Alphonse Gallegos
| Alphonse Gallegos | |
| Born | 20 February 1931, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States |
|---|---|
| Died | 6 October 1991, near Yuba City, California, United States |
| State of life | Professed priest; auxiliary bishop |
| Religious institute | Order of Augustinian Recollects |
| Ecclesial status | Venerable; heroic virtues recognized on 8 July 2016 |
| Recognition | Cause opened in 2005; heroic virtues in 2016 |
Alphonse Gallegos was an American Augustinian Recollect priest and auxiliary bishop of Sacramento whose ministry accompanied Hispanic families, migrant workers, prisoners, young people, and emerging lay leaders.[1]
Overview
Alphonse Gallegos, OAR (February 20, 1931 – October 6, 1991), was an American Catholic prelate who served as Auxiliary Bishop of Sacramento from 1981 until his death in 1991. He was nicknamed the "Bishop of the Barrios". His beatification process was opened in 2006 and on 8 July 2016, Pope Francis named him venerable in recognition of his heroic virtue.
Life
Origins and formation
Alphonse Gallegos grew up in Los Angeles in a large Mexican American family after his parents moved from New Mexico. A severe visual impairment affected his schooling and remained with him throughout life. He entered the Augustinian Recollects, professed vows in 1951, studied in the United States and Spain, and received Holy Orders in 1958. His formation joined Augustinian common life and prayer to an affection for the barrios from which he came.
Vocation and service
Gallegos served in parishes, formation, and leadership for his order before directing Hispanic affairs for the Diocese of Sacramento. Pope John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop in 1981. He traveled constantly to farmworker camps, prisons, youth gatherings, cursillos, and parish celebrations, encouraged Hispanic permanent deacons and lay ministers, and defended the dignity of migrants. A vehicle struck and killed him beside a highway while he was returning from a pastoral event.
Christian witness
His episcopal ministry was close to the street in a literal as well as pastoral sense. Gallegos wore simple clothes when formal dress impeded contact, listened readily, and moved between diocesan administration and neighborhoods that often experienced the Church only at a distance. This accessibility flowed from prayer, community, the Eucharist, and episcopal responsibility rather than from a rejection of office or doctrine.
Popular affection after his death and the nickname sometimes applied to him as a bishop of the barrio are historical features, not themselves canonical proof. The cause examined whether charity, hope, prudence, obedience, chastity, poverty of spirit, and fortitude shaped his whole life. Recognition of those heroic virtues offers a model of culturally attentive ministry without turning any ethnic community into scenery for an individual hero.
Ecclesial recognition
Cause and present status
The Diocese of Sacramento opened the diocesan inquiry on 4 December 2005 and transmitted its evidence to Rome. On 8 July 2016 Pope Francis authorized the decree recognizing Gallegos's heroic virtues, after which he is correctly titled Venerable. The Church has not approved the miracle required for his beatification, so descriptions that use Blessed or assign him an official liturgical memorial overstate the cause.[2]
Liturgical and devotional scope
The title Venerable recognizes heroic virtue but does not create public liturgical cult, authorize Masses in his honor, or establish a feast. The faithful may visit his tomb, learn from his pastoral work, and privately seek his intercession. Reports of favors belong to the competent cause authorities for investigation; they should not be announced as miracles or treated as a substitute for the Holy See's judgment.
Early life
Gallegos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his father was a carpenter, and his mother a homemaker caring for their 11 children. He had a twin brother, Eloy,[3] grew up in Watts, attended Manual Arts High School and received confirmation from then auxiliary bishop Timothy Manning.[4] The family attended San Miguel parish, which was run by the Order of Augustinian Recollects.
Gallegos attended Rockhurst University in Kansas City, graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, New York, St. John's University in New York and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.[3] He entered the Order of Augustinian Recollects as a novice in 1950.
While a seminarian at the Tagaste Monastery in Suffern, New York, his superiors learned that Gallegos was born with a severe myopic condition.[4] Although he had eye surgery prior to entering the seminary, his vision remained poor. Gallegos was ordained a Roman Catholic priest for the Augustinian Recollects on May 24, 1958.
