In 1954, a freshman Senator from Texas named Lyndon Johnson, inserted a floor amendment to proposed tax legislation.
This “Johnson Amendment", as it is now known, prohibits organizations exempt from taxes under section 501(c)(3) from participating in, or intervening in any political campaigns. The Johnson Amendment applies to all kinds of nonprofit entities, including churches.
Practically, the amendment bans churches from making campaign contributions and, perhaps more specifically, from endorsing specific candidates from the pulpit at the risk of losing tax-exempt status.
Nonprofits can still engage in certain political activities in what the amendment distinguishes between permitted and prohibited political interventions. Thus, churches can address public policy issues but may not directly contribute to nor endorse any political party or candidate for elective office.
However, in the application of the law, it is clear that black Protestant churches (composed mostly of Democratic leaning members) have been exempt from the amendment. The Pew Research Center reported that almost 50% of black Protestant pastors endorse Hilary Clinton in during the 2016 Presidential election.
During his many campaign rallies, Donald Trump, promised to work for the repeal of the Johnson Amendment if elected to the Presidency.
Following the election, President Trump remained faithful to his promise to totally destroy the Johnson Amendment “and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.”
Shortly before the Prayer Breakfast, Senator James Lankford and Representative Jody Hice introduced a bill, the Free Speech Fairness Act, to amend the ban of endorsements, but not the one on contributions.
As a Catholic Priest, I do not welcome the President's promise to repeal the Johnson Amendment.
I think it is safe to presume that the wish of the parishioners as they make their sacrificial offerings is that their contributions exclusively for the benefit of the parish. As a Pastor, I certainly believe that using their free-will offerings of parishioners to contribute to political parties or candidates would be a violation of their trust as well as a Pastor's fiduciary responsibility. And so, I believe the moral and canonical principle that the “wish of the donor” must be fulfilled still holds.
But, perhaps even more fundamentally, I believe that politics are not essential to the mission of the Church.
I believe the Church’s primary mandate is that given it by Christ and not by politically motivated or actively-engaged clergymen, namely, “to make disciples of all nations” by teaching them the wisdom of the evangelical councils and then leaving it to these same disciples to apply those counsels to the political environments and institutions they support and put in place.
What I know is this, however: Catholics (and I among them) will not welcome their Pastors being overtly political at Mass. Nor will they welcome their Bishops being equally political, thus abusing the Sacred Office which is theirs as Successors of the Apostles. I believe that the faithful have a right to expect their Pastors to focus their attention upon the Sacred Mysteries of Faith and the Sacraments and that Mass and church services not devolve into political camp meetings.
If the effort to repeal the Johnson Amendment is all about “fairness”, I believe it would be fairer for the amendment as it now stands to be fairly enforced, that is, those churches whose pastors choose to engage in political endorsements and contributions lose their tax-exempt status.
If Catholics are patient in listening to us Pastors drone on from the pulpit, then let that droning be about the Lord and not the re-hashing of issues and arguments we’ve all heard in the bombardment of political ads and posters so much a part of the American political process.
In the end, I am for the just and fair application of the Johnson Amendment and not its repeal.
What thinkest you?
According to the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), a professional membership organization that provides leadership, direction, and service to the teaching mission of the Church, enrollment in Catholic schools continues to decline at an alarming rate.
Since 2000, more than 2,000 Catholic schools around the country have shut their doors, and enrollment has dropped by 621,583 students, to just over 2 million today.
There are a host of factors which have contributed to these disturbing statistics. But ask any Catholic School Superintendent or Pastor of a parochial school and they will tell you that the most significant of these is the cost associated with an increase of lay teachers and staff members who have replaced Religious Sisters who at one time had been the mainstay of Catholic education.
In addition to these staggering personnel costs, Catholic schools are facing still another threat in the growing trend of charter schools which have become increasingly competitive in attracting students to their tuition-free classrooms. Charter schools have become attractive alternatives to Catholic schools in their pedagogical and academic approaches as well as their insistence upon parental involvement in the educational and personal development of their students.
"Catholic schools cannot compete with charter schools that look like them, and have a longer school day, and school uniforms—and which are free," said Abraham M. Lackman, a scholar-in-residence at the Albany Law School, in Albany, N.Y., and the author of a forthcoming paper on the shift of students from Catholic schools to charter schools. As political support for charters grows and their enrollment expands, the number of Catholic schools will fall, he predicted, and "we have to decide whether that's good public policy or not." This is devastating news for Catholic education, but the financial impact upon the public sector is no less troubling.
In New York State alone, some 18,000 students have left Catholic schools to enroll in charter schools. The result: students once educated by the Church at with no drain upon public coffers now cost the public sector an estimated $320 million a year. A Cato Institute study places the annual national cost of students in religious schools transfering to charter schools at $1.8 billion.
Supporters of school choice and the vast majority of Catholic school officials believe that Catholic schools will benefit from the growth of private-school-voucher programs, which have become more popular in recent years and particularly touted by the newly-elected President.
At present, tuition-voucher programs mostly have been limited to low-income and special-needs students. However, some states have begun to establish voucher programs aimed at middle-class families.
However, such voucher programs are in reality a two-edged sword for Catholic education.
On the one hand, vouchers have the potential to help Catholic schools by providing some relief for the high cost of tuition. Although some Catholic school officials believe that, if state vouchers are too meager in subsidizing a significant portion of tuition costs, more families might be likely to turn to the free alternative to regular public schools—charter schools.
On the other hand, with vouchers comes the potential for government involvement and regulation of Catholic and other religious-based educational institutions. Some Catholic officials warn that Catholic schools should not count on vouchers coming the rescue. Relying on state voucher policies places the future of Catholic schools in the hands of state bureaucrats, a dreadful possibility indeed.
One fact is clear. Catholic education is in peril at this moment in time and no solution to the crisis appears to be on the near or distant horizon.
Recently, a dear Priest-friend and I were waxing eloquently on the state of the Church today. Given our respective ages (he’s 79 and I am a decade younger), we have convinced ourselves that age brings with it a certain wisdom and insight (just another in the many myths that have been concocted to give relevance to dotage).
Nevertheless, our conversation drifted toward our seminary days and our mutual belief that much of what we were taught provided little resource for the demands which would be placed upon us as Pastors. During the course of our discussion, we agreed upon a “wish list”, one we would believe would have better prepared us to face the experiences we shared in common and a “wish list” we would propose (if anyone valued our opinions) for all those presently in seminary formation.
Our first wish: that we would have been taught the skills of leadership, that rare and elusive ability which combines the creative talent to establish a vision and the practical ability to share that vision with others in a way that they will embrace it and contribute to its realization.
By definition, the Church declared that we were leaders as it thrust into such positions by assignment. It was assumed that those named as Pastors were those presumed to have such leadership skills. Yet, truth be told, few of us were ever taught the art and science leadership requires to coordinate and balance both the mutual and conflicting interests of the parishioners that would be entrusted to our pastoral care.
For much of our seminary formation, we were taught to be “loyal lieutenants” efficiently seeing that the orders of our superiors were carried out diligently and well. But we were never really taught to be “able captains” who would one day issue orders from the helm of the parishes we would steer.
How beneficial would it have been to have been mentored in pastoral leadership by actual Pastors who had proved their leadership abilities in the laboratory of real life experience!
Our second wish: that we would have been taught how to be successful business and financial managers.
Take religion out of the equation and being a Pastor largely involves being the CEO of a small business. We exited seminary formation well schooled in Scripture and theology for the most part, but with little or no understanding of the complex dynamics of running a small business operation, addressing such issues as accounting, cash flow, risk management, personnel, payroll and liability concerns, all of which would clutter our desks and occupy our attention an overwhelming amount of our time.
Very few of us were capable of reading, let alone understanding, simple accounting reports. I dare say the same is true of many Pastors serving in parishes right now. Most of us just flew by the seat of our cassocks when it came to making financial ends meet, praying and hoping that the regular weekend collections and fundraisers would provide enough money to pay the bills and maybe (and rarely) have enough left over to put into savings for those proverbial rainy days.
Nowadays, such financial matters are handled by Parish Business Managers, mostly lay persons with financial and business management skills. I would have loved to have employed such a person, but I never had enough money to pay his or her salary. How wonderful it would have been to have been schooled in the immutable laws of business and finance or to have had someone who would have overseen those matters with us and for us!
Next on our list of wishes: that we would have been taught the art and skill of conflict management, if such indeed exists.
