordinary bishop as a brother is a tremendous gift.”
Norris attended both her brother’s ordination as a transitional deacon in Rome and his priestly ordination a year later at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit. “I also remember his first Mass at the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, now a national basilica,” she said. “The consecration and other rites of the Mass were very emotional for him, and his gratefulness and humbleness showed.
“It has been beautiful to see the sacraments he has given to his nieces and nephews – First Communion, marriage, even a couple of first reconciliations. He has blessed their homes and recently baptized my grandson, Charles Norris,” who will also be witnessing the Mass of Thanksgiving on May 10. Their sixth child is a first-year religious novice in Ann Arbor.
Caption: Robert J. McClory (center) gathers with his parents Ann and James McClory after passing his bar exam at the Oakland County Circuit Court House in Pontiac, Mich., in 1991. (Therese Norris photo)