But the new guy, a Dr Michael Cunningham, makes a radical change in the format right when he arrives. He started this past July; our retreat last weekend was only the third one on his watch. Under the new regime, every conference is aimed at "centering prayer", which we've come to see is a cultish "new age" innovation from the me-generation 1970s, with its own jargon and its own private redefinition of terms in the Catechism. I've talked with several guys who've been on previous retreats, who said that "centering prayer" had been at best a sort of side option in prior years, but now, the whole retreat focused on it.
Homilies at the eucharists, for instance, drew on points made in "centering prayer" conferences to illustrate scripture, with predictably woozy results. Seemed like everyone at the retreat center had gotten the message from new CEO Cunningham, huh? So this is an innovation from Dr Cunningham. Who is Dr Cunningham?
The first thing that strikes me is this. LinkedIn is basically an on line resume. Its intent is pretty purposefully either to get you a job or otherwise further your professional career by helping you build contacts. So why on earth does Cunningham have a photo of himself wearing sunglasses? When I worked, I sometimes helped with job interviews and got input from hiring managers.
One of the sure killers in a job interview was for the guy to walk in wearing sunglasses -- in fact, this happened once or twice. The written comments managers passed around after the interview were along the line of "Guy wore sunglasses throughout interview." Nothing else.
Well, maybe it was a real sunny day when he got his picture took, huh? No reason he had to use that photo in his profile. I sure wouldn't. On LinkedIn, a business oriented site, I'd be wearing a blue suit and a foulard tie, with a sincerely noncommittal smile, if that were me. Not Dr Cunningham. All I can say is it's not a point in his favor when we try to figure out who he is.
If you scroll farther down on his LinkedIn entry, you find more that's worth at least adding to the case file. His career listing starts in 1990 as a corporate vice president for OpenText; continues in 1992 as President/CEO of LaserData, which, like the first entry, lasts about two years. Then, leaving the President/CEO job in 1994, he opens his own business, Harvard Computing, which, according to the LinkedIn profile, is still in operation.
According to its website, Harvard Computing is located at 225 Cedar Hill St, Suite 200 Marlboro, MA 01752. A Google search shows this is a Regus office space, "virtual office services", basically a glorified mail drop. Not a very successful business is Harvard Computing, at least by appearances.
Beyond that, a web search shows that Michael J Cunningham and his wife, Sally Michele Cunningham, filed for Chapter 11 in Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court, case # 10-40043, on January 5, 2010. A thorough review of public records shows this is the same couple, based at the same addresses, as the Dr Cunningham we now see at the Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center.
The LinkedIn profile shows Cunningham began working in 2011 on a Master's in Theology and Ministry at St John's Seminary in Boston, which he received in 2014. It sounds as though Dr Cunningham, after nearly 20 years of struggle to run a computer training and consulting business, decided, more or less in desperation, to take up a new line of work. He worked on a Doctorate of Ministry, Spirituality, at Catholic University from 2015 to 2018, which is presumably where the "Dr" comes from. But since CU is in Washington, DC, and Cunningham was a lay employee of St Eulalia Parish in Winchester, MA during this time, I've got to assume this was "distance learning", and the DMin was a mail order degree.
So Cunningham had a brief career as a corporate high flyer, but that flight seems to have crashed around 1994, following which he seems to have struggled for almost two decades as a "consultant" until he finally filed for bankruptcy. And then inspiration struck! He could remake himself as a charismatic spiritual leader, selling "new age" Kool-Aid to Catholic marks!
This is a story not too different from the one we've seen many times under the auspices of Anglicanorum coetibus: a very marginal guy is looking for one more chance to rescue a floundering career. And in this case, he wears sunglasses while he does it. Hey, this kind of thing is up to me, and I'm not going to take spiritual direction from a guy who wears sunglasses and has filed for bankruptcy. Sorry. Wish I'd known this going into the retreat.
Naturally, if Dr Cunningham or anyone else can provide information that can correct or clarify what I've found here, I'll be very happy to correct or clarify the record.
