PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal
November 18, 2017
By Jacqueline Tempera
[Note: Includes links to Cunningham’s assignment history, John CP Doe’s complaint, and several defendant’s pleadings in the John CJ Doe case.]
Rev. Christopher Cunningham, facing 2 civil lawsuits, practices at Seaside Psychological Services on Bellevue Avenue. He was licensed by the Rhode Island Department of Health in 2013, after working briefly in Pennsylvania.
A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children in churches in Southern California in the 1990s and early 2000s is now working as a licensed psychologist in Newport.
The Rev. Christopher Cunningham, 55, is a practicing clinical psychologist at Seaside Psychological Services on Bellevue Avenue. He was licensed by the Rhode Island Department of Health in 2013, after working briefly in Pennsylvania.
He is also the subject of two civil lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of California in the District of Los Angeles. Two men — former parishioners now in their late 20s — say Cunningham sexually abused them when they were children — ages 10 to 13.
Both suits stem from Cunningham’s time as pastor of St. Louise De Marillac Catholic Church in Covina, California, from 2001 to 2003. But court filings depict a pattern of strange, predatory behavior at each of the five parishes where Cunningham worked in California, before he went back to school and became a psychologist in 2010.
One man, identified as “John CP Doe” says that when he was 10 to 11 years old, Cunningham “sexually molested” him. Cunningham worked as a priest at the church where the boy’s family worshiped, the man alleges in the suit filed May 25.
In a 2015 suit, a man identified as “John CJ Doe” says Cunningham molested him in 2001 and 2002 when he was 12 and 13 years old.
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