St. Agatha Parish has been blessed to have been led by an extraordinary group of priests who each willingly shared their gifts, talents and spiritual leadership to make the parish the thriving community it is today. Remarkably, four of those pastors—Fr. Carney (25 years), Msgr. Gallagher (27 years), Fr. Casey (17 years) and Msgr. Turke (16 years)—served a total of 85 of the parish’s first 100 years. The influence of the Irish community has certainly been strong throughout the entire 100 years. Every pastor to date has been of Irish descent, and half of them were born to parents who were Irish immigrants. The first three pastors were all actually born in the 19^th Century, the last being Msgr. Donovan who was born in 1895. Msgr. Gallagher had the distinction of being the priest who served at St. Agatha’s for the longest period of time. In addition to his 27 years as Pastor, he was also assigned as a “curate” from 1933 to 1948 when he became Secretary to Cardinal Cushing. This not only gave him a total of 41 years of priestly service to the parishioners of St. Agatha’s, but it also meant that in 52 years of priestly service, 41 were spent at St. Agatha Parish. There were standouts academically as well. Msgr. Turke had a Doctorate in Education from Boston College. Fr. Palardy graduated from Harvard University, and received his Doctorate in 1992 from the Catholic University in Washington, DC. He joined the faculty of St. John Seminary that same year. He went on to join the faculty of St. John XXIII National Seminary in 2005, and became Rector there in 2010. One of the Pastors—Msgr. Turke—was even in the Navy and served in World War II. There were sad coincidences as well, the most notable being that 4 of the 8 men passed away while still assigned to the parish. But through it all they exerted clear and purposeful spiritual leadership that has borne great fruit. We have indeed been fortunate to have been served so well during our first 100 years, and with good cause and great hope look forward to similar leadership in our second century.
 

The Pastors of St. Agatha Parish
Milton, Massachusetts
100th Anniversary Year
1922 – 2022

Rev. Eugene A. Carney
Ordained December 22, 1899
June 19, 1922 to May 26, 1947
R.I.P. on May 26, 1947

Rev. Msgr. John J. Starr
Ordained November 30, 1912
June 4, 1947 to May 22, 1950
R.I.P. on June 19, 1959

Rev. Msgr. Daniel J. Donovan
Ordained June 3, 1920
May 22, 1950 to February 19, 1955
R.I.P. on February 19, 1955

Rev. Msgr. Ralph J. Gallagher
Ordained April 5, 1929
March 7, 1955 to April 19, 1981
R.I.P. on April 19, 1981

Rev. Msgr. Francis X. Turke
Ordained January 10, 1952
June 16, 1981 to August 27, 1997
R.I.P. on August 27, 1997

Rev. Peter J. Casey
Ordained May 29, 1968
January 26, 1998 to June 3, 2014
Administrator, June 3, 2014 to June 1, 2015
Senior priest, in-residence at Sacred Heart, Quincy

Rev. Kevin G. Toomey
Ordained November 18, 1978
June 1, 2015 to June 14, 2016
Pastor, St. Michael, Bedford

Rev. William B. Palardy
Ordained June 8, 1985
September 1, 2016 to current