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Phoenix priest quits parish duty amid investigation
By Michael Clancy
A Phoenix priest has resigned as a pastor as the diocese investigates several complaints against him. The complaints to the diocese about the Rev. John Ehrich came from parents and other adults at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic parish and school. Parishioners at St. Thomas, at 24th Street and Campbell Avenue, were informed on May 2 that Ehrich would take voluntary leave while the investigation was underway. Two weeks later, the diocese, which retained an outside law firm to conduct the investigation, announced that Ehrich had resigned as pastor of the church "for his own well-being and for the good of the parish." Ehrich was not available for comment. A note to parishioners said Ehrich "remains a priest in good standing" and that Ehrich had not been accused of physical or sexual abuse of a minor or been accused of a crime. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Diocese of Phoenix said it is "committed to providing a safe environment where it values and honors every individual as created in the image and likeness of God." They said Ehrich remains a "priest with full faculties" in the Diocese of Phoenix. Parents, who declined to be identified, said they had presented a list of demands to the diocese, foremost among them that Ehrich be removed from the parish. Ehrich, who was ordained in 2000, had been pastor of St. Thomas since 2007, when he returned from Rome after receiving a degree in theology. Ehrich serves as Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted's chief adviser on medical ethics and became publicly known during a dispute over the Catholic character of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. In interviews with the media, Ehrich explained that the diocese could no longer consider the hospital Catholic because it had done a pregnancy-ending procedure to save a woman's life that did not fit church guidelines.
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