It is truly amazing how people who supposedly gather to support and advance the work of the Gospel of charity and forgiveness can be so cruel to one another and so eager in expressing that cruelty.
My friend and I agree that, among the experiences we shared in common as Pastors, the most difficult was dealing with people who came to us with personal agendas, unyielding in their determination to see those agendas fulfilled and unrelenting in their criticism and rancor should their particular demands not be satisfied.
We were never taught any practical way of dealing with such persons. How to listen to them without irritation or judgment, how to expand their horizons of concern and help them appreciate that the Church, the parish, was larger than their narrow views of what was or wasn’t critical in fulfilling the mandate to proclaim the Gospel.
We were never taught to realize and appreciate that, no matter how hard we tried to deal with such people, we would sometimes, perhaps oftentimes fail. We were never taught that some people are simply unreasonable and will never be satisfied unless their perceptions of reality are affirmed and their manner of dealing with those perceptions are employed.
How reassuring it would have been to have had the knowledge not only that such human beings exists but that they are part of the Christian community, that they use their association with the Church as a sort of blackmail, threatening to walk away, to leave the parish should their demands not be met.
How reassuring to have known that sometimes their leaving was the best solution for themselves and the communities they left, parishes which breathed a sigh of relief at their leaving.
And the final wish on our bucket list of wishes: that we would have been taught that, for a goodly number of parishioners, the two issues most important in parish life can be summed up as follows. “What time does Mass start?” And, “How long will Mass last?”
In other words, some parishioners (those without children in the parish school or school of religion, those without rebellious teenagers, those who aren’t involved in committees or councils, those not in sports programs, councils, committees or societies), in other words, the majority of parishioners simply want to come to church, hear the Gospel, receive the Sacraments and then go home.
Success in pastoring doesn’t necessarily mean that the weekend bulletin be a ten page booklet, replete with page after page of schedules, and meetings, and programs and workshops, announcing this new initiative, the next fund drive, the upcoming bake or rummage sale.
Not everyone in the parish is enthralled with the idea of spending what little time or energy they have left over after caring for their families or dealing with the demands of their individual lives, to spend that precious time and energy in parochial pursuits.
And that’s okay. It’s alright if some or most are not fully engaged in one or every aspect of parish activity. It's enough that the Church provide them the wisdom of the Gospel and the Grace of the Sacraments. And that's just fine!
Oh well, for the moment at least, this is the wish list my friend and I agree upon.
I am sure it will be added to as we converse and reminisce about our days as active Pastors. Perhaps, too, someone might hear of these wishes, find some merit in them, and maybe fulfill them in the training and formation of those young men whom the Lord Jesus, in His Loving concern for His Bride, the Church, continues to call to future Priestly service.
The ad limina (to the threshold) visits Bishops are required to make to the Vatican were known for their formality and routine style. However, Pope Francis launched "a whole new style of such visits," Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos of Santiago, Becretary of the Chilean Bishops' Conference, said.
The Holy See informed the Prelates that they were going to have a group meeting with the Pope and the Prefects of several Vatican Congregations and Offices. "We were told that this was going to be a new way of doing things that was beginning with us, that looks for a more fruitful, more incisive dialogue between the representatives of the local churches and the pope with his main collaborators," Bishop Ramos said.
After a private meeting with the Pope on February 20, the Chilean bishops met again with the Holy Father on February 23. At the second meeting, the Pope and Bishops were joined by several top officials, including: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State; Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; and Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Also present at the meeting were: Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect for the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life; Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education; Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy; and Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Bishop Ramos told CNS that Cardinal Ouellet began the discussions, which focused on four principal themes: communion and collegiality within the church; the mission of the church in Chile; how to help clergy, religious men and women as well as the laity "in their Christian lives and in their pastoral service"; and pastoral guidelines for the future. "This was more of a way of looking at everything together, for them to listen to our opinions and (we to listen to theirs) on these principal themes. It was truly something wonderful from the perspective of collegiality, of synodality, of the church walking together. This doesn't just respond to the realities in Chile, it's a whole new (approach) that begins now."
