During the rancorous campaign over Ballot Measure Nine in 1992, Father Jim Galluzzo, a fierce opponent of the effort to cripple gay rights in Oregon, wanted to get to know some of the people on the other side. He approached the Yes on Nine booth at an event, introduced himself and ended up attending 15 different Christian churches to “listen.”

“During those initial listening sessions with them, every time I struggled, I looked down at what I’d written on my hand – ‘They are fully human,’” he said then.

Some things never change. In late July of 2025, talking about those who make his work with the poor and homeless in Portland more difficult, Fr. Jim said, “Everyone is fully human. Everyone is a child of God. So, I have to treat them that way even if they don’t act that way. I even give love and kindness to my worst enemy. Luckily Jesus didn’t say we have to like everyone. We have to love everyone.

“But I can be critical of their unjust policies.” he added.

Fr. Jim in October 1992 at Saint Matthews Church in Hillsboro. Vandals broke into the church and spray painted swastikas and political graffitti. Oregon voters, including a majority in Hillsboro, voted down the anti-gay measure backed by the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA). ***Photo by Linda Kliewer.***

August 2025 is a month of milestones for Fr. Jim. He was born 80 years ago and ordained a priest 35 years ago. He’ll say a celebratory Mass at 11:00 Saturday, August 9th at St. Clare Church in SW Portland. If the value of one’s life is measured in the number of lives touched in a positive way – touched with grace - Fr. Jim’s is off the charts. Since graduating from Jesuit High School in 1962, he’s been educator, administrator, counsellor, student, priest, principal, pastor, painter, author, adviser, advocate and activist.

A broken hip in June was a minor setback. HIs walker barely slows him down. He discussed what he’s up to these days in the NW Portland loft that serves as art gallery, school supplies warehouse, business office and spiritual center.

“There are no retired priests. I’m a senior priest at the beck and call of the archbishop. No parish. No matter where, I am always working for the homeless and the poor. That was why I became a priest.

“Right now, I feel I’m doing what I was called to do when I said yes to this. I never felt the Church called me. I felt the people called me. They said, ‘Jim, we need you to be preaching what you’re doing. You’re doing incredible work, but the people in the pews are not hearing about people suffering, about believing in themselves, about standing up for what’s right. Sometimes that was in conflict with the church,” he said.

“I work with the Gang Academy. I work with battered women. I work with the homeless. I work with AIDS patients. I work with people who are dying. I work with the elderly. It’s one work. It’s helping them connect to themselves. As long as they stay connected, we don’t feel hopeless or powerless. The federal government cannot break our connections. Though they might try.”

He told a reporter years ago, ``I love being a priest. I get to do ritual, to celebrate weddings, to be there when people are dying. I get to preach. I get to do artwork. I get to help people take charge of their lives.'' Fr. Jim doesn't have to say so but that is still true.

Fr. Jim making a delivery to Rose Haven, a women’s shelter he supports with his work.

View from the streets

Fr. Jim has been working with the poor and those without a house to go home to in Portland longer than most. When one Mayor asked him why he disagreed with a million-dollar study, he told him because the people who did the study didn’t talk to the homeless. He talks to people in distress every day.

He believes that 33% of the people he works with lost a job or suffer medically and that 33% have mental issues, “which we can control if we could control their medicine in a safe setting with nurses.”

The other 33% are drug addicts who won’t go to shelters willingly, he said.

He gives Mayor Wilson credit for trying. “I think this new Mayor is taking this... Well, immediately after he was elected, he came to Rose Haven. He started by talking to homeless people.” (Footnote: Rose Haven is....)

When Jim first concentrated his work with the homeless Bud Clark was mayor. There have been six mayors since then.

Fr. Jim runs Diversity As Gift/Urban Spirtuality Center from a NW Portland loft which serves as headquarters, offices, art gallery, gathering place, library, warehouse and home.

Irish on his mother’s side

When Fr. Jim mentioned that “like the men who started Blanchet House,” many of the volunteers he works with are Irish American, I asked him why he thought that was the case.

“They never bought into the ‘Royalness’. No one seems to mind if they marry their cousins because they want to keep the blood line pure. I think it’s because the Irish have always been supportive of the underdog because they’ve been the underdog,” he said.

When he was growing up in SE Portland, his mother Donna (nee Shannon) used to take him and his two brothers out of school on St. Patrick’s Day. “We started with breakfast at the Dublin Pub and attended 14 different events that day and git home at two A.M.”

In 1981, his mother and grandmother Bess Shannon took the boys to Ireland during the Hunger Strikes. “She wanted us to now these are people who are going to die to support the people of Irelan d and do what is right.”

From his dad, a butcher, and his mom and grandmother he learned a very basic lesson.

“They were concerned about injustice. ‘Your job is to fight it. You’r given gifts to fight injustice in the world.”

To this day Fr. Jim practices the “radical hospitality” he witnessed when he hitchhiked around Ireland after graduating from Jesuit. His “passport” was the copy of Look magazine with Bobby Kennedy on the cover he carried with him. “The Irish loved the Kennedys.”

Fr. Jim As Gift

View from the streets

Irish on his mother’s side

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