The following comes from a July 10 Crux article by Carol Glatz:
Pope Francis has advanced the sainthood cause of a U.S. bishop who ministered to California farm workers and the poor. The late Auxiliary Bishop Alphonse Gallegos of Sacramento, California, was known as the “bishop of the barrio” because of his work with the marginalized and the “lowrider bishop” because of his support for members of local modified-car clubs.
He was particularly concerned about the poor, un-catechized young people, migrants and other people who lacked support from the community, and he often spent his summer vacations living with farmworkers in California’s Central Valley.
One of 11 children, he was born Feb. 20, 1931, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and grew up in the Watts area of Los Angeles. He did his seminary studies at the Tagaste Monastery in Suffern, New York, and was ordained a priest for the Augustinian Recollects religious order in 1958.
Gallegos served as pastor for the San Miguel and Cristo Rey parishes in the Los Angeles area and then moved to Sacramento in 1979 where he became the first director of the Division of Hispanic Affairs of the California Catholic Conference.
As founding director, he set in motion mobile pastoral teams for the state’s farm workers and a Spanish-language radio program to reach farm workers in California and Mexico.
In 1981, St. John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Sacramento, where he lived until his death in an automobile accident near Yuba City Oct. 6, 1991.
While auxiliary bishop, he served as vicar general, vicar for the Hispanic apostolate and vicar for ethnic communities in the diocese. He served at both St. Rose Parish and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sacramento. At the time, he had been the first Hispanic bishop in the California state capital since 1861.
Born with a severe myopic condition and nearly blind, Gallegos was said to have a warm and friendly personality.
It was not unusual to find him on Friday and Saturday nights on Franklin Boulevard in Sacramento talking to the drivers and owners of the area’s famed lowriders – cars with modified suspension systems – blessing their cars and helping them with their problems and concerns.
About 300 lowrider cars participated in a procession in his honor before his funeral Mass.
I was honored to encounter the late Bp. Gallegos while involved in confirmation preparations in the early 80’s in Sacramento: he exuded a calm, sincerely peaceful presence of Christ that one not often encounters. He was remarkably humble and it seemed to be attributed in part to his struggles in learning as a child, because he was severely affected by dyslexia, besides later on suffering from other serious vision issues, and was considered as though of “a slow learner”—he was not that at all, but he was never angry about the many roadblocks in his way to becoming a priest, something he so wanted to be from childhood. So it was that later he became one of the remarkable bishops chosen, against all odds, by JP2.
By the way, Franklin Bl. In Sacramento is not a street I would recommend anyone to loiter about at any time of day, another virtual miracle of Bp. Alphonse.
Steve Phoenix, how wonderful, that you had the special grace of God, to work, in the Church with a Bishop who is a Sainthood candidate! I wonder if he could be a Saint to present to children, to pray to, who might have with dyslexia, learning disabilities, vision impairment and blindness issues?? Or else, a Saint for migrants and refugees to pray to, for help and guidance? How deeply inspiring– right in our own California! I wonder if there are any holy cards and relics of him?? How exciting, for our State!
Thank you Steve Phoenix for the information. I have been behind low riders in the past and have gotten a good laugh when the car would suddenly rise up. I think fixing the automobiles that way now is outlawed because of safety hazards, but it was pretty funny to see..
Father Alfonso Gallegos was a personal friend of the family..We all took his untimely death badly..While in High School, kids would pick on him all the time and called him names such as 4 eyes..Coke bottle glasses..My Father Joe and Uncles Eddie and Mike used to take care of him by walking him home from school and protecting Fr. Alfonso Gallegos from bullies. He administered the Holy Sacraments of Baptism, Holy Communion and Weddings for most of my family…I say his name every day ..I hope it helps to fast track his Sainthood. I’m so proud to have known Bishop Alfonso Gallegos..In Sacramento, they have honored his name by naming the plaza in front of the State Capitol “Gallegos Plaza” Let us pray that a second miracle will be happening…