Fr. Corapi placed on Administrative Leave Following Accusations

[bullish1]

I am not at all happy of placing Fr Corapi on administrative leave. That may be necessary during the investigation of some allegations, but it is not called for here. Does this prevent him from contact with the accuser? No! Does this protect other individuals? No! Has anything he preached not been in complete agreement with church Doctrine? No! I beleive he is completely innocent. If there were any shred of truth, we would have been exposed to tapes, or letters or something. Regardless, his position is not a risky one and he is innocent until proven guilty. I have never heard him say one word that I will ever regret hearing even if he is guilty. Why are you punishing him and us in the mean time?

 

[SwizzleStick]

This is probably the best article on the subject. We have a Divine Mercy Prayer Group that meets weekly in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Every week we pray the prayer for priests by St. Faustina, and include our parish priests, Bishop and Cardinal, and all of God’s chosen sons. We all need to be reminded to not only pray for them daily…at times we need to storm heaven for them!!!

I agree that the entry is very good. We certainly need to pray for our priests. They are flawed humans like the rest of us and need much prayerful support from the Catholic community. These lines from the blog entry convey that thought nicely.

…We need to do a better job covering them with our prayers. We need to get our dander up a bit and say to Satan, “Not my priest! Get away!..

…My thoughts upon hearing the news about Fr. Corapi were about us – the faithful – not him. (I will presume his innocence until proven otherwise.) Are we doing our duty? Do we expect our priests and deacons to be superhuman and inexhaustible and forget to shield them by our prayers? They have big, flashing neon targets on their heads. Have we forgotten? They feed us the Bread of Life; they loose our sins and usher us into God’s mercy; they baptize us into the Body of Christ. This makes them a most sought-after trophy for the enemy to hang on his wall.

Like any of us, they are human and weak. That doesn’t justify or excuse their sin any more than it does our own. But it’s time we remembered that they are on the front lines of a fierce battle for souls, and Satan really, really wants theirs. Who’s got their backs? We must. For starters, let us plead for the intercession of St. Michael and the Blessed Mother on their behalf constantly, not just when another scandal is brewing. "…

Blue text quoted from: mychocolatehart.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-clergy-allegations-strike-shepherd.html

 

[JRRTFAN]

This entire issue has hardly been made public in the sense that you are implying. We wouldn’t know anything about this if it wasn’t for Fr. Corapi’s little website posting. I’m sure his superiors were bombarded with thousands of emails and phone calls demanding to know what’s going on and that forced them to release their own statement. Unless somebody knows otherwise, we haven’t heard one single word from the woman, so that hardly counts as her going public.

ChadS

When one accuses someone of being a drug addict and (I suppose) a sexual predator to 3 bishops one must come forth and testify. If I sent a letter to you boss that you were abusing drugs would you roll over and protect my anonymity? C’mon. Get real. See, I presume his innocence, others don’t. All I’m asking is “stand and deliver”.

 

[GrandmaLou]

Fr. Corapi himself said Satan’s line of attack would be to take out the soldiers: the priests. My pastor is also on administrative leaving trying to clear himself of charges I don’t believe.

“Keep them I pray thee, Dearest Lord. Keep them for they are thine. Thy priests whose lives burn out before Thy consecrated shrine. Keep them for they are in the world, though from the world apart. When earthly preasures tempt, allure: shelter them in Thy heart. Keep them and comfort them in hours of loneliness and pain when all their life of sacrifice for souls seems but in vain. Keep them, and O remember Lord they have no one but Thee, yet they have only human hearts with human frailty. Keep them as spotless as the Host that daily they caress. Their every thought and word and deed, deign dearest Lord, to bless.”

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Part of EWTN’s reasons for pulling his programming is that he has been placed on leave from public ministry. A television show is a public ministry.

It could cause confusion as to why his television shows are still on but his public appearances are all cancelled.

 

[ChadS]

When one accuses someone of being a drug addict and (I suppose) a sexual predator to 3 bishops one must come forth and testify. If I sent a letter to you boss that you were abusing drugs would you roll over and protect my anonymity? C’mon. Get real. See, I presume his innocence, others don’t. All I’m asking is “stand and deliver”.

Neither you nor I would know one thing about this if it hadn’t been for Fr. Corapi’s post. To say that this has been made public only distorts the issue. This issue is being handled by the bishops and his superiors. I’m sure Fr. Corapi will have an opportunity to confront the accuser and the accusations in whatever forum is used for these sorts of things. We don’t need to know who his accuser is and I’m not sure it is really any of our business.