He spent eight years at Tagaste serving as chaplain at neighboring hospitals and religious communities and served in various capacities in his order's houses of formation. In 1972 he became pastor of San Miguel in Watts, and in 1978 of Cristo Rey in Glendale in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He was an advisor to Los Angeles Cardinal Timothy Manning on Hispanic affairs and helped set up a training program for the archdiocese's Hispanic permanent diaconate.[5]
He was transferred to the Diocese of Sacramento where Gallegos served from 1979 to 1981 as the first director of the Division of Hispanic Affairs of the California Catholic Conference.[4][6]
Auxiliary bishop
On August 24, 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Gallegos auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, in Sacramento, California[7] as the titular bishop of Sasabe.[5] He was consecrated bishop on November 4, 1981, by Bishop Francis Quinn. In 1983, Bishop Quinn appointed Gallegos pastor of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In his ministry, both as a priest and later as bishop, Gallegos dressed in a 99-cent sombrero and T-shirt to minister at night to gang members, lowriders, and at-risk youth in impoverished areas of Los Angeles and Sacramento.[8]
Death
On October 6, 1991, Gallegos died when he was struck by a driver[3] while returning to Sacramento from Gridley, California. Gallegos and his driver had stopped to help a stranded motorist.[9] Other accounts say that their car suddenly lost power and stopped in the left lane. As the men began to push the car off the road and onto the median, another car slammed into their vehicle, throwing the bishop some 50 feet to the right shoulder.[10] Gallegos died instantly. He was considered an unofficial chaplain to lowriders and migrant workers. In honor of the “Bishop of the Barrio,” about 300 lowrider cars formed part of his funeral procession from the parish of St. Rose where he lived to the city's Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.[11]
Beatification process
In 2005, after eleven months of scrutiny, the cause for Gallegos's beatification was opened by Bishop William Weigand.[6] He was declared a Servant of God on June 5, 2006.
On March 24, 2010, Gallegos's body was exhumed and transferred to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament as part of his cause towards sainthood.[9] On March 25, 2010, his remains were transferred to the parish he resided in as an auxiliary bishop.[12] This parish is the Sanctuary of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe also known as Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Sacramento.
On July 8, 2016, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Servant of God Alphonse Gallegos and naming him venerable.[7][13]
Legacy
I would like to be remembered as having helped the young people how to appreciate who they are and to value the life God has given them. I would also like to be remembered as having appreciated people and all that they have to offer in making the world a better place to live in.[14]
Because he was a member of the Knights of Columbus and supporter of the unborn, Bishop Gallegos Assembly 2336 [15] and Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home [16] are named for him.
The city of Sacramento named a section of Eleventh St. between K and L Streets the Gallegos Square in his memory.[17] In 1997, a statue of Bishop Gallegos was unveiled in Gallegos Square next to the cathedral.[5]
References
- Back to citation Venerable Alphonse Gallegos — Diocese of Sacramento cause page covering his Recollect vocation, Hispanic ministry, episcopate, death, and cause.
- Back to citation Decree recognizing Alphonse Gallegos's heroic virtues — Holy See bulletin documenting Pope Francis's 8 July 2016 authorization and the candidate's official identity.
- Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 "Alphonse Gallegos; Sacramento Bishop". LA Times. 9 October 1991. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
- Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Back to citation occurrence 4.2 "Beatification process opens for former L.A. pastor Retrieved: 2010-03-22". Archived from the original on 2008-07-06. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
- Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Back to citation occurrence 5.2 Boll, John E. "Bishop Alphonse Napoleon Gallegos, OAR", Sacramento Diocesan Archives
- Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Online, Catholic. "Formal Closing of the Diocesan Process for the Cause of Canonization of Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, OA - Prwire - News - Catholic Online". Retrieved 30 July 2016.
- Back to citation occurrence 7.0 Back to citation occurrence 7.1 Borsellino, Tonia. "Why this bishop from the US is now one step closer to being a saint," Catholic News Agency, July 21, 2016
- Back to citation Nelson, Mike. "Bishop Gallegos Venerable and beloved by many," Angelus News, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, July 6, 2017
- Back to citation occurrence 9.0 Back to citation occurrence 9.1 "Bishop's Body Exhumed, Moved Downtown Gallegos". kcra news. Archived from the original on 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
- Back to citation "Korson, Gerald. "'Barrio' Bishop Alphonse Gallegos", OSV Newsweekly, November 2006". Archived from the original on 2019-02-04. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- Back to citation O’Neel, Brian. "California's Bishop Alphonse Gallegos Declared Venerable", National Catholic Register, July 8, 2016
- Back to citation "Bishop's Body Moved To Our Lady Of Guadalupe Church Leader Considered For Sainthood Retrieved: 2010-03-25". Archived from the original on 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
- Back to citation Pope Francis, "Decree on the virtues of the Venerable Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, OAR," July 8, 2016, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
- Back to citation The Sacramento Bee Magazine, January 18, 1987
- Back to citation "BISHOP GALLEGOS ASSEMBLY 2336 Retrieved: 2010-03-26". Archived from the original on 2009-08-13. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
- Back to citation "The Cause for Beatification of the Servant of God Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, OAR Retrieved: 2010-03-25". Archived from the original on 2010-04-25. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
- Back to citation "I feel as though I have met him also Retrieved: 2010-03-26". Archived from the original on 2010-11-29. Retrieved 2010-03-26.