Local woman makes ‘radical commitment’ to Christ

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

Claire Gallagher vividly remembers being a 10-year-old altar server at a confirmation Mass in her home parish of St. Clement of Rome in Metairie. Just before sending forth the congregants, the bishop-celebrant asked the young people in attendance if they had ever considered becoming a priest or religious sister.

Gallagher, known for her extreme shyness, boldly raised her hand, surprising even herself. The bishop brought his microphone to the youngster so she could elaborate.

“I told him that I had thought about becoming a nun, but I didn’t want to be one,” Gallagher recalled, smiling.

Now a 35-year-old religion teacher at her alma mater of St. Mary’s Dominican High School, Gallagher ended up sticking with her decision to not become a religious sister, but did say “yes” to another special vocation in the church.


On Sept. 18, dressed in an elegant white bridal gown, she walked down the aisle of St. Louis Cathedral to be consecrated to a “Life of Virginity Lived in the World,” one of the oldest sacramental customs in the church dating back to apostolic times and restored by Vatican II.

“I have always had a desire for solitude, so (being religious sister) always looked attractive to me, but I never really thought it was for me, just because I couldn’t see myself leaving everything behind,” said Gallagher, speaking on the eve of her consecration ceremony. She admitted she originally thought her calling would be to marriage and family life.

“Even though my (ultimate) vocation doesn’t ‘look like’ what I thought it would, it’s so beautiful to me to see how the Lord still fills the desires of your heart,” Gallagher said. “With this vocation, I can still live in the world and do ministry; I can still have spiritual children and a big community, but be in a place where I am completely committed to the Lord – and it’s still OK for me to have solitude.”
Ring has family connection


After voicing her desire to Archbishop Gregory Aymond to live a life of virginity for the sake of the church, Gallagher prostrated herself on the floor of the cathedral’s sanctuary as the more than 300 congregants prayed the Litany of Supplication. During the ensuing Prayer of Consecration, the archbishop called on the Holy Spirit to strengthen and protect Gallagher as she endeavored to live out her vocation in holiness and peace.

Gallagher accepted a veil and a ring – the latter forged from gold melted down from jewelry once worn by her late grandmother – as reminders of her promises to live a life of holiness, chastity, humility, prayer and service. She also received a bound copy of the Liturgy of the Hours, which priests, deacons and religious men and women promise to pray daily.


“Sometimes, the Lord calls people to the road less traveled,” said Archbishop Aymond during the homily, noting that more than 5,000 women around the world – including over 400 in the United States – had committed themselves to consecrated virginity, devoting their lives exclusively to Jesus while living outside of a traditional religious community or cloister.

“This is a lifetime commitment to Christ and his church that Claire makes today,” the archbishop said. “In this liturgy today, Claire, you become the bride of Christ.”

Drawn to serve Young Church

Born in Pearl River as the youngest of four children and only daughter of Lynn and William Gallagher Jr., Gallagher moved to Metairie when she was 5, attending St. Clement of Rome School and later becoming active in the parish’s youth group. At Dominican, amidst playing trumpet in the band and serving on her high school’s retreat team and in campus ministry, Gallagher went on a TEC retreat the summer before her senior year that marked “a turning point” in her faith life.

“It was the first time I had a personal encounter with Jesus – it was the first time I experienced the love of Christ through other people,” Gallagher said. “People who didn’t have to love me were praying for me for months before the retreat. There were moments of sacrificial love from complete strangers. That changed everything. That changed my experience of Mass. That changed my experience of prayer.”

After earning a general studies degree at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a concentration in music education, Gallagher spent the next four years working in daycare, being a live-in nanny and assisting St. Clement’s youth ministry, the latter which hired her as its director in 2012.

Gallagher accepted a job as Dominican’s campus minister in 2017.

“I wanted to be with (young people) every day and not just on weekends,” said Gallagher, noting that as her professional calling was being cemented, her personal life was much murkier. Although she had dated throughout young adulthood and had always felt a tug to marriage and motherhood, the dating process drained her and distracted her from her desire to be a full-time “spiritual mother” to her young people at Dominican and at St. Clement, where she was still assisting as a volunteer.

But the religious sisterhood didn’t seem to be the right vocational fit either, Gallagher said. Although drawn to its prayerful and contemplative dimensions, she wanted to live independently and without the risk of being assigned to minister outside the New Orleans area.

A unique path resonates

A chance introduction to Elizabeth Rizzo – a newly minted consecrated virgin serving in the Archdiocese of New Orleans – at the 2017 Greek Fest exposed Gallagher to a vocational path of which she was previously unaware. Two years later, when her St. Clement pastor, Father Luis Rodriguez, raised the possibility of consecrated virginity during a spiritual direction session with Gallagher, the idea finally clicked, she said.

“I decided to intentionally stop dating and give the Lord the time that he deserved – I thought I would date Jesus for a while and see what happens,” said Gallagher, who embarked on a two-year period of discernment and formation.

She started to attend daily Mass and pray the Liturgy of the Hours, adopted a regular holy hour at St. Clement’s adoration chapel and received regular spiritual direction from Father Rodriguez, Sister of Mount Carmel Beth Fitzpatrick, vicar of religious for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and Dr. Thomas Neal, professor of spiritual theology at Notre Dame Seminary. With the permission of Archbishop Aymond, she officially entered into formation in January 2020.

“Slowly, but surely, I started realizing how much peace I had with that lifestyle,” and “how much peace I didn’t have when I was dating or pursuing marriage – that unrest,” Gallagher recalled.

Gallagher, who transitioned in spring 2020 from directing Dominican’s campus ministry to teaching religion there, has found herself in a new educational arena over the last 18 months. Unlike her previous roles as a youth group and campus ministry leader, she now is ministering to a wider group of young people, some of whom are struggling or are inactive in their faith.

Gallagher currently teaches Christology – the study of the person of Christ – to freshmen. She also teaches personal morality/Catholic Social Teaching to juniors.

“I have this captive audience of students with different experiences, different backgrounds, different beliefs and struggles,” she said. “Such a huge aspect of my vocation is spiritual motherhood. The kids at St. Clement, the students at Dominican – I just have this love for them and this heart for them. I don’t want to be divided!”
‘Quiet’ of adoration

As a consecrated virgin, Gallagher will follow the spiritual guidance of the archbishop while remaining responsible for earning a living and taking care of her temporal needs. For the past year-and-a-half, she has lived at Emmaus House, a residence attached to St. Rita Church in New Orleans that is currently home to a faith community of eight Catholics, including a married couple with a baby.

In addition to bringing the community together for morning and evening prayer, Emmaus House has an in-house adoration chapel and is just steps away from her Monday morning lectoring commitment at St. Rita and across the street from her Dominican workplace.

Ever since announcing her wish to be a consecrated virgin, Gallagher has grown accustomed to hearing a frequent question from her fellow Catholics: Why not simply remain a single person involved in church ministry?

“There’s something within me – I just have this desire to be promised or vowed to something, that spousal desire,” said Gallagher, who escapes the “noise of the world” with adoration time at Emmaus House and her weekly adoration hour at St. Clement of Rome.

“I just love spending that time with the Lord himself,” she said, “even if I have nothing to say or can’t find the words.”

Pictured above: Claire Gallagher poses with two of her fellow consecrated virgins after her Sept. 18 Mass of Consecration at St. Louis Cathedral: Jennifer Ely of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux (left) and Elizabeth Rizzo of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Meeting Rizzo by chance at the 2017 Greek Fest introduced Gallagher to the exisitence of the vocation, which permits candidates to be consecrated to religious life while earning their own living outside of a traditional religious community or cloister. (Photos by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald)