Fr John Corapi has Announced in a Video Message that he is Leaving the Priesthood

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tm30 said:
As the representative of Christ, his somewhat fast and furious decision to divorce the Bride, the Church, seems right in line with the times.

Why doesn’t he just put his faith in God, regardless of the outcome? Whatever we may “think” or what “circumstances” took place, at the end of the day, the calling of a priest is to emulate our Lord. This is a gargantuan cross, but it is a cross a priest accepts when he is ordained. He must be prepared to lay down his life, even when it is unjust, as in the case of our Lord. Instead, it seems to me he is appealing to the world (civil court instead of ecclesial) and hoping for the support of the “sheep”, which do not belong to him, but to our Lord, who is the Head of the Catholic Church.

There has been a lot of mealy-mouthed “well, but…” commentaries out there, but the fact is, by leaving the priesthood in defiance, Fr. Corapi is also rejecting the charisms of the Holy Spirit which endow him as a priest. He cannot divorce the Bride and still be a partner of the Holy Spirit, who remains the Holy Spouse of the Church.

I sincerely hope that he will come to his senses. But there’s a fine line between being “charitable”, and dumbing down the profound vocation of the priesthood, and its inseparability from the Passion of our Lord.
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Could not have said it better. Thanks, Paul. 👍
 
Joe_5859 said:
Fair enough. Believe me, I don’t disagree with you. The whole ordeal (and Corapi’s statement in particular) has both of my eyebrows raised.

I think your comparison with marriage is apt, too. I have made that comparison myself in the past when reflecting on men leaving the priesthood.

However, whenever I hear of someone leaving the priesthood, I can never shake the words a wise, devout nun told me in regards to a laicized priest whose theology she was summarily criticizing. She said that we can criticize the things he teaches, but we should never use his leaving the priesthood to take a shot at him. We cannot presume heresy or anything based on that. There are lots of reasons that men leave ordained ministry and – provided their request for laicization is approved by the proper canonical authorities – we should not speculate.

Since she said that, I always find myself being careful about presuming too much in these situations.

Of course, one could argue that Corapi’s reasons for leaving are far more public than most and thus there is no speculation involved. I can’t really refute that.
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Well put Joe. You are correct we shouldn’t use the office of priesthood as a bludgeon. The only difference here is that Father Corapi has initiated this public discourse and contrinues to make it public. So, we 're left with his side of the story (and revealing the sins of another person, which may sound to an in-expert ear as dangerously close to breaking the seal of confession if at some point she received the sacrament from him regarding her alcoholism), and left with drawing our own conclusions. It’s frustrating for all sides, but he has chosen to go extremely public with, and I’m sure he expects the speculation. He may be 100% right about his accusers, but we’re left with taking his word over the Church (which hasn’t publicly spoken in the first place! How do we even know he was being railroaded??).
 
kitkatty said:
Refusal to meet with his bishop is not to me a good indicator, even if he thought the meeting would be unproductive. I guess this comes back to obedience. I really wish he would not come to a decision on such a weighty matter as leaving the priesthood in only three months time. A longer period of discernment along with the guidance of a spiritual director is necessary in a case like this.
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I am not much on words today but apparently, you guys and gals, are doing it pretty close to perfectly. peace Paul
 
markomalley said:
Listing to an updated MP3 from him: theblacksheepdog.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/unleashed_ep106-20-11.mp3

Wow. (and that is meant with no admiration)

Just wow.
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I get the impression he’s trying to bait his accuser into coming public to defend herself. Not sure if that’s a maneuver germaine to the civil suit, or if it’s just vitriol.

Meanwhile, he asserts that 90% of what he did didn’t require ordination anyway (Well that’s a fact). And goes on to rip his accusers and his bishop a new one.

I don’t get it I don’t get it I don’t get it.
 
I got through the first part where he says he is sacramentally still a priest and no action of the Church can change that and he is urging everyone to be loyal to the Church. Then I got an error message that there was a problem on my server and it closed down but I will probably try again later to listen to the whole thing
 
sedonaman said:
I just think he’s being punished for the sins of the child-molesting priests. I’ve worked in large bureaucracies and have noticed a pattern that goes something like this:

Under-reaction [sweep under rug] — > Exposé — > Scandal — > Over-reaction

Is that very Christian?
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👍

I also think that a lot of Catholics would do well to listen to Fr. Wade Menezes’ homily this morning on the sin of speculative gossip.

Hmmm.
:hmmm:
 
ac_claire said:
Is he allowed to do what? Leave the priesthood? Yeah. His “fans” on Facebook are going crazy, btw. There are people calling the bishops of the Church “wolves” that Father must protest us from and saying that they will follow him out of the Church if it comes to that. This is the most disturbing part of it all for me. I wish he would make a statement to those people on his Facebook page. 😦
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Yes, I think he should too. After reading the NCR article, which I think was very fair, I am very uncomfortable with him leaving the priesthood.