ChadS

 

[luvu2]

I find it rather annoying to say the least that EWTN has yanked Fr. Corapi’s volumes of outstanding work while claiming they believe in innocence until proven guilty.

How about saying “we stand with Fr. Corapi until he is proven guilty.”

I believe these allegations will prove to be ungrounded, and Fr. Corapi will emerge as a hero for some, yet tainted with suspicion in the minds of puritans.

But even if he is guilty of behavior “unbecoming of priests” he would just join all Catholics whom in some way or another are usually guilty of behavior “unbecoming or Catholics”—thus the need for frequent confession and constant conversion.

I agree totally!!

 

[thequeen]

It is no coincidence that the allegations came out on Ash Wednesday. This is Fr. Corapi’s cross to take up and bear during Lent and likely beyond.

I don’t believe the allegations for a minute.

Neither do i swizzlestick we sure do need to keep him and other good priest that preach the truth in our prayer and also the woman because she obviously has some deep issues:: i wonder if she tried to seduce him or something and he rejected her advances because he takes his vow of celibacy seriously i mean i know he has a past but the importsnt thing is that he is a good priest now i mean a past before he became a priest but he is a good holy priest now and I don’t believe he would ever do anything inapropriate with anyone

 

[taxpayer]

I -]/-]heard Fr. Corapi when he was in my hometown speaking to several thousand people. About the end of his marvelous talk he said he receives death threats every 3 or 4 months for years. He said that is the reason he always carries a gun in his car and house. He also said he drove home one night and there were people hiding in his back yard waiting for him. Another time he was in his house when he heard a noise in the other room. He went in the room with his gun and one of his big dogs had one man by the leg and he evidently handled the other one.
Father Corapi is a very brave man and in my opinion is surely guided by the Holy Spirit.

 

[unafraid]

A case for libel demands that there be written evidence presented, so the fact that this woman wrote “several pages” of accusatory material should provide ample opportunity to press charges against her.

The fact that “several” other women are mentioned makes it clear that their names have been stated as part of the complaint. These women also represent strong contradictory evidence in a libel case if they deny that anything untoward had ever happened.

So, the fact that there is a written complaint, which sets forth false information, puts forth names and events erroneously, means that there is every opportunity for Fr. Corapi to clear his name in a court of law, once the dust clears.

However, if one of these named women join in the complaint, then the entire situation changes for the worse, at least from the perspective of those of us who support Fr. Corapi.

It is a messy business. These women will need to be interviewed, but what if they are married? Lives are going to be disturbed by this, and there is no way around that difficult fact. Very unfortunate and sad situation all the way around.

 

[livik83]

Like a lot of people I don’t believe the allegations at all and I pray for this to all be over! I am disappointed in EWTN for taking him off. I understand why they did but it still gives the impression that he is guilty until proven innocent instead of the other way around like it’s supposed to be!

 

[dfp42]

What happens if he was say innocent, continues preaching etc and say 6 months from now others wanna jump on the bandwagon to cause chaos again? If it’s not Fr. Corapi it will be another well known priest in the future. Snap is already all over this story snapnetwork.org/ and is ready for an attack against him. I think this is a loophole no one really thought about, it’s simple all one needs to do is complain, lie and you get what you want usually. Technically speaking if we want a priest gone all we really need to do is write a letter to his bishop making up stories and based on canon law they will have to suspend him and investigate. Is there really no better way to handle these situations?

 

[livik83]

I am active in a pro-life ministry and have been under extreme attack especially, the last few weeks, as I work on two pro-life websites, bringing them to completion.

All those who do the work of God, winning souls for Christ will find themselves under attack. If they don’t, they should be concerned and ask themselves “Why not?”

Very true!

Fr.Corapi is a living Saint and I’m sure this isn’t the end I just hope everyone standing with him now will continue to support and pray for him!!!

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

Part of EWTN’s reasons for pulling his programming is that he has been placed on leave from public ministry. A television show is a public ministry.

It could cause confusion as to why his television shows are still on but his public appearances are all cancelled.

Should we strike his website from the web along with what is on You-Tube and other internet sources? I would think not, in that what Fr. Corapi says on these sites is really not a current active ministry and the same with anything pre-recorded on EWTN.

Unlike Fr. Marciel, who’s ministry and spirituality was permeated with keeping his sinful actions enabled and hidden, Fr. Corapi’s ministry is not in question, only some actions which are unrelated to what was preached. It appears to me that the association with Fr. Corapi is the problem for EWTN, not any desire to cooperate with his superiors in suspending his public ministry.

