Father John P. Cunningham, former pastor of St. Thomas More in Baltimore and St. Jane Frances de Chantal in Riviera Beach, is being remembered as a faithful priest whose insatiable intellectual curiosity gave him an encyclopedic knowledge of a wide range of subjects.
Father Cunningham died Oct. 1 at his residence at Mercy Ridge in Timonium after years of declining health. He was 74 and had been in hospice care.
Deacon Thomas Baker of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., knew Father Cunningham for more than 50 years. They first met when Deacon Baker was an undergraduate at Princeton University and Father Cunningham was a graduate student studying and teaching English as he worked on a doctoral dissertation. At Princeton, Father Cunningham was involved with the Aquinas Institute, the university’s campus chaplaincy.
“He was a person of great faith,” Deacon Baker remembered. “He and I were both very inspired by the campus ministry at Princeton when we were there. It was the kind of place that really made you want to dedicate your life to serving the church and I think that it really had that effect on him.”
Deacon Baker said his friend was a voracious reader and had a “tremendous” memory. He was knowledgeable about everything from theology to trains and subway systems, Deacon Baker said.
“He was a native New Yorker and he knew everything about the New York City subway system,” Deacon Baker said. “He also knew everything about the London Underground.”
Deacon Baker said Father Cunningham studied for the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Baltimore because archdiocesan leadership was known for being pastoral.
“John was very attracted to that and he went down and talked to them and was impressed and decided that was where he wanted to be,” said Deacon Baker, whose friend baptized one of his three daughters and was the godfather to another.
Father Cunningham, who studied theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was ordained by Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop T. Austin Murphy Dec. 29, 1979, in the chapel of Princeton University. He was the last of his ordination class to receive Holy Orders because his ordination was delayed so relatives from Ireland could attend the liturgy. Proud of his Irish heritage, he periodically traveled to Ireland over the course of his life to visit family.
Father Cunningham served as associate pastor of what is now St. Gabriel in Woodlawn from 1980 to 1982 and associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel in Overlea from 1982 to 1987. He was associate pastor of St. Rita in Dundalk from 1988 to 1993 and administrator of St. Joseph in Fullerton from 1993 to 1996.
He served as pastor of St. Thomas More from 1996 to 2004 and pastor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal from 2004 to 2009.
Father Cunningham, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a master’s degree in English from Princeton, was associate pastor of St. Margaret in Bel Air from 2009 to 2017 and associate pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption, Govans, and St. Pius X, Rodgers Forge, from 2017 to 2018. He retired in 2018.
Father Brian Nolan, pastor of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Ijamsville, served as Father Cunningham’s associate pastor for three years at St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Father Nolan said Father Cunningham helped him grow as a priest by giving him responsibilities for ministries at the parish.
“He had a great love for Pope John XXIII and seeing the gift of the Second Vatican Council and the importance of the laity,” Father Nolan said.
Maria Boling, the longtime parish business manager at St. Thomas More, said Father Cunningham hired her for the position. She remembered her friend as being very attentive to fine detail and always concerned for the sick of the parish.
“I know of one case of someone with breast cancer who was going through a long round of chemotherapy and radiation,” Boling said. “He called almost every day to find out how she was doing. There were many other examples like that.”
The priest’s concern for the sick may have stemmed partly from his own health challenges. As a child, Father Cunningham suffered from polio. He took medication to treat the disease, which made his bones very brittle. Later in life, he suffered cardiac ailments.
Father Cunningham, whose seminary studies and priestly ministry prevented him from completing his doctoral degree in English, oversaw a major renovation of the church at St. Thomas More, establishing a gathering area and reducing the seating capacity.
“It made it a more intimate worship space and brought everyone closer in physical distance,” Boling said.
Father Cunningham donated his body to science. A memorial Mass will be scheduled at a later date.
Email George Matysek a gmatysek@CatholicReview.org
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