Fr. Charles Cummins celebrates 80th birthday and 44 years of service in Utah
HUNTSVILLE — The former Ogden Valley Community Church has scarcely enough room to hold a hundred people at the best of times, but that didn’t prevent more than 200 parishioners, friends and well-wishers from gathering there on April 22 to celebrate the 80th birthday of Father Charles Cummins. They crammed themselves into the small building, eager to shake hands with the priest who has touched so many of their lives in so many different ways.
Fr. Cummins was ordained a priest in 1968 in Los Angeles. After five years in California, he came to the Diocese of Salt Lake City, where he has served in many different ways for 44 years. A former track and field coach for St. Joseph Catholic High School, he is the priest chaplain of Weber State University’s Newman Center and parochial administrator for St. Florence Mission in Huntsville.
As Fr. Cummins stepped out of his car after celebrating Mass at St. Florence Mission on April 22, he was greeted by the throngs of people queuing up, smiling and wishing him a happy birthday. The party decorations included brightly colored balloons bobbing in the breeze, while the overall theme was football – green football field cloths covered the tables and little plastic footballs stuck out of the tops of muffins, while a cake displaying the Minnesota Vikings logo waited to be cut.
Fr. Cummins is well-known as a Vikings fan, and the cake foreshadowed the birthday present that St. Florence parishioners soon revealed: They had written a letter to Mike Zimmer, head coach of the Vikings, and had arranged for Fr. Cummins to be flown to Minnesota to watch a game in Zimmer’s private suite.
This gift was an incredible surprise, Fr. Cummins said, though he did have one concern. “The only trepidation I have … is if I’m sitting in a nice suite and (the Vikings) lose, I’ll feel like I’ll have to crawl out of that stadium.”
Saying a quick prayer to God for the Viking’s success is something he’ll have to remember to do when he travels to Minnesota, he said.
As the party went on, Fr. Cummins’ many parishioners and students reminisced, each with a different story to tell, but universally praising the loving care he has given them.
Joseph Loffredo, St. Joseph Catholic High School track and field coach, said he remembers most of all the work that Fr. Cummins put into coaching the track and field team in 1989 and 1990.
“The kids came up and asked Fr. Cummins if he’d be their coach and he took it on,” just like that, Loffredo said.
Fr. Cummins cared a lot about being an example of fitness for the students he coached, Loffredo said. “He’s always in shape, always works out, always has rosary beads with him, a lot of times even when he’s working out. He’s very sports oriented and gets along with everybody.”
Fr. Cummins’ sermons are excellent, Loffredo added. “He’s very down to earth. … He speaks on stories that relate to him, stories that he knows about. The sermon is based on the Gospel, but he brings it to his own personal level, his own personal history.”
The priest always visits St. Joseph Elementary School whenever he is needed, said Carole Layman, the school’s director of advancement, adding that she appreciates how Fr. Cummins is able to communicate with the students.
“Right now in today’s age, to be able to reach (students) and talk to them” is incredible, she said. “He relates to them so well. … He’s a hero figure in the eyes of these kids.”
He is able to break through the age barrier so easily because “he’s just such a good person,” Layman said. “That sounds so cliché, but he’s kind, special, caring. … He’s the best man I know. He makes time for everyone, makes you feel special, feel heard. He’s got that Christ-like figure about him.”
His coworkers and students at the Newman Center agreed that Fr. Cummins has a special quality about him.
“There’s a strength and solidarity (in him),” said Kathryn Windels, a student from the University of Notre Dame who works alongside Fr. Cummins in the Newman Center. “He’s just the type of person who draws people in. … (He) really has a personality that pulls people into the Catholic Church.”
Fr. Cummins is an excellent mentor, Windels said. “He’s the first person I go to for faith advice.” Other students at the Newman Center do the same, she said. “In a lot of ways he comes off as being the cool kind of priest, … but there’s a depth to it; none of it is for show.”
“(Fr. Cummins) knows very well how to relate to college students. He has that balance of being fun and being genuine,” Windels said. No one can compare to Fr. Cummins in having such a genuine, deep interest in introducing young people to God, she said.
Salvador Ceja, a Weber State University student who frequents the Newman Center, said Fr. Cummins is one reason he keeps coming back. “He’s a very good person, very helpful. Every time we bring a new member to the (Newman Center), he welcomes them and jokes around with them. He’s like the grandfather of the club,” Ceja said.
Thanks to Fr. Cummins, the Newman Center never has to worry about who will celebrate Mass or who will give spiritual advice to the students, Ceja said. “He’s there any time we want him to be. He’s always happy to answer any questions.”
Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, vicar general of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, was a newly ordained priest when he first met Fr. Cummins. “We became friends and I quickly came to admire his kind way with people and generous spirit, willing to serve wherever the need,” Msgr. Bircumshaw said. “Fr. Cummins always has a quiet humility and sense of humor about him that puts people at ease and makes him a very popular priest.”
The hundreds of people who came to Huntsville to honor Fr. Cummins each had a unique reason to celebrate the man that he is and the work he has done in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.
Deacon Terry Waiss, who delivered the blessing before the dinner, put all the goodwill toward Fr. Cummins into one phrase: “Indeed, he has been a father to us all.”
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