The Rev. Michael Manning, Catholic priest who spread the word on television and smartphone apps, dies at 75

Michael Manning, an Inland Empire priest who brought Catholic teachings into people’s homes through an evangelical television ministry and later spread the word via smartphone apps, has died at the age of 75.

The Diocese of San Bernardino said Manning died Dec. 14 of complications from cancer.

Manning produced hundreds of programs at a San Bernardino studio that were aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, which has a global reach and offers a largely evangelic lineup that was dominated by the late Paul and Jan Crouch, the flamboyant husband-and-wife team who preached a prosperity gospel and staged telethons that raised enough money to afford them a private jet and a pair of mansions in Newport Beach.

“I’m the token Catholic,” Manning conceded in a 1988 interview with the Riverside Press Enterprise. “I know I could be used. I’m not naive.”

Squeezed in amid the end-times preaching of the Crouchs, Manning offered a sunny menu of Bible stories and life lessons. He wore a cardigan sweater, smiled broadly and was referred to as a spiritual “Mr. Rogers,” a comparison he told the Press Enterprise he found flattering.

Manning’s shows, which included “The Word in the World,” were produced by Wordnet Productions, a nonprofit media company he founded in 1978.

His interest in using media to reach as large an audience as possible led him to develop apps for smartphones, including iGod Today and Dios Habla, which offered brisk mini-sermons and Bible readings in Spanish and English.

Manning seemed drawn to the spotlight. He was a guest on “Larry King Live” and the “Montel Williams Show,” had a bit role in the 1991 Robert De Niro film “Guilty by Suspicion” and helped write a musical based on the apostle Paul.

Born Dec. 31, 1940, in Muncie, Ind., Manning received degrees from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was ordained in 1969. He was pastor at St. Anthony Parish in San Bernardino from 2003 to 2007.

In 2011, Manning took a leave of absence after it was disclosed he’d had an affair with a school administrator, later identified as a distant relative on the Wordnet Productions’ website. Manning acknowledged the relationship and said he was taking time off to reflect.