Fr. Corapi Responds to Some of His Order's Charges

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J_Katherine said:
The astonishing thing to me is that none of this has been hidden or particularly difficult to uncover for the history of his ministry. He did occasionally attempt to portray himself as living more simply and in line with the popular notion of a religious–by claiming to live on $30,000 a year and give the rest to charity, by referring to the homes he owned in secluded areas as hermitages–but to a great extent he has been quite open about the fact that his is an extremely profitable business, not a nonprofit apostolate, and that he enjoys being able to participate in the style of living he aspired to as a young man–owning property, driving enviable vehicles, participating in expensive pastimes such as boating, sportfishing, hunting, etc. I think this endeared him to a certain segment of his audience as evidence of his “masculinity” and bespeaks a certain devotion to the “Gospel of prosperity” that aligns well with his libertarian and Tea Party followers. This segment of his audience has been growing in recent years, perhaps because he has cultivated it, and has in many ways replaced the original audience of devout Catholic mothers and grandmothers who felt comfortable with him as another Fr Groeschel or Padre Pio.

It would not be unexpected for a man whose early talents lay in buying and selling real estate to carry those talents over into a second career.** It’s just that the particular second career makes those talents incongruous, if not inappropriate.** That he was not called on it earlier, especially when, as it seems clear, the S.O.L.T. was not the principal beneficiary of whatever charitable donations he may have made (the only public records available on which to judge are Federal records for the small political contributions he made to Republican candidates), begs the question of what sway he held with his superiors.
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He might have used his particular skills to help SOLT acquire a home for a good price in Corpus Christi, instead of piling up his own wealth in Montana.

🤷 Guess he didn’t think of it.
 
Adonia said:
This is a deeply troubled man. Watch his eyes, they go to the left, to the right, down and up with only fleeting glances straight ahead. Wow, I never thought this could happen. I will pray for him is all I can say right now.
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I met him once at a talk (I was there with my daughter, who was an infant at the time). The one thing I took note of when meeting him is that he never made eye contact, not with me, not with my daughter, not with the people infront of me in line, nor behind me. I thought that was weird (actually, I was extremely disappointed about that, it was quite noticeable). The only other priest I have met like that in my life was a former parish priest who ended up going to prison for embezzlement. Heck, my current pastor is extremely busy and exhausted, but he at least looks people in the eye, and lights up when people greet him after mass.
 
gmarie21 said:
I met him once at a talk (I was there with my daughter, who was an infant at the time). The one thing I took note of when meeting him is that he never made eye contact, not with me, not with my daughter, not with the people infront of me in line, nor behind me. I thought that was weird (actually, I was extremely disappointed about that, it was quite noticeable). The only other priest I have met like that in my life was a former parish priest who ended up going to prison for embezzlement. Heck, my current pastor is extremely busy and exhausted, but he at least looks people in the eye, and lights up when people greet him after mass.
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Not making excuses, but he is apparently quite deaf, and has been dealing with progressive hearing loss a long time. That may account for both the increasingly odd inflections in the speaking voice and difficulty making interpersonal contacts. Also, if he grew up as paralyzingly shy as he says he did (I tend to think the negative comments are less exaggerated or embroidered than the miracle stories or personal accolades), he is more than likely an introvert who is OK performing in front of crowds but drained by one-on-one contact.

Other explanations are possible, but they walk the line of detraction, and I’d rather not be responsible for closing down the thread. 🙂
 
J_Katherine said:
Not making excuses, but he is apparently quite deaf, and has been dealing with progressive hearing loss a long time. That may account for both the increasingly odd inflections in the speaking voice and difficulty making interpersonal contacts. Also, if he grew up as paralyzingly shy as he says he did (I tend to think the negative comments are less exaggerated or embroidered than the miracle stories or personal accolades), he is more than likely an introvert who is OK performing in front of crowds but drained by one-on-one contact.

Other explanations are possible, but they walk the line of detraction, and I’d rather not be responsible for closing down the thread. 🙂
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There have been a few saints that would never make eye contact either - especially if it was a woman :eek:! I am not saying that he is a saint (just to clarify), only saying that not making eye contact doesn’t mean much. I know people who will look you straight in the eye and lie through their teeth, swearing up and down they are telling you the truth.

As for his property holdings being so blatantly in his name…maybe he felt he had nothing to hide? Just askin’!
 
I don’t think he has always had this wealth that has been uncovered. But also I don’t think he has ever hid it. I saw a talk on EWTN once where he said he was worrying about money talking about how he had no health insurance and Priests have no retirement or something to that effect. The he said God gave him 2 million dollars. There was some point involved maybe it was that he stopped worrying about it and then God gave him the money or something like that. The point is that he said God gave him 2 million dollars and it was on a taped broadcast that I watched. So, I don’t think he ever tried to hide it. Also, i had always assumed he was very wealthy, I know many Catholic speaking charge a good chunk of change for their speaking engagement and with how popular he was I just always figured he had a lot of money, I didn’t know it was against his vows however.
 
He sounds like a male version of Sarah Palin - doing a bunch of self publicity to make sure he is not forgotten. Gotta keep that brand going…

So so sad.
 
