I’m sure Michael Ryan, who joined The Kansas city Star’s editorial board in June, had only good intentions when he wrote an Op-Ed column titled “This JoCo church proves the power of community,” which ran in Sunday’s paper.
But nobody must have told Ryan, a Kansas City area native who is now back, about the lingering smell emanating from the church he wrote about — St. Ann Catholic Church, 73rd and Mission Road, Prairie Village. And Ryan certainly didn’t do any homework regarding the church he and his family belonged to when he was growing up.
His column was nominally about the clergy sexual-abuse scandal that has enveloped and diminished the Catholic Church the last couple of decades. Ryan wrote that he was watching the “still-roiling” scandal with a mixture of despair and gratitude — despair being his feeling about the pain the victims have endured and gratitude “for having been kept safe by whim or fate” when he was young.
He talked nostalgically about going back to St. Ann for the wake of a classmate’s father, and he waxed poetic about his trip down memory lane…
“So many years and so many roads later, I felt a renewed sense of belonging walking into my childhood church to comfort an elementary school classmate. I didn’t recognize anyone else there. Remarkably, I didn’t need to. I felt right at home.”
…I wonder if he noticed the new $8.5 million chapel facing Mission Road?
Surely, somebody on The Star’s editorial page remembers that chapel was built partly with significant funding from a group of parishioners who made millions on the backs of poor people who either borrowed from, or were fleeced by, payday loan operations run by those particular parishioners.
It’s worth repeating part of this story, which I’ve written about before…Worth repeating because it’s not fair or honest to let Ryan’s idealized portrayal stand.
When then-pastor Rev. Keith Lunsford launched the capital campaign to finance the chapel several years ago, the group of early “lead givers” included at least five parishioners who were in the payday lending business: Tim Coppinger, Vince Hodes, Frampton T. (Ted) Rowland III and Stephen and Julie Zanone.
The Federal Trade Commission eventually shot down those payday lending operations and froze the assets of one or more of the individuals. Although none was ever charged with a crime, their reputations and personal finances were badly damaged. Coppinger and his wife, for example, sold their house in Mission Hills. (I think they moved to Leawood, so they obviously didn’t end up on skid row.)
The worst outcome was for Ted Rowland, who committed suicide in October 2016 at age 52.
In addition, when the story was making headlines, Lunsford took a medical leave of absence and, to the best of my knowledge, never resumed his duties as St. Ann’s pastor.
To the chagrin of many people, including some parishioners, Lunsford did not return any of the dirty money the payday lenders had contributed.
(In a Facebook post, a woman named Anne Pritchett wrote: “I went to St. Ann and my parents were members for 50 years. When I was a student there in the ’60s, we were known for our outreach to the poor. We collected food, we held school-wide fundraisers for the poor and we worked at the food kitchen in WyCo. To see this church now benefit from modern-day loan sharks is both disappointing and shameful.”)
Unlike St. Ann’s, another Catholic institution, St. Teresa’s Academy, took the high road when it came to a payday-loan windfall.
St. Teresa’s had conducted a capital campaign to build an athletic field and track, and Tim Coppinger was a major contributor. But after the payday-loan scandal broke, Nan Bone, then president of St. Teresa’s, summoned members of the Coppinger family and returned the money they had given for “The Coppinger Family Track.”
…So, when The Star and Michael Ryan say that St. Ann’s “proves the power of community,” I see it much differently. When I pass 73rd and Mission Road, I see a church that refused to stand up to greed and failed to return ill-gotten gains. For the integrity of the congregation, I hope Tim Coppinger, Vince Hodes and the Zanones are at least no longer in the pews.
Thank you so much for writing this!! I wish it could be widely circulated. I am still disgusted every time I drive down Mission Road and see that chapel, and every time I think “Our Lady of the Payday Loans.”
I cannot believe that apparently no one on the Ed. Page staff brought this history to Ryan’s attention. That is so very basic!!! (I have no idea where the copy editing is done these days, but surely there’s someone on the copy desk who remembers this as well.) If, after getting up to date on its history, Ryan still wanted to write this love letter to his old parish, at the very least he could have acknowledged the past controversy.
Also, an FYI to Ryan: The bishop of the KC-St. Joe Diocese just sent out a 2-page letter on clergy sexual abuse in that diocese to all parishioners. I received it late last week. Although St. Ann’s is in a different diocese, if Ryan has a strong interest in this issue, he might want to read our bishop’s letter. It was pretty damn good.
Thanks, Karen. I’m always glad when you’re on my side.
Good job. (PS – Anne, retired KCSD teacher, also JOCO democrat official.)
Thanks for filling in that gap, Ned.
Are you scraping for more stones to throw? And now you are calling which pews are not suitable? That is pretty sanctimonious. I think all the rocks have been thrown and many of them hit the target. These families are loving and strong and honorable and will take their stones and go on. What is your purpose? Are you a baby boomer with a lot of time on your hands with a keyboard? They are unselfish friends to many people all over this region. Now and decades ago.
I recall this horrible incident while reading about Saint Ann’s turning away a kindergartner during Holy Week. We as a Church will exclude a kindergartner, meanwhile taking the money from the sharks? Please remind me again of the new commandment???
We just saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at The Rep…”Lies…Liars…Mendacity!”
Big Daddy would call out the Church on this.