I will not remain a follower now that I know more details, but will be praying for his soul, and hopefully his repentance, his obedience to his order, and return to the priesthood.

This is one lesson for me, because I thought he was the perfect priest, yet all of us are sinners and its unfair to put any priest on a pedestal like I did. St. John Vianney, please pray for him. And St. Michael the Archangel, please keep him out of Satan’s claws.
 
Upon my return to Mother Church several years ago, I came across Father Corapi on EWTN and became a fan. However, when I attended his appearance in Newrk, NJ recently, I visited the booth set up to sell his discs and tapes. I was set off a little bit at how expensive they were. I grew up in a pre-reform church where spiritual helps were available for free, or at best minimal cost. In talking with a lady that was associated with the Santa Cruz operation I had an uneasy feeling when I found out that Santa Cruz was Fr. Corapi’s operation, and was not for the benefit of the Church. In any case, I thought to myself " I hope this whole thing does not end up in a scandal like the one in Miami with the apostate Cuban priest that was outed in the local newspapers and then became an Episcopalean priest… Needless to say…
Regardless, the tapes Corapi made about the Catechism are supurb…
 
rlg94086 said:
I haven’t followed the allegations in detail, but a blogger pointed out an oddity. Apparently, when the accusations first came out, he claimed to barely know the woman. In his announcement, he said she was someone he “did more to help and support than any human being in my entire life.” That does seem odd…

.
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Well, if a BLOGGER noted it, must be gospel truth. 😉
 
Hi

I’ve been trying to listen to the latest audio but my computer isn’t up to it - would someone mind giving a brief summary pretty please?
 
markomalley said:
Listing to an updated MP3 from him: theblacksheepdog.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/unleashed_ep106-20-11.mp3

Wow. (and that is meant with no admiration)

Just wow.
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Well my Wow is meant with admiration and belief. God bless that bishop who is supporting him and who is the one who urged Corapi to initiate a defamation suit.

There is nothing that was spoken in that excerpt that could be construed as being anti-Church. He is honest, however, about “certain” bishops (which he did not name) who made a precipitous decision to destroy him without proof and without a complete investigation. He specifically enjoined his listeners to “obey and love your bishops.” He didn’t say start a rebellion; he didn’t name names or defame others as he has been defamed. My understanding is that accusers can always remain anonymous, so that would apply to the “alcoholic couple” he referred to.

He also reminded listeners that very little of his cumulative duties have been involved in administering sacraments, and that preaching of the various kinds he has done is not “technically ministry.”

I actually respect him even more now.
 
markomalley said:
Listing to an updated MP3 from him: theblacksheepdog.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/unleashed_ep106-20-11.mp3

Wow. (and that is meant with no admiration)

Just wow.
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He said that the Church never helped him. I have seen this before, not the Church but my own employer. There was a supervisor who was accused by a female employee, and he had to hire his own attorney; I was the only one willing to get within ten feet of him. It were as though he had leprosy or the Black Death. At the advice of his attorney, he went out of his way and took a circuitous route whenever he had to walk from his desk to the front office, just to avoid having to pass by her. He was also advised not to speak to any female employee except to conduct business, which was tragic because there were lots of decent women in our office. This went on for over two years. He was eventually cleared, but he had to suffer alone, and no one apologized when it was over.

I had a performance problem with one of my male subordinates and had to go up against him and his union without any help from my management other than their wish for my good luck. When he failed in that attempt, he filed a discrimination charge against me. Since we were both white males, I inquired as to the nature of my discrimination. Turns out I was alleged to have discriminated against him because he was handicapped. I asked what the nature of his handicap was because it was not obvious, and since it was not obvious, how I could be using it as a basis for discrimination. He claimed a mental handicap [like I’m a psychiatrist and could tell?] . My stomach churned for six months and my normal blood pressure went sky-high also. I got no help from upper management in my struggle with this case either.

Coming from where I am, I can understand Fr. Corapi’s feelings toward his accuser and his superiors. Unless one has been there done that, one just can’t imagine what it’s like.
 
I have never been a fan of Fr Corapi especially when one of the first things i ever heard him utter on public radio was that while in the seminary a priest told him that he did not believe in the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,and that many others do not either.

Only time will tell where all this is headed,but I honestly think it is part of a bigger agenda.
 
rlg94086 said:
I haven’t followed the allegations in detail, but a blogger pointed out an oddity. Apparently, when the accusations first came out, he claimed to barely know the woman. In his announcement, he said she was someone he “did more to help and support than any human being in my entire life.” That does seem odd.
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“Odd” that he had tried for years to help the woman out of her alcoholism? (That’s what he meant.)

Yeah, mighty un-Christian of him. :rolleyes:
 
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