The Rev. Gary Graf set out walking Oct. 6, from Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home in Dolton. On Dec. 2, he expects to mark his successful arrival at the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
In between has been nearly two months of often lonesome walking through rural America in the name of justice for immigrant children.
“Here, they’ve grown up in a very different world,” Graf said. “It’s not a time to attack one another, but a time to kind of have a conversation with one another, and that’s what the walk for me has been all about, having those kinds of conversations.”
As a Chicago area native, Graf said traveling on foot through small town America made him confront how different the world is for people who live much smaller and less diverse communities.
“I think when we share together, somehow we come up with a larger truth,” Graf said. “It’s not just my view, or your view, but if you listen to me, I listen to you, and hopefully in hearing one other, we kind of, as a faith leader, we hear God’s voice.”
Graf is the head pastor at Our Lady of the Heights parish in Chicago Heights, a town that has experienced immigration arrests. Dozens of supporters came out to see him off when he set out on his journey.
Most of his walk has been alone, though friends and supporters came out to join him on the road at various times, he said.
“A high school classmate and his wife, and my brother-in-law, actually, and a friend of his, and then a college friend and his wife. And then one day, a group from the Archdiocese of Chicago,” Graf said. “It was a nice break, just being able to walk with someone else.”
Graf has been documenting his pilgrimage on social media, and online at stepupspeakout.org.
The journey hasn’t been without problems. Graf recounted that while visiting a priest’s home in Indiana, the second he had visited in the town that evening, he was offered the chance to ride a horse.
The horse broke into a gallop and he was thrown from its back, injuring his shoulder and breaking two ribs.
“Thinking back now, I remember Jesus’ words when he said if you go to a town, stay in one home and don’t move from house to house,” Graf said, chuckling. “I never understood what that Scripture meant until that Sunday, when I went to a second home.”
His spokesperson and a helper traveling along with him walked 20 miles in his stead, a day’s worth of walking, to give him a break.
The Rev. Gary Graf on Nov. 11, 2025. (Step Up, Speak Out)
Misfortunes aside, though, Graf said the core of the journey was the conversations he had with people.
“The people we’ve met along the way, church groups and some community groups that have heard about the walk and wanted to meet, we’ve had some wonderful conversations,” Graf said. “Very good-hearted people from many different traditions.”
He said one particular meeting in Pennsylvania, where residents were worried increased immigration enforcement might come to their communities, particularly struck him.
“We had a gathering where there was an Evangelical pastor, a Lutheran pastor, myself as a Catholic priest, a number of members of their communities and a number of people, there were at least five, that identified themselves as nonbelievers,” Graf said. “We had this wonderful conversation where what we all had in common was a feeling, a love of neighbor and to be compassionate, and what was happening, what they heard was happening in Chicago very much disturbed them.”
Graf on Oct. 10. (Step Up, Speak Out)
In the time Graf has been away from Chicago, there have been major developments regarding the immigration crackdown. The activity of federal agents in Chicago and the suburbs has cycled down, moving on to other cities, leaving the region and its immigrant communities reeling in the aftermath.
“I’m just hearing and hoping and praying that it’s been diminishing somewhat,” Graf said. “But then, the pain of Chicago, then, is starting to be released in other places.”
Graf said that his trip has led him to reflect on the history of the United States.
“Going though Ohio and Pennsylvania particularly, I’ll go through small towns and I see hometown heroes. And there’s pictures of, particularly men, but some women, obviously, that were in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, when my dad was in the Navy,” Graf said. “And going through towns, also, they’re dated back to 1801, and 1777, I mean, they’re dated back to Revolutionary War.”
To Graf, that history is a history of immigrants. When he set off on his journey, he talked about how his own great-grandparents’ experience immigrating through Ellis Island from Ireland and Germany had shaped his view of immigration justice.
Graf and others Nov. 15 during his walk. (Courtesy of Step Up, Speak Out)
Graf plans to mark his successful arrival at the Statue of Liberty with an interfaith prayer service at 2 p.m. Tuesday, at Robert Wagner Park in Battery Park City. There will be remarks from Muslim, Jewish and Christian faith leaders, as well as the sharing of personal stories of immigrant children.
He said that while he doesn’t know where his advocacy will take him next, the conclusion of his journey feels like a beginning, not an end.
“More and more as I get toward the end, I’m thinking that it just seems like it’s just the beginning,” Graf said. “Because this obviously is part of our lives and it’s not going away, the whole issue of immigration and the immigrants among us, and the conversation’s going to continue.”
Faith leaders have a responsibility to maintain humanity in that conversation, he said.
“Just reminding the powers that be in terms of the authorities, civil authorities, what is God’s mind and heart in all of this?” Graf said. “We are children of God.”
elewis@chicagotribune.com