Let us hope that, in these ad limina visits of Bishops to the Vatican, there will be a frank exchange and that the Holy See will listen attentively and sincerely to the Bishops as they make the pastoral needs of their respective dioceses known to the Holy Father. Too often in the past, these visits were more about Bishops delivering reports as well as financial tributes to the Chair of Peter and less about how the Church needs to more effectively minister to the People of God the Bishops were assigned to provide pastoral care.
Kudos again to Pope Francis for providing the atmosphere within which honest and positive dialogue with his collaborators in the hierarchy can take place. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit that these encounters will be fruitful in advancing the mission of the Church to be the presence of Christ around the world.
Ever since Pope Francis was elected, I have noticed a surge of hope rise within the ranks of my brother-Priests who have left active ministry. Some have married. Others live their lives in ways others of quiet service.
Over the years, I have tried to maintain my association with close friends who left active ministry. I’ve often wondered why they left. In some cases, I’ve been bold enough to ask them.
There seems to be a common thread of experience among these good and decent men. Although there were many who say they loved serving in full-time ministry, most have said that there were circumstances that occurred that had a profound and negative effect upon them and their Priesthood.
For some, the memories of these hurts are deeply rooted and still fresh. For others, it has taken years to heal those wounds and the sense of personal failure so common among them.
As one surveys the landscape of the Church today, the number of those who have left the Priesthood is shocking indeed.
And yet, to my knowledge, no one has taken the time to listen to the reasons why.
I have.
Over dinner or a drink. Sharing a meal with their wives and families. On the phone and, yes, even in the Confessional.
It’s true, some gave into temptation and, for reasons of personal integrity, felt they couldn’t live the double life which such an hypocrisy would require of them. In some strange way, their profound respect for the Priesthood demanded that they walk away and carry the burden of being branded failures rather than publicly profane the Church by the scandal that might follow should their failings become public.
Some discovered they were simply incapable of Priesthood. They found they couldn’t bear the burden of others’ consciences. Some told me they were terrified whenever they entered the Confessional. Others dreaded caring for the sick and dying, dreaded being in the hospital rooms or near the death beds. Still others could not overcome their fears of inadequacy as they listened to the tales of tragedy served up in heavy doses in the myriad stories of human failing and sinfulness.
Some were simply overworked. They couldn’t handle being “on call” 24/7, cringing whenever the phone or doorbell to the rectory rang.
A goodly number felt they were completely unprepared for what the Priesthood would demand of them. Most told me that their experience of Priesthood was totally different from what they thought it would be throughout their seminary formation. They became depressed. Some despondent. They believed that had to leave in order to survive.
Many felt a sense of loneliness and emotional emptiness. For them, Priesthood was an endless progression of long hours and countless demands with little appreciation or recognition of their effort. They discovered they could not cope with the isolation they experienced.
Almost to a person, those who left the active ministry told me that their greatest fear in leaving was their concern of having no other way of making a living. All of their educational experience had been centered upon Priestly service. And so, their decision to stay on or leave was very often wrapped up in worries about how they would survive once they left.
Perhaps, what has been most disquieting to me as I have listened to these men is the sense of personal failure many carry with them. Many related how those who had been so friendly and accepting while they wore the Roman collar now shunned them. Fellow Priests broke off all former ties to them. Family members were ashamed and embarrassed by them. The Church publicly labeled them traitors and infidels. Like Hester Prynne, many still feel as though they carry a “scarlett letter” on their foreheads.
For these men, leaving active ministry has been no panacea. It has carried with it its own painfulness. Yet to a man, every person told me the sense of psychological and moral relief from the burden of ministry was liberating. A common metaphor I’ve often heard is that they felt “they could breathe again”, the heavy load of Priestly ministry having been lifted from them by their decision to leave.
But my brother-Priests who have left active ministry largely feel as though they are “men without a country”. Sadly, I believe they are right.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that lately many of these men have discovered a sense of hope in the person of Pope Francis, hope that perhaps soon the Church will turn its face to them and stop judging them, perhaps even accepting and embracing them for the integrity of their decision to leave rather than injure the Priesthood they still respect and admire.
Some hope that Francis may even turn to them in some capacity to exercise their continuing Priesthood, perhaps if only to offer Holy Mass or administer the Sacraments, with none of the administrative entanglements that accompany full-time active ministry.
For while these men have left active ministry, they remain Priests and the Priesthood is still very deeply engrained within them.
