May 2, 2024
With great sadness, the Paulist Fathers announce that their brother, Rev. Charles E. Cunniff, C.S.P., entered eternal life on Thursday afternoon, May 2.
He died at the Paulist Center in Boston after struggling for several years with prostate cancer. He was 72 years old. Fr. Chuck had been a member of the Paulist community for 46 years and a priest for almost 41 years. He was a Catholic campus minister, parish priest, and Catholic Information Center staff member.
Charles E. Cunniff III was born October 22, 1951, in Boston, the eldest of seven children of Charles E. Cunniff, Jr., and Constance Jewett Cunniff. He grew up in Meriden, CT.
He earned an undergraduate degree in 1973 from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT, where he met the Paulist Fathers through the university’s Catholic campus ministry. He entered the Paulist novitiate in 1977, made his First Promises on August 12, 1978, and made his Final Promises on August 22, 1981. He earned a master’s degree from the Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C.
He was ordained a priest on May 21, 1983.
In his first priestly assignment, Fr. Chuck served on staff of the Catholic Information Center in Toronto, Canada, through August, 1984.
From 1984 to 1989, he was a campus minister at St. John XXIII University Parish at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN.
He then moved to Austin, TX, and was an associate pastor of St. Austin Church for five years.
He returned to campus ministry in 1994 as director of the Catholic Center at Boston University through 1999.
In 2000, he became the associate director of the Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids, MI.
That was followed by 13 years back in campus ministry at the St. Thomas More Newman Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, from 2004 to 2014, and as associate pastor at St. Luke University Parish at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, from 2014 to 2017.
He then served for one year as an associate pastor at the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids, MI, before returning to Boston in 2018 to become associate director of the Paulist Center.
From 2019 to 2022, he also served as superior of the Paulist Fathers based in Boston.
Fr. Chuck was preceded in death by his parents.
In addition to his brother Paulists, he is survived by: his sister Pat Tencza, and her husband, Jack; his brother, Jack Cunniff, and his wife Maureen; his brother, Paul Cunniff, and his wife, Julie; his sister, Mary Rogalski, and her husband, Dave; his sister, Meg Price, and her husband James; his sister, Kate Jonkman, and her husband, Hank; 13 nieces and nephews; and 13 great-nieces and nephews.
Our prayer for our brother, Chuck:
May the angels lead you into paradise,
may the martyrs come to welcome you,
and take you to the holy city,
the new and eternal Jerusalem.
Arrangements
The Mass of Christian Burial for Rev. Charles E. Cunniff, C.S.P., will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 11, at the Paulist Center, 5 Park St., Boston, MA.
The Mass will be preceded by a time of socializing and sharing of gratitude for Fr. Chuck’s life beginning at 9 a.m., also at the Paulist Center.
The principal celebrant of the Mass will be Very Rev. René Constanza, C.S.P., president of the Paulist Fathers. The homily will be shared by Rev. Rick Walsh, C.S.P.
Fr. Chuck will be buried in the Paulist Fathers section of St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery in Oak Ridge, NJ.
