Most of the world probably only vaguely remembers the Rev. John Gallagher. He is the priest who went international with the claim that he was fired from his pastorate for turning in a priest who had a cell phone full of child porn. He first made the charge in an Irish newspaper.
But he had been our pastor. Actually, he was still in the testing year before his pastorate would be confirmed when the bishop removed him for let us charitably call innovative pastoring. That trial period didn't keep him from styling himself as pastor and remodeling the rectory to suit his corporal needs. In fact, his first complaint was that the bishop, in reassigning him, had kicked him out of "my home."
That wasn't a very likely grounds for the lawsuit, so he turned to claiming he was bounced for blowing the whistle on his wayward assistant.
How he got the wayward assistant is germane. I am not going to go into the other stories I could tell. But he arrived with a wonderful parochial vicar (assistant) in place. One day he changed the locks on the rectory so the assistant couldn't get in. The bishop agreed to move the assistant (he is very happy and still doing great work) but supposedly (I didn't hear this from the bishop) said the pastor wouldn't get another priest because he didn't know what to do with them.
So the pastor went on EBay or someplace to get the guy who wasn't here a month before the sheriff swooped in. The chief deputy gives Gallagher high marks for cooperation. (I did hear that from the chief deputy.)
So when Gallagher subsequently found out he wasn't owner of the parish for life, he sued for wrongful dismissal, claiming it was because he was a whistle-blower. Suing a bishop because he gave a priest a new assignment is usually not a smart move for a priest. But Fr. Gallagher and his lawyer made a mighty noise about it and actually got some attention from the courts. Whereupon the bishop, who never before was heard to utter a mutter a mean word about anyone finally issued a press release saying Fr. Gallagher needed counseling. He also unbound the parish staff from the non-disclosure agreement which, although tacit, they followed much more scrupulously than Trump's girlfriends. The result was the first public airing of the side of the story that hadn't been muddied by Fr. John's fantasy life.
Fr. Gallagher thereupon amended his suit to sue the bishop for slander.
The case had been dragging on since 2015 but finally was decided last week by the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled, basically, that it was a Church labor matter beyond the reach of civil law. It could conceivably go further, to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that is unlikely. Fr. Gallagher has remained on the diocesan payroll, on sick leave doing nothing, since he and his lawyer cooked up this lulu.
As and old friend used to say, I could tell you more, but I won't. I think you now know enough about the priest who made himself famous in the Irish Times and U.S. media to figure out why the bishop may have thought he wasn't pastoral material.
Have to admit - I've never heard of this man, either in the Irish Times (which I don't read regularly) or the US press. Probably more famous in Florida than in other parts of the country.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound like he might need a bit of counseling.
Why did the parish staff have to sign NDAs? Was that this priest's doing, or is that SOP in parishes these days?
Anne, Sorry. When I said tacit about the nda's, I meant it was understood that what happened in the rectory stays there. This is a very talkative parish, but the rectory staff was very good about not going beyond rolling their eyes for almost a year.
ReplyDeleteYou get sprained eyeballs if you do that too often.
ReplyDeleteLike Anne, never hear of your former pastor. Sounds like grist for J.F. Powers!
So is Fr. Gallagher still in the priesthood? There are some guys who aren't pastor material, but could do okay as an assistant. Then there are others who just shouldn't be there in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThere was a priest in our area who has bipolar disorder. He doesn't want to be a pastor and the archbishop hasn't forced the issue. Most of the time he does fine as an assistant. Once in a while he has to have his meds adjusted. But he is a source of encouragement to others who suffer from mental disorders. So people can even make their problems work for the greater good. But it's kind of hard to do that if your problem is an oversized ego.
Fr. John, as I said, is on sick leave. Maybe forever. He had been assistant in at least one parish before he got to us, and he did OK there until his departure, which was a bit messy. I wouldn't want him in my rectory if I were a pastor. If I were running a motivational speakers bureau, maybe. His rhetoric is very good; his theology, though, is almost non-existent. His people skills are shaky except among those he calls "my high-rollers."
ReplyDeleteI had thought everybody heard of this guy because he did make the national news, via the Irish Times, as the guy claiming he was silenced for ratting out a priest-abuser. Apparently he isn't even as famous as he thinks he is.
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