 

[sidbrown]

AcolyteLector said:

Maybe you’ve been living in a bubble the past few years But there is amble evidence, thus the reason why the Vatican ordered the investigation of every seminary in the U.S. in the first place. The new directives call for a more stringent screening process for seminarian candidates. So anyone considering the priesthood, please be very careful with your research as to what seminary to go to.

If my witness is worth anything, I too have seen the Gay subculture in my own diocese quite flagrantly in the open. You see, the “gay agenda” is to stay in the Church with the intention of changing Church teaching on Gay marriage and homosexuality itself.

Here is a list in Minnesota alone

Yeah. That’s what it looks like to me also. People living in a bubble. Closing their eyes and refusing to admit the obvious.

 

[rmartensjr]

 

[AcolyteLector]

AcolyteLector said:

Maybe you’ve been living in a bubble the past few years But there is amble evidence, thus the reason why the Vatican ordered the investigation of every seminary in the U.S. in the first place. The new directives call for a more stringent screening process for seminarian candidates. So anyone considering the priesthood, please be very careful with your research as to what seminary to go to.

If my witness is worth anything, I too have seen the Gay subculture in my own diocese quite flagrantly in the open. You see, the “gay agenda” is to stay in the Church with the intention of changing Church teaching on Gay marriage and homosexuality itself.

Here is a list in Minnesota alone

Oh no, I agree completely that the in-house culture was absolutely unacceptable up until the past two decades.

I was just under the impression that this is no longer the reality. Talking about seminaries and theologates, and considering it a foregone conclusion that these are [still] homosexual citadels can’t possibly do any good–not for seminarians, and not for confused lay Catholics.

The book in question was too little, too late to do anything except discredit the reform process.

 

[Ian_Ward]

This is a big issue in our time.
I hope and dont think it is true.

 

[davidlny]

I was saddened to read Fr Corapi’s statement on his website. I’m in RCIA and will be joining the Church this Easter. I’ve learned a lot from Fr. Corapi and he is one of the reasons I’m becoming a Catholic.

It’s tough being a priest and always has been. There are dozens of Russian proverbs referring to drunken priests, lecherous priests, etc. One account of a corrupt priest sounds like it was written a few years ago: it was actually written in ancient Babylon! No, it’s not easy being a priest.

For one thing, we hold these men to much higher standards than we hold to others or to ourselves. Even for protestant ministers and their families, they have to be “holier than thou.” Ministers have a divorce rate of close to 50%. I bet one of the reasons for divorce is that their spouse is tired of being judged…

Priests are human beings and like us, they are flawed. There’s this pesky thing called human nature. They are sinners which is why they have to take the Eucharist first before they give it to us because they need to be forgiven of their sins.

The Church recognizes that we all are flawed. That’s why there’s the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We confess our sins, repent, do penance; we’re forgiven.

Now I would like to believe that Fr. Corapi is innocent and hope that he is. As he is being tested, he is being drawn closer to the Lord. And I would like to think that Fr. is turning his suffering over to God. He’s being like Christ, carrying his cross. He’s gathering new material for future talks…assuming these allegations are baseless.

But what if he isn’t? Or what if they’re partially accurate, just a little grain of truth? Then what? What’s in it for the accuser? Short of a full recanting by her or it turns out she has a history of making false allegations; is mentally ill, or the 2nd woman says she has no knowledge of any of this, etc, no matter how this plays out, Fr. Corapi still has this in his record. If the woman recants, some will say, “she’s been paid off,” or some secret society is threatening her family or whatever fiction people want to believe. He’ll never completely clear his name. There was always be this cloud.

If he is guilty we should recognize that he is a sinner like the rest of us; that he should be forgiven. He has the Sacrament of Reconciliation that we all do; we should forgive him and encourage him to continue his work. I will keep listening to his talks and learning from him. He can still teach me about the catechism or about our Blessed Mother, or the principles of spiritual warfare.

May God Bless You, Father Corapi. You are in my prayers.

 

[AcolyteLector]

A lot of the outrage here is because we’ve accepted the familiar ‘innocent-until-proven-guilty’ approach of American law as the only way of going about prosecuting people.

Even though it might sound counter intuitive, there’s something to be said for the reverse, ‘guilty-until-proven-innocent’, and how it might preserve a victim’s reputation in ways that the former might not. In such a framework, everyone can relate to the accused, because they too could be accused at any point. **Psychologically, it helps prevent needless suspicion because, “hey, that could be you!”
**

This is the kind of draconian approach that the Church needs to take back credibility–if he remained pious, everyone will be relieved to see that the claims were dismissed, and it will be harder to press future accusations.

The presumption of innocence preserves a false innocence, as we all know, in many undeserving cases.