Raymond Joseph Gallagher

Who is Raymond Joseph Gallagher?

Raymond Joseph Gallagher was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church.

Raymond Gallagher was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Hugh and Ella Gallagher. He was educated at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish School and Cathedral Latin High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from John Carroll University in 1934, and attended St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1934 to 1939. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 25, 1939.

Gallagher was a curate at St. Colman Church in Cleveland and a chaplain to the United States Navy during World War II. In 1948, he earned a Master of Social Work degree from Loyola University Chicago and became assistant director of diocesan Catholic Charities. Pope Pius XII named him a papal chamberlain in 1955. Between 1958 and 1959, he was a member of the President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Commission on Child Welfare, becoming chairman of the White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1960. He was general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Charities from 1961 to 1965.

On June 21, 1965, Gallagher was appointed the third Bishop of Lafayette in Indiana by Pope Paul VI.