Newest priest awed by calling

"It's not important to me where I'm sent," the 51-year-old priest-to-be shrugged. "It's important to me that I'm a priest. God's people are everywhere!"

Growing up in Blessed Sacrament parish in Mohawk, at the western edge of the Albany Diocese, he was surrounded by some of those people. The eldest of five children, he described his parents, Eugene and Rita, as "good and faith-filled, unswerving in encouragement."

Call delayed

But Father Cunningham still went on to earn his degree in English with minors in history and education, and did his graduate work at Union College in Schenectady. He taught in Stillwater for several years before settling down in Watervliet, the town he calls "my adopted home," to teach English at Watervliet High School.

He stayed there for 21 years. "I loved teaching," he remembered. "I loved the age. Any time you challenge a young person to give his or her best, you'll get it."

Answered call

"The minute that question was posed," he said, "it came to me: `I would have become a priest.'"

The statement "lodged in me," Father Cunningham remembered. "I wound up praying about it. It was going to mean a huge change for me. The notion of being a priest in your 20s is one thing, but the notion of being a priest in your 40s is another!"

Back to school

Father Cunningham joined a support group through the Diocese's "Called by Name" vocations program and considered his situation. Eventually, he decided, "I guess I'd rather stand before the Lord and say, `I thought I heard you calling me and tried, but it wasn't to be,' than to hear, `Mark, I kept calling you, and you never answered.'"

The teacher became a student, entering the seminary at the Theological College of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Among his more astonishing lessons, he said, was "that God wanted me! It's really difficult for an older person to go back to the classroom. I could not have done this by myself."

Feelings

Father Cunningham hopes to bring the sense of life "not being black and white" he has gained through his experiences to the priesthood. He called himself a positive person who likes to encourage others to do their best.

In his ministry, he said, he will be mindful that strict conservative or liberal views can lose the idea that compassion must be at the heart of everything. "I believe God has this hope for all of us to draw closer in whatever way we can," he explained.

Appreciation

The priest is also grateful to his family, friends and colleagues for their support for his journey. However, he did admit to having one concern for his ordination day:

"I'm praying about the weather, and if everyone would pray with me....On Jan. 16, we need good weather!"

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