Diocese to explain priest's suspension

A team of diocesan officials will meet Monday night with parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene to explain why their popular priest and parish founder, the Rev. John Cunningham, remains suspended for allegedly concelebrating Mass with a non-Catholic priest and how the bishop is trying to resolve the issue.

A lengthy letter announcing the meeting was read at Saturday's Mass and will be read at all of today's Masses at Williams Community School gym at Williams Gateway Airport in Mesa, where the parishioners regularly meet while their permanent campus is being built in Gilbert. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted announced he has appointed the Rev. Donald Kline, director of the vocations office for diocesan priesthood, as the interim director of the parish with 772 registered families.

All are invited to a parish meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at the school's cafeteria where diocesan officials, including the judicial vicar for the diocese, the diocesan attorney and the head of priests, will explain church law regarding the Eucharist. They will also take questions and hear concerns.

Cunningham is planning a news conference earlier that evening to "tell his side of the story," a spokesman for the priest said.

Olmsted suspended Cunningham, a priest since 1974, on April 30 following a complaint brought by staff of St. Anne's Catholic Parish in Gilbert where the Eucharist was part of a wedding in April. An Anglican priest is said to have had a role in the Eucharist that is restricted to faithful Catholics.

Olmsted said in his letter that a recently completed investigation into the matter was inconclusive. "For that reason, I am required to refer the matter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome," he said.

The bishop's letter cited Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical on the Eucharist, saying the "Eucharist stands at the center of the church's life" and "is the most precious possession which the church can have in her journey through history."

Catholics believe the bread and wine of communion undergo "transubstantiation" and the elements become the real body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ in that process, unlike the common Protestant belief that bread and wine are symbolic of Christ's body and blood.

Would the content of the above articles and Background Information give you confidence in Fr. John as a pastor of a Catholic parish? Why or why not?

I chose to look at this question as if I were (hypothetically) a Christian from another denomination, or perhaps unbaptized person discerning joining the Catholic Church.

When he uses a statement like:

The spirit of those who inspire us sparks our own undiscovered inner power. On the highest spiritual plane, this leads to the discovery of our inner divinity.

I would think, if I were not told he were a priest, that this statement came from some crystal-swinger spiritualist in Sedona, or long haired, anorexic guru from a top of a tall snowy peak in Katmandu.

And I think if I were that person seeking guidance of The Church and of The Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, I believe I would keep searching, saddened that The Church had gone by the way of New Age.

Just the pure fact that he as a priest sites (the man) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as his inspiration, as opposed to Jesus Christ, is disturbing to me.

Thanks for finding and posting that article written by fr.Cunningham. I had responded to the Trib when it was printed. In my letter,I suggested he find another church because it was apparent he was not Catholic. Aliska and Desdemona,notice that he denies Christ and sets the self up as god.

John Cunningham was an ass't pastor in my parish in the late 70's. Several teens,in addition to my three,called him fr.Showboater and did not like him. He was pretty young and very nice looking and although I thought his Catholicism weak,I was surprised that teens did not like him. I thought that he might have been gay,boys frequently sense those things.

I asked a couple of women and they assured me,he was not gay. They said he was a womanizer and flagrant.

He must have been bisexual because we have recently learned that as the ass't diocesan vocations director he had been called on the carpet. He had taken the seminarians out to dinner and left a $500.00 tip. When queationed he told the vocations director,that the waiter "provided good service and was 'cute'". Shortly thereafter he became the vocations director for the diocese.

He was frequently the "catholic authority" the newspapers quoted because they were sure he would never utter a Catholic thought or position to poison the minds of the public. He was also the founding pastor of a parish in the east valley,St.Brigit's where they have something that looks like stonehenge with mazes and odd rocks etc. The parish was into enneagrams and new age spirituality and luv and peace and justice retreats and woman's rights. He invited the Jesus Seminar group to give a symposium which was moved off site by order of the bishop,much to his chagrin.

Three years ago or so,we heard he had his priveleges suspended for concelebrating Mass with an Episcopalian priestess. The case went to Rome but we heard that there was furious lobbying and nothing happened. Next thing we knew he was given the oppurtunity to start a new parish.

Last year he signed the Phoenix Declaration and then evidently had this new difficulty with permitting some type of eucharistic abuse at a wedding. I have a suspicion that this second abuse may be more serious because there were probably some conditions placed on him after the priestess brouhaha. Watching fr.Cunningham is a full time job for a Bishop and I hope and pray that fr. will either repent or resign,since out new Bishop has a lot of other work to do. I have heard that all heresy starts south of the belt,I would say if it doesn't start there,it does nd there. John Cunnigham is the perfect example.

Has he done a self excommunication? If so, if you can, please give cite(s) and any other info or opinion.

theologically, holding Mass with a priest from another church is merely a major disciplinary action. I attended at least one mass where an Orthodox priest concelebrated with several Catholic priests at a mass.

However, there is a real question about Anglican/Episcopalian priests. Over a hundred years ago, after investigating it, the Vatican found many lapses in "bishop to bishop" consecrations, so said Anglian orders were not valid. However, since that time, many Anglican and Episcopal priests are ordained with Orthodox or schismatic Catholic (e.g. the Polish national catholic church) bishops co presiding with Anglican bishops-- something that only makes sense if the Anglicans themselves agreed that they may have lost the line of the sacrament. But as a result, most Anglican/Episcopal priests are now true priests.

So if this priest merely concelebrated a mass with another valid priest from another church without the church's permission, he is open to disciplinary correcction of the bishop

But if this "priest" was merely a clergyman without valid ordination as a priest in any church, it is a blasphemy, and he "excommunicated" himself.

"Maybe the Anglican priest was a good Christian. Kind of nice to include him in the consecration and there wouldn't be one darn thing wrong with it if it weren't for rules, rules, rules. I personally get hung up over rules and don't think it is a good idea to rebel, but on the other end of the spectrum, when you are constantly tearing people apart for things that aren't all that terrible, what does that make me/us?"

Anglicans do not have valid orders. These "rules" are there to protect the faith and the faithful. Apparently this priests, and others here, think they may place themselves above the Church. The Church is Christ. Those "rules" are His rules. I am glad this excellent bishop is taking his position seriously and trying to clean out all these dissenters and heretics from the Church. I pray he is successful.

"I have heard that all heresy starts south of the belt,I would say if it doesn't start there,it does nd there.

I have never heard that, but I have often thought it. Heresy either begins or ends there, it is the cause or the end result, even if one only ascedes to it.

This Priest, from what I have read here, even by people who know him personally, seems like a bad apple that is infecting all who come in contact.

But he is a real Priest of God, and should probably not be piled on by people who don't really know what went on. Especially since he didn't commit a crime. The Bishop and the Vatican alone should decide his fate. We should only pray that they make a decision that is favorable to the Church.

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