I pray that their hope is not unfounded. I pray that the Holy Spirit will move Pope Francis to reach out and finally embrace these good men, removing from them once and for all the hint of any personal stain or sense of betrayal.
Pope Francis has become the icon of Divine Mercy, calling upon all Christians to rediscover the essence of the Gospel: forgiveness and charity. I pray he will extend that charity and forgiveness to my brother-Priests and welcome them publicly back to the Church some still wish to serve.
In Ireland today, the tradition of there always being a Priest available to say Mass in any church has already died out.
Which would not be a problem if the staffing of the Church declined at the same rate as the demand for the sacraments, but it hasn't. It has proceeded faster.
Certainly, fewer Catholics go to Mass every week than did 20 years ago. Indeed, fewer still go to Confession. Almost none want to be Priests, but about half of them still want to go to Mass about once a month.
That means that the ratio of Priests to members of a congregation has fallen.
Even in secularized Ireland there is demand for more Masses than there are Priests to celebrate them.
And many parishes now are run by a single, lonely Priest performing all the duties attached to the job unaided.
One part of the solution has been simply to drop some of the Masses from the routine. In other areas, parishes co-operate to relieve the burden. Congregations have been invited to cross to another parish to give their local priest a rest.
And those Priests who remain are the older ones, tired, ageing men working flat out to provide Masses and other sacraments for the dwindling faithful.
This is a crisis, for those men will die out and not be replaced. The Catholic Church, in even a decade from now, will be sparsely served.
Ireland was the most Catholic country in Europe, one in which most people went to Mass every week, and many families thought they were blessed if one of the children had a vocation to the priesthood or one of the religious orders.
The schools which were set up by the Christian brothers, the Jesuits, the Dominicans, the Order of the Cross and Passion are now staffed by lay people.
Now a child who announces that he wants to be a Priest is discouraged. One who wants to be a Christian Brother is thought to be mad.
The Irish Church is caught in a paradox. The enthusiasm for religion is waning in the country, but it refuses to die out. Consequently, fewer people make big commitments.
Compared to other Churches, the turnout among Catholics is still healthy. A lot of that may be more to do with a sense of community than of deep devotion. And that more relaxed devotion does not inspire people to sacrifice the prospects of family life to serve God and His people. The result is that the Priesthood is declining faster than the congregations.
Yet, the people who hardly go to church at all still expect their children to marry in the Church, and would be heartbroken if they didn't. And most baptised Catholics expect a Catholic funeral even if they have hardly been to a church for decades other than to see friends married or buried.
That produces another pressure on the Church, its services being required by those who in the normal run of things contribute nothing to the maintenance of Church buildings or to the welfare of the clergy.
Yet there are practical solutions available for some of these problems, but the Bishops lack the faith and fortitude to address them.
The country’s Catholic bishops recently shelved a proposal to ask Pope Francis to consider allowing priests who left ministry to get married to return to priestly work.
According to The Irish Catholic, the decision follows a failure by the hierarchy to reach a consensus on proposals by the Bishop of Kilmore, Leo O’Reilly, which also included considering lifting the bans on ordaining married men and female deacons.
In June 2015, Bishop O’Reilly said he was consulting with other Irish bishops about setting up a commission to discuss the possibilities of ordaining married men and appointing female deacons. He also said that Pope Francis was encouraging individual bishops and national hierarchies to be creative in looking at ways of doing ministry in the future, and that Ireland must “consider all options”.
However, no decision was made when he raised the commission idea with his fellow Bishops. Clearly, such a proposal requires changes to Church discipline and law but would be likely to be resisted by conservative elements.
There have been numerous rumors (but only rumors) that Pope Francis is willing to allow married former priests to return to ministry in Brazil on a phased and experimental basis.
Personally, I propose that many of the Permanent Deacons, whose contribution to parish ministry is limited to the perfunctory role of serving as nothing more than an additional alter server, be ordained to the Priesthood immediately. Additionally, I propose that the condition placed upon them that they not be allowed to marry should their spouses die likewise be suppressed entirely and at once. What nonsense!
Practical solutions are available to the Church, but they require courage and a willingness to put the Sacramental needs of the faithful above an attachment to traditional models of Priesthood which no longer serve the People of God.
The Bishops of Ireland and most of the Catholic hierarchy, for all their bravado in calling upon the faithful to trust in Divine Providence, are the most reluctant to submit themselves to that very trust.
