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Father Gallagher was 'priest to the end'

by Father John Geaney, C.S.P. and Stefani Manowski

An example of priestly faith and leadership, Father Joseph Vincent Gallagher, C.S.P., died Nov. 16 at age 85 from complications of Parkinson�s disease. He died at Hecker House, the residence of the Paulist Fathers in Grand Rapids, Mich.

From 1986 through 1994, Father Gallagher served two terms as president of the Paulist Fathers, the first community of Catholic priests founded in the United States. During his administration, Father Gallagher guided the Paulists to adopt a new mission direction statement that determined the Paulist mission around three major priorities: evangelization, ecumenism and reconciliation. The mission direction statement that Gallagher nursed into reality continues, today as the operative expression of Paulist Ministry. While president, Father Gallagher conducted the first nation-wide capital campaign for the Paulist Fathers, renovated the seminary at a time when seminaries across the United States were closing or amalgamating, and helped to secure the retirement needs of aging Paulists with an endowment fund. Father Gallagher fostered a resurgence of interest in the spirituality of the Paulist Founder, Father Isaac Thomas Hecker. He was a strong advocate of the influence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Paulist priests and associates, and worked tirelessly in advocating a deepening role for the laity in ministry. Father Gallagher believed as strongly as the Paulist founder did, that creating a �future brighter than any past� would demand ministries that reached beyond local churches into the marketplace at the nexus of culture and faith.

Father Gallagher�s directives as president of the Paulists came from a rich experience in pastoral settings. Ordained on May 1, 1961 at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City, Father Gallagher served at the Catholic Information Center in Boston, Mass., from September 1961 to 1964. He was director of the Paulist Institute for Religious Research in New York City until 1970, and was then appointed pastor and superior of St. Paul the Apostle Parish at New York�s Lincoln Center. In 1978 Father Gallagher was elected the vice-president of the Paulist Fathers. While serving as vice president, Father Gallagher also served as superior of the Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids, Mich. In 1982 Father Gallagher left Grand Rapids, and became pastor and superior of St. Paul the Apostle Church, located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he remained until he was elected president of the society.

�He helped us concretize how the Spirit was leading us after the Second Vatican Council,� said Father John F. Duffy, C.S.P., current Paulist president. �His love and compassion for the men was obvious. His witness, his desire to remain engaged in ministry despite his own sufferings and physical limitations said that he wanted to be a priest to the people until the end.�

At the conclusion of his term as Paulist President in 1994, Father Gallagher chose to work as an associate and then retire at the Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he remained a vibrant spiritual presence until his death.

�I followed Joe at St. Paul the Apostle in New York - our Mother Church - which had gone through very tough years during the urban down-turn of the 1960's,� said Father Frank DeSiano, current first consultor and former president of the Paulists. �Joe's outreach to the neighborhood, his care for the simplest people who knocked on the rectory door, and his forays into Spanish, were all examples of his sense of priesthood.�

The former Paulist president, was educated at Portsmouth Academy, and received his bachelor�s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1942. After graduation he served as a commander of landing ships in the Pacific during World War II. After the war he earned a law degree from Fordham University and practiced maritime law in New York until he joined the Paulists in 1956. Father Gallagher also earned a master�s degree in theology from St. Paul�s College in Washington, D.C.

A native New Yorker, Father Gallagher was born on March 5, 1923 to Joseph V. and Alice P. (McGovern) Gallagher. He is survived by his brothers, John Gallagher of Chicago, Peter Gallagher of Florida and numerous nieces and nephews including his nephew, Paulist Father David Dwyer, C.S.P.

A wake will be held for Father Gallagher on Monday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at St. Andrew�s Cathedral in Grand Rapids, Mich. A Mass of the Resurrection will be offered on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 11 a.m., also at St. Andrew�s. A funeral Mass will be offered at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City on Saturday, Nov. 24, tat 9:30 am. Interment will follow in the cemetery at Mount Paul in Oak Ridge, N.J.

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