Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo, P.A., belonged to a large Mexican family with loving, practising Catholic parents who showed their nine children their deep love for Jesus and his successors on earth. The spiritual life of his parents was influenced by the doctrines of Pope Pius X and Pope Pius XI and resulted in the creation of the ontological identity of Msgr. Gallo.
Msgr. Gallo remembered his mother’s joy as she recounted the story of her first Holy Communion. In 1905, Pope Pius X decreed that children should receive Holy Communion as soon as they reached the age of reason, and her pastor carried out the order to prepare children of 7 years and older for this great event.
It was a difficult time at the Vatican. The Pope’s coat of arms bore his motto Instaurare Omnia in Cristo (to restore all in Christ) and he set out to reform everything – sacred music, the laws of the Church with a Code of Canon Law, the Roman Curia, the Roman Breviary, and the Pontifical Orders of Malta and the Holy Sepulcher.
Bishops and cardinals were disturbed by Pius X’s recommendation of early and frequent reception of the Eucharist. He was bitterly criticized and considered foolish for admitting such young children to the sacrament as they would surely profane the Most Holy Body of Christ.
Pope Pius XI also had an immense impact on Msgr. Gallo’s family during the religious persecution in Mexico. The government wanted to vanquish the Catholic Church. Churches, seminaries and convents were shut, bishops were exiled, and the Papal Nuncio was expelled as persona non grata. Hundreds of priests were murdered, and the faithful – called Cristeros – took up arms with the battle cry “Viva Cristo Rey!”
Pope Pius XI issued a decree giving Msgr. Gallo’s mother the faculty to take Communion to the sick in hospitals and in battlefields. His father told the children to pray the Rosary together for their mother’s safety as she took Communion to the sick. In a way, it was early example of what would later become Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.
It was Pope Pius XII who called Msgr. Gallo to study Vatican diplomacy and work for the Holy See. Before the death of Pius XII in 1958, Msgr. Gallo had contact on several occasions with his successor Pope John XXIII. As Patriarch of Venice he accompanied then-Bishop Angelo Roncalli to Lourdes to bless the new underground basilica dedicated to St. Pius X. Three months before the conclave in which Pope John XXIII was proclaimed Pope, Msgr. Gallo was shocked to find Bishop Roncalli serving Mass for him in the papal private chapel one morning.
In those days, the Pope stayed within the walls of the Vatican, but Pope John XXIII’s successor, Pope Paul VI, elected in 1963, started to travel abroad. Msgr. Gallo was the secretary of Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, Dean of the College of Cardinals during the Second Vatican Council, and part of the Pope’s entourage when he visited India, Colombia, and the Holy Land.
Msgr. Gallo also worked at the Tribunal for the Roman Rota during Paul VI’s term, but at the end of his pontificate, Msgr. Gallo decided to leave Rome and look ministry elsewhere.
The year of three popes, 1978, saw a quick succession of residents of the Apostolic Palace. Pope Paul VI died Aug. 7, Pope John Paul I died Sept. 28, only 33 days after becoming pope, and Pope John Paul II was elected Oct. 16, reigning until April 2, 2005.
On April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was named pontiff and chose the name Benedict XVI. Msgr. Gallo and Pope Benedict XVI had known each other for a long time. Interestingly, they were both born in 1927, both ordained priests in 1951, and they also participated at Vatican II. Cardinal Ratzinger was the expert theologian of Cardinal Josef Frings of Cologne, while Msgr. Gallo was secretary to Cardinal Tisserant, President of the Central Commission.
For 25 years, Pope Benedict XVI and Msgr. Gallo were in Rome together. In 1981, Cardinal Ratzinger was called to be the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and Msgr. Gallo was appointed Judicial Vicar here in Vancouver. The Vancouver Matrimonial Tribunal also handled Privilege of the Faith cases and this gave them reason to correspond frequently. Msgr. Gallo was fortunate to be received in audience twice a year, until Benedict XVI surprised the world with his resignation from his pontifical duties and decided to dedicate his life to prayer and meditation.
Msgr. Gallo was instrumental in the approval and timely publication of his Meditations on the Holy Eucharist, published by the Aquinas Institute in 2004. This book had two other spiritual directors before Msgr. Gallo, but somehow it was God’s will that the book be published during the Year of the Holy Eucharist proclaimed by Pope John Paul II.
Msgr. Gallo reviewed all articles and approved them with an imprimatur before presenting the complete draft to Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin, SM, who put an imprimi potest on the book. The 250-page volume was pre-released with a Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Mary’s Church in Vancouver. It was officially released at the 48th International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. The book also received official endorsement by the Secretary-General of the IEC and by Bishop Albert Legatt of Saskatoon. In addition, the book won an honourable mention at the Independent Publishers Book Awards held in New York in 2005.
Msgr. Gallo’s spiritual direction and guidance to me and the Aquinas Institute were invaluable and has always been a part of our successes. He was lifetime spiritual director of the Aquinas Institute Corporation, and on July 25, 2019, the Feast of St. James the Apostle, he founded the Aquinas Hope International Society with the mission of the spiritual formation of its members, through the new Aquinas Religious Lay Order, and their commitment to good deeds not only in Canada but the poor countries of the world.
Teresita Nixon is a parishioner at Sacred Heart Parish in Delta and founder of the Richmond-based Aquinas Institute.