Norman Thomas Gilroy

Styles of Norman Gilroy
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Sydney

Sir Norman Thomas Gilroy KBE (22 January 1896 – 21 October 1977) was an Australian bishop. He was the first Australian-born cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Gilroy was born in Sydney, to working-class parents of Irish descent. Educated at the Marist Brothers' College in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, he left school when 13 years old, to work as a messenger boy in what was then the Postmaster-General's Department. In 1914 his parents refused permission for him to enlist in the Australian Army, but he was allowed to volunteer for the transport service as a telegraphist. He left Australia in February 1915 and served in the Gallipoli campaign of World War I in 1915 as a naval wireless operator on the Hessen off Gallipoli and Imbros.

After his return to Australia in August 1915, he was ordered to resume his work as a telegraphist for the postal service. He expressed an interest in becoming a priest and in 1917 began his studies at St Columba's, Springwood, New South Wales in 1917, and continued them from 1919 at the Urban College in Rome. He was ordained a priest on 24 December 1923 at the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, and received his doctorate in divinity in Rome the following year.

Returning to Australia in 1924, Gilroy was appointed to the staff of the Apostolic Delegation in Sydney, which in that year received as its new head Archbishop Bartolomeo Cattaneo, who favoured the appointment of Australian-born priests as bishops in Australia. After six years in this post, Gilroy returned to Lismore, New South Wales, becoming Chancellor and Secretary of the Bishop.

In 1934, he was appointed Bishop of Port Pirie, South Australia, gaining an experience in dealing with pastoral problems that was to serve him well in his later position.

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