FATHER Bernie Gallagher says he has a lot to be thankful for as he prepares to retire after 53 years of parish ministry.
There is a lot he is going to miss about parish life.
“We priests really are spoiled by our parishes,” he said.
“I was at Mass the other day, and throughout Mass … you’d hear this little two-year-old calling out, ‘Fr Bernie, Fr Bernie’.
“If there’s anything to stop me from retiring, it’s that … that sense of appreciation.
“And that’s only a little two-year-old, God love her, she probably forgot she ever said it – but I won’t.”
Priesthood had been on Fr Gallagher’s radar since he was about 10 years old.
He went to school at St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, and was ordained a priest on July 1, 1969, in Mitchelton parish.
From 1969 to 2022, Fr Gallagher has seen a lot of changes throughout his priesthood, but what it means to be a priest remains the same.
He said on a recent school visit, he walked into the library at St Pius V School at Banyo and “there was a Year One student with her hands on her hips looking at me”, he said.
“She said, ‘I know who you are … you’re the man who believes in Jesus’.
“I thought … well, that’s not a bad definition of what it means to be a priest.”
He enjoyed visiting the parish schools.
“I often say to priests, ‘If you’re feeling down in the dumps, go and visit your school; the kids will lift your spirits for sure’,” he said.
Acting principal at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Nundah, Jenny Davissen said Fr Gallagher had always been welcoming and loved being part of the community.
Year 5 students and parish altar servers Soleil and Jayden said they would miss Fr Bernie.
Jayden said there was lots they’d miss about him, like his homilies that “even kids can understand” and how, if something went wrong with altar-serving, he “just lets it go”.
Soleil said Fr Bernie often visited the classroom and always had an extra visit before school break to wish them all a great holiday.
“The thing is, he says it in a special way,” Soleil said.
“He says, ‘Be happy, be healthy, be holy’; even when he’s not here, we will always remember that.”
Fr Gallagher’s catch phrase had really caught on around his parish.
On a recent visit to the shops, Fr Gallagher recognised the teenager behind the check-out from her days at primary school.
She asked him if he still used his catch phrase, he said with a laugh.
Fr Gallagher said if school children remembered nothing else about him, he hoped they would remember to say, “be happy, be healthy, be holy”.
His brother priests had been a good support in his life, especially Fr John Nee who had been “a great mate” for 30 years before his death in 2008.
Fr Gallagher said the sad thing for him was today “not many young men saw being a priest for their Catholic brothers and sisters as being much of an option”.
But he said that meant the way the Church was managed had changed, especially to include lay people.
He said the Second Vatican Council reforms had been a significant part of his priesthood from his ordination to the present day, and that would continue on into the future.
Overall, he said it had been “a blessed time to be a priest”.
Fr Gallagher said he had plans to spend more time in personal prayer in retirement as well as doing more reading.
He had mixed feelings about retirement because he said he had no idea what it meant to be a retired priest.
“I don’t think it’s the same as someone retiring from work,” he said.
“You don’t really retire from being a married man or woman,” he said, and the same was true of his priesthood.
“Till death do us part – I’ll just have to discover what being a retired priest means.
“Ask me in three months’ time.”
Fr Gallagher has Advent and Christmas Masses with his Banyo Nundah parish before he retires to the Gold Coast in the new year.
