Father James McGonegal.jpg

Father James McGonegal of St. Ignatius of Antioch Church on Lorain Avenue, who is suspected of soliciting sex from an off-duty park ranger at Edgewater Park on Friday night, has not given a sermon since being arrested and charged with public indecency.

(Plain Dealer File Photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland pastor suspected of soliciting sex from an off-duty park ranger at Edgewater Park Friday was absent from Mass on Sunday. He hasn't given a sermon since his Friday arrest.

Charges against James McGonegal, the pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch on Lorain Avenue in Cleveland, were only hinted at in the church's 11 a.m. Mass on Sunday.

An incident report from Cleveland Metroparks said McGonegal offered a park ranger, who was wearing civilian clothes, $50 to help him "get off," and then exposed himself while sitting in his late-model Jeep SUV. After being arrested, he was taken to Cleveland City Jail, where he told jail workers he is HIV-positive, reports said.

The incident seemed to have little effect on church attendance this weekend. On Sunday, the pews of the old stone church were nearly full.

"Today we pray for this parish, and our pastor," a church lector said before Sunday's sermon. McGonegal's circumstances were never mentioned directly.

A priest in residence gave the Sunday morning sermon and the sermon for the Saturday evening Mass.

St. Ignatius is a quaint Catholic church with stained-glass windows and stone pillars that extend from the floor to the ceiling. It has a great hall that can accommodate hundreds of worshipers, and its iconic steeple can be seen for several blocks in every direction.

Members of the parish declined to talk about McGonegal after the Sunday morning Mass, although several said he was the either the reason they joined the church, or the reason they stayed.

McGonegal has been the pastor of St. Ignatius since the 1980s, and has been a priest since 1971.

He is charged with public indecency and abusing harmful intoxicants, reports said. He was released from the Cleveland City Jail on a personal bond Saturday morning, reports said.