Don’t want to over-simplify, but once a Catholic priest
or even a Catholic lay teacher, begins to criticize the
bishops and any others who hold authority over him/her -

I’m all done with listening to that person.
 
catharina said:
Don’t want to over-simplify, but once a Catholic priest
or even a Catholic lay teacher, begins to criticize the
bishops and any others who hold authority over him/her -

I’m all done with listening to that person.
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I agree
 
qui_est_ce said:
I agree
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Must add … I pray for Fr. C as all of us should.
I even suspect that his thinking might be very
clouded by the years of drug abuse. Even when
one no longer abuses drugs (regularly) old brain
damages can become apparent as one ages. If
that’s the situation with him, then - how very sad.

Nevertheless, I’m in agreement with SOLT in
that Father is not fit for public ministry right now.

That fact is perfectly clear to me.
 
catharina said:
Don’t want to over-simplify, but once a Catholic priest
or even a Catholic lay teacher, begins to criticize the
bishops and any others who hold authority over him/her -

I’m all done with listening to that person.
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Really? There are many Catholic Bishops that need called out and are rightly criticized. The ones who are not orthodox and far left need to be called out.
 
Joey1976 said:
Really? There are many Catholic Bishops that need called out and are rightly criticized. The ones who are not orthodox and far left need to be called out.
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Really? Yes, really.

As the saying goes, that’s not my job.
Bishops are under authority.
Proper channels exist to make the
hierarchy aware if a bishop is out of line.
 
catharina said:
Really? Yes, really.

As the saying goes, that’s not my job.
Bishops are under authority.
Proper channels exist to make the
hierarchy aware if a bishop is out of line.
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Code:
From my understanding they are under the Pope’s authority.
 
J_Heath said:
@joey1976

I do not like using Wikipedia, but there are the details of the $2 million:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Corapi

It is under the section about the Qui tam False Claims Act lawsuit.

J Heath
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It was actually a bit more than $3 million apiece, including the insurance fraud suit they also brought, for him and his friend Joe Zerga. The award was made in 2004, when Santa Cruz had already been bringing in upwards of $2 million a year in profits for several years, according to Joe Zerga’s own statements in the book CORONARY. His mysterious illness, for which he claimed on EWTN he paid $70,000 in out-of-pocket costs over his private insurance (it had grown to $100,000 in one of his Black SheepDog posts), occurred several years later, so it was never a case of having no money, being uninsured, and having God hand him $2 million. It was his arrangement with SOLT, so he says, to be responsible both for his own profits and his own expenses, and he has done well at both.
 
Joey1976 said:
Really? There are many Catholic Bishops that need called out and are rightly criticized. The ones who are not orthodox and far left need to be called out.
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It is interesting that many of the posts on three of the Facebook pages devoted to John Corapi (Fr Corapi, The Black SheepDog, and The Corapi Connection) have been concerned with “calling out” bishops the posters believe to be in error–which appears to be anyone other than Retired Bishop Rene Gracida. There has even been talk of posting lists of “bad” bishops and ways to take action against them, as well as numerous out-of-context quotes from various saints about how obedience to bad bishops is not required.

It makes me wonder why no one is moderating these pages–or is this John Corapi’s intent?
 
Where did it say he was going deaf? I heard he had migaines but not that.

I don’t think beyond sellling his book, this will go much futher. If he’s ill, he wont get better without help, The change in appearance was a big deal to me and I feel he is in need of good friends, not friends who want a “pal”, a guy with money to help them have a good time, but a real friend, who wants to save him, body and soul.

Too many things can be dug up by someone without anything better to do but I think as with other priests that have left, it will slowly fade.

Remember Fr. Francis, not as big as Fr. Corapi, but popular, and after a “heat rash” of intensity, he wisely took down his web site, his autobiography never appeared (as of yet) and he hopefully found employment to help his child. Life does go on and my only concern is that “enablers” don’t hurt Fr. C more than help him.
 
debraran said:
Where did it say he was going deaf? I heard he had migaines but not that.

I don’t think beyond sellling his book, this will go much futher. If he’s ill, he wont get better without help, The change in appearance was a big deal to me and I feel he is in need of good friends, not friends who want a “pal”, a guy with money to help them have a good time, but a real friend, who wants to save him, body and soul.

Too many things can be dug up by someone without anything better to do but I think as with other priests that have left, it will slowly fade.

Remember Fr. Francis, not as big as Fr. Corapi, but popular, and after a “heat rash” of intensity, he wisely took down his web site, his autobiography never appeared (as of yet) and he hopefully found employment to help his child. Life does go on and my only concern is that “enablers” don’t hurt Fr. C more than help him.
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Whatever happened to Fr. Francis? He has a child?
 
JReducation said:
I would be curious to hear his answer. If he’s a parish priest, he’s probably not a theologian. Theologians are rarely assigned to work in parishes. Even if one is theologian, theology is like medicine, there are areas of specialization. Let’s see what Father says.

Fr. Corapi is a trained theologian. He has a doctorate in theology.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Paraphrasing his response:
  1. Since he [Corapi] was not accused of false/unorthodox teaching, there is no need to get rid of existing material.
  2. He is against buying new material, since it enriches someone who is now disreputable.
 
EddieAlbania said:
Paraphrasing his response:
  1. Since he [Corapi] was not accused of false/unorthodox teaching, there is no need to get rid of existing material.
  2. He is against buying new material, since it enriches someone who is now disreputable.
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Seems like a fair minded approach to me.

Thanks for sharing that.
 
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