Bishop Keenan presided over the Requiem Mass for Monsignor James Canon Cunningham on 16th June 2023, in St Mirin's Cathedral. Read his homily here.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

We gather here in our Cathedral Parish to offer Holy Mass for the repose of the soul of our brother, Monsignor James Cunningham., to thank GOD for his six decades of priestly service of our people, to ask the LORD in His goodness and mercy that James may rest in peace and rise in glory and to pray for the consolation of his family who remain behind,

Our brother James went to the LORD on the Solemnity of Trinity Sunday.  I imagine the Good LORD could not resist the quirk of it, to take home to Himself the last of Paisley’s own trinity of brothers in the priesthood: Tom, James and John.  Most Sunday evenings the three bothers would meet up, and on Thursday, John and James would meet up for lunch before visiting their cousins, Beatrice and James and the family, to whom they were very close, and we offer them our condolences and remember them in our prayers.   We commend James to the LORD on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Feast that gives us every reassurance of GOD’s saving love for us.  It was a love James sought to repay every day in intimate prayer and ardent pastoral ministry and which is surely now rewarded in the heart of Jesus.

Nor have we forgotten that he follows into eternity and only a month apart his lifelong priest friend, Canon Joe Dow, with whom he served in Renfrew for a dozen years.  Please GOD these good priests are reunited around the Heavenly Altar of the Lamb.  May they indeed be happy who have died in the Lord, resting after their work, their good deeds going with them.

The Book of Wisdom speaks of the virtuous souls who are in the hands of GOD, whom the LORD tests like gold in a furnace, accepting their holocaust.  Perhaps these words can refer first to Monsignor James’ parents.  Having a family of only three boys, they allowed the LORD to call all of them to His harvest, leaving themselves no consolation of extended family and grandchildren into the next generation, the sort of joy that fills up the hearts of so many parents.   People of faith, they readily accepted the honour of giving their sons to the priesthood, their hope rich with immortality; and considering slight any earthy affliction it entailed.  Faithful to the LORD, may they now live with Him and their sons in love, and in the grace and mercy that awaits those He has chosen.  As we commend our brother to the LORD we remember their sacrifice too.  

James was born to them on 8 November 1936 in Saint Mary’s Parish in the West End of Paisley and went to Blairs College for secondary education which prepared him for senior seminary in the Pontifical Scots College on the Via Quattro Fontane in Rome.  Completing his studies, he went on to take a doctorate in dogma due to his young age and was ordained in September 1960.

This was the most exciting of times in the Eternal City in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, from where Pope Saint John XXIII had called a Vatican Council which opened just as James was completing his studies.  With the stepping down of the long-standing Rector, Mgr Clapperton, and plans being announced for a modern purpose-built Scots College on the Via Cassia on the northern suburbs of the City, in every respect for the young priest James everything must have had the sense of a new era about it.  

On his return to the diocese, and over the following decade, James served as assistant priest in St Margaret, Johnstone and in St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s Greenock.  At the same time, he set himself to opening up to the clergy the thrilling new insights of the Council as they happened, later on helping its vision become a reality in the diocese.  For James this was a time of the visitation of the Holy Spirit upon the Church and a time for his priestly ministry to shine out with his fresh zeal and insight, a spark running through the stubble.  Coming fresh from Rome’s melting pot, he understood the truth of the new vision, while remaining faithful to the perennial tradition in love. 

In 1975 he was asked to return to Rome as Spiritual Director where he influenced many future priests with his example of priestly spirituality and his encouragement to seminarians to develop a good personal ‘rule of life’, a practice he, himself, maintained throughout his priesthood.  He also enjoyed his time as ‘summer rector’, inviting out his brother John and other priest friends.  That said, holidaying with James was not for slouches.    Known for his punctuality, even on holiday, his friends had their wake up call for breakfast at 0.800 where the day’s timetable would be issued in scrupulous detail.

Nor was he squeamish about putting those guests to work should the occasion or emergency arise.  As it did at least once when something like a forest fire caught hold in the surrounding area and James convinced himself it might engulf the College itself.  In no time he mustered his poor, unsuspecting priest pals into a fire crew and the day was saved.  He had, you could say, tested them in the furnace and found them as good as gold.   

Returning to the diocese and to parish life, James served as assistant priest in St Francis, Port Glasgow and St. Joseph’s, Clarkston, to ensure ministry in every area of our diocese, as well as serving as educational advisor for the diocese. before taking on responsibility as Parish Priest of St James, Renfrew and finally of St. Thomas’, Neilston until his retirement in October 2015.  All his appointments James approached with a sense of responsibility and lived with care and attention.  His homilies were well known for being systematic and precise and he conscientiously visited his parishioners in their homes, as he had been taught from the beginning, still keeping the district books right up until the end.

In his final appointment in St. Thomas’, James got to know and love Saint Thomas, the Apostle, who features in our Gospel story, and to whom the Risen LORD revealed Himself as Via, Veritas, Vita, the Way, the Truth and the Life.  The Risen Jesus was indeed our brother’s LORD and GOD and we thank GOD for his faithful and tireless priestly heart that passed on Jesus as Way and Truth and Life to his people.  

In a long and happy retirement lived first with the good hospitality of brother priests and finally with the attentive and loving care of the community at the Little Sisters, James continued a lifelong pleasure as an avid reader, keeping himself informed, updated and engaged to the last.  

There are many rooms in the Father’s mansion.  May James now be home with his parents, brothers and priest friends and all the faithful whom he so dutifully served.  We commend him and his eternal rest the sure intercession of our Blessed Mother. May he rest in peace.