ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic
Michael Clancy, The Republic | azcentral.com May 28, 2014
A Phoenix priest has resigned as a pastor as the diocese investigates “several complaints” against him.
The complaints to the diocese came from parents and other adults at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic parish and school. The pastor of the parish was the Rev. John Ehrich, who also serves as Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s chief adviser on medical ethics.
Ehrich became known during the dispute over the Catholic character of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, doing several interviews explaining the bishop’s decision that the hospital could no longer be considered Catholic. The hospital had done a pregnancy-ending procedure to save a woman’s life that the bishop said did not fit Catholic guidelines for terminating a pregnancy.
Ehrich was not available for comment, and the diocese declined to provide his contact information.
Ehrich took a voluntary leave as the investigation, which the diocese said is being done by an outside party, got under way. Parishioners at St. Thomas, at 24th Street and Campbell Avenue, were informed on May 2. Two weeks later, the diocese announced that Ehrich had resigned as pastor of the church “for his own well-being and for the good of the parish.”
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