And the people who feel the pain of that most are the solitary Priests in big parish houses all over the country, beleaguered by the needs of nominal Catholics who give them little support and wouldn't do their job themselves at any price.
A gloomy future for Ireland and the Universal Church, indeed!
At a recent General Audience, Pope Francis said that, despite the many signs of our sins and failings. “we know that we are saved by the Lord, and even now contemplate and experience within ourselves and all around us signs of the Resurrection, of Easter, of a new creation.”
He said the Christian does not live outside of this world, but in it. “The Christian has learned to read all things with eyes informed by Easter, with the eyes of the Risen Christ.”
And when we are discouraged or tempted to despair, Pope Francis said the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and “keeps alive our groans and the hopes of our hearts. The Spirit sees for us beyond the negative appearances of the present and reveals to us even here new heavens and a new earth, which the Lord is preparing for humanity.”
As we contemplate the condition of the Church in Ireland, we will need that gift of hope and courage that the Holy Spirit inspires in our hearts. Come, Holy Spirit, come!
A former Pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church has sued the Bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach, claiming he punished him for exposing a homosexual Priest rather than covering it up as the Bishop wanted.
The lawsuit, filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, accuses Bishop Gerald Barbarito of defaming the Reverend John Gallagher.
The 49-year-old Priest pointed to a statement posted last year on the diocesan website that said he was “blatantly lying” and “in need of professional assistance” for claiming the Bishop urged him not to tell police a visiting Priest had shown pornographic pictures to a 14-year-old youth at the suburban West Palm Beach church.
“Today is a sad day,” said Father Gallagher, who was wearing a clerical collar at a morning press conference. “Thirty years of my life has been destroyed by the Roman Church.”
Gallagher says that when he learned of transgressions by a visiting Priest, Father Jose Varkey Palimattom, Diocesan leaders told him the best course of action was to put Palimattom on a plane back to his home in India. Gallagher said he learned Palimattom had a history of inappropriate conduct with children in India.
After Gallagher worked with Palm Beach County sheriff’s detectives to prosecute Palimattom, he was locked out of his parish.
While he was lauded by Chief Deputy Sheriff Michael Gauger for working with detectives, he was treated like a pariah by the Bishop.
Father Gallagher said he reached out to Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, who was sent to Palm Beach County in 2002 to become its Bishop, after two of his predecessors were removed as a result of sexual misconduct.
Bishop O’Malley went on to lead the troubled Catholic Church in Boston after it was rocked by Priest pedophile scandals and was later elevated to become a Cardinal. However, in this case, in response to repeated pleas by Father Gallagher for assistance, the Cardinal offered no help.
Dianne Laubert, a Diocesan spokeswoman, said officials had not seen the lawsuit. But, she said, their view of Gallagher’s allegations haven’t changed since they surfaced.
In a statement that Bishop Barbarito asked be read during Mass throughout the diocese, he denied the allegations.
“Our Diocese in no way, as Father Gallagher erroneously asserts, tried to ‘cover up’ the inappropriate behavior of a visiting Priest,” Bishop Barbarito wrote. “In fact, in accord with our very rigorous policies pertaining to the protection of children, we not only immediately reported the incident to the police and State Attorney, but cooperated as fully as we could in the investigation. Father Gallagher’s harmful assertions are an embarrassment to my brother priests as well as me,” the Bishop wrote.
The visiting Priest in question pleaded guilty in April 2015 to a charge of showing obscene material to a minor and was sentenced to six months in jail.
In the lawsuit, Gallagher said the experience reignited the post-traumatic stress disorder he suffers as a result of horrors he suffered in his war torn homeland. As pressure increased from Diocesan leaders to ignore Palimattom’s misdeeds, he was hospitalized with a heart attack. Upon his release, he discovered he was locked out of his home and his parish.
One can only hope and pray that the truth regarding this story will come to light. Still, incidences such as this do so much violence to the Gospel and the Church.
Let us pray to the Holy Spirit for Father Gallagher, for Bishop Barbarito and for the Diocese of West Palm Beach, that there be healing within this community of the Church, that the truth of the matter be made known, and that People of God not lose their faith in the Church. God bless the Diocese of West Palm Beach in this trying and difficult moment.
