Catskills Parishioners Appeal for Priest

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Irish Voice News

Catskills Parishioners Appeal for Priest

August 22, 2008

By Cahir O’Doherty

FATHER Cathal Gallagher, the Donegal-born priest who lost his South Dakota parish, and very nearly legal U.S. residence, over a recent well publicized immigration flap, has received a new offer – parishioners in New York’s Catskills region have asked him to be come their parish priest.

Pat Henry, 75, a well known Catskills parishioner and native of Co. Kerry, told the Irish Voice that the shortage of priests in the region is having a negative effect. “Our church here is closed at the moment and we do not have a parish priest. Perhaps it’s because of a shortage of vocations or for some other reason we haven’t heard.

“But that’s why when I was reading about Father Gallagher’s recent case in the Irish Voice — after he lost his parish — I realized that this area would be ideal for him because it’s all Irish, German and Italian.”

Affectionately known by some as the Irish Riviera, the New York State Catskills region is a landscape of great natural beauty that has attracted Irish holidaymakers and homebuyers for decades. Now Henry believes it could make an ideal new parish for the celebrated priest.

As recently reported in the Irish Voice, Gallagher was a priest in South Dakota for more than a decade when the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls applied for his permanent residency in 2001. Approved in 2003, his application was later was rejected because of a technical error, and Gallagher was told to leave the country. In the process, he also lost his parish in South Dakota.

However in July 2008 he learned that he finally had permission to remain in the U.S. and was awarded a green card.

“I know that Father Gallagher was recently awarded a green card and I believe he’s in Ireland at the moment for his niece’s wedding. I hope that when he returns that the authorities in the church will consider our sincere request because they currently have no priest to put here,” said Henry.

Henry, a native of Tarbert, Co. , immigrated to the U.S. in 1958 where he was quickly drafted into the U.S. Army. A 20-year military career ended in 1978 when he then worked as the armory superintendent for military and naval affairs for the State of New York. Thereafter he worked as the manager and administrator of the Green Medical Arts Center in Catskills and now at age 75 he’s retired.

Henry acknowledges that a priest is usually appointed to a parish by a bishop, who generally makes the appointment based on the church’s own considerations rather than that of parishioners. But his enthusiasm for Gallagher is undimmed.

“It’s a nice parish, there’s a big house and the church is right next door. I’m of the old school back home where you went to Mass on a Sunday and if you were free other days you went too. I’m thinking if we could get Father Gallagher here with the help of the local people we would love to be involved with it.”

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