Three priests retire from active ministry

By The Catholic Week
MOBILE — Three Archdiocese of Mobile priests, Msgr. Warren Wall, Msgr. Patrick Gallagher and Fr. Philip McKenna, retired effective June 27.
Msgr. Wall most recently served as pastor at St. Mary Parish in Mobile, while Msgr. Gallagher served as pastor of St. Columba Parish in Dothan and Fr. McKenna served as senior priest at Holy Spirit Parish in Montgomery. He will continue in residence at Holy Spirit.
Ordained Aug. 14, 1976, followed by graduate training in Rome, Msgr. Wall’s first assignment was at St. Mary Parish as parochial vicar from 1977-1981. He then served at St. Ignatius Parish, Mobile as parochial vicar from 1981-1982 then as administrator until 1987.
He continued studies in Rome from 1987-1989. He became chancellor of the Archdiocese of Mobile from 1989-1999, where he also served as pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish, Mobile from 1989-1994 and pastor of St. Ignatius Parish from 1994-2005. He then served as pastor of St. Thomas-by-the-Sea Parish from 2005-2007; chaplain of Carmelite Monastery and Visitation Monastery in 2007; pastor of St. John the Baptist in Grand Bay from 2008-2010; and finally back where he began his first years as a priest, at St. Mary Parish where he served as pastor from 2010 to 2020.
Msgr. Gallagher was ordained to the priesthood in 1970. He came to the Diocese of Mobile and began his priestly ministry at Little Flower Parish in Mobile.
Following other parish assignments in Mobile, Fr. Gallagher was appointed the diocesan director of religious education. He then served as administrator of Our Savior Parish before being appointed pastor of Our Lady Queen of Mercy Parish in Montgomery.
He then returned to Mobile as pastor of St. Ignatius Parish. During his tenure at St. Ignatius, he served as director of the Catholic Charities Appeal for four years. The next assignment, in 1994, brought Fr. Gallagher to St. Columba.
Fr. McKenna has been at Holy Spirit Parish since 2009.
He was ordained June 3, 1962, at St. Kieran Church, Kilkenny, Ireland, where he attended seminary.
He first served as assistant pastor at North Alabama Missions, Birmingham, from 1962-67, then at St. Dominic, Mobile, from 1967-70.
Fr. McKenna then began first of three stints in South America. He was pastor of San Pio X Parroquia in Oruro, Bolivia, from 1970-85; Parroquia Senor de los Milagros, in Zorritos, Peru, from 1993-95 and Parroquia Senora del Perpetuo Socorro, Zarumilla, Peru from 1995-99.
In between stints in South America, he was assistant pastor at St. Bede the Venerable in Montgomery in 1986 and St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Mobile from 1987-93.
He then served as pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Prattville from 1999-2009 before arriving at Holy Spirit.