This Corapi Fellow: When, Who, and What?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SanRafael1102
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

SanRafael1102

Guest
Recently, I made a post about modern day Fulton Sheens, a name that popped up was Fr. Corapi.

Now this is not the first time I’ve heard Fr.'s name, and I have an extremely limited notion of who he is. It got me to wondering about him, and I’ve come up with a few questions.
  1. Who is/was Fr. Corapi? When was his heyday, so to speak?
  2. What did he do that made him so popular?
  3. What happened to him and why?
  4. Is it worth investigating his materials? (Books, videos, etc.) Will they help me in my faith journey?
  5. Has Fr. Corapi influenced any of you?
  6. Where is Fr. Corapi now, and what is his standing with the Church?
Thoughts?
 
Searching on this site alone will give you many of the answers to your questions. He was a very popular topic on these forums at one time. Google can probably fill in the gaps.

I recall him being a wonderful person, but something (of his own choosing) called him away from his priestly vocation, iirc.
 
Celebrity priest. Came into a bunch of money. Lots of issues. Rumors of even worse issues. Left the priesthood rather than follow the directions of his superior. At best, a sad tale. At worst…
 
He was a gifted preacher about 10 years ago and I found his sermons inspiring. A lawsuit with a hospital made him a multimillionaire. Then he was accused of breaking vows of chastity, poverty and obedience by his order (Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity). He denied it, publicly declared that his was a victim of some kind of persecution within the church and his order, and decided to leave the priesthood, apparently after consulting with canon and civil lawyers regarding some potential litigation.
 
Last edited:
I was away from the Church during the heyday of Fr. Corapi, but it’s my understanding that his talks and writings were a source of inspiration to many people including here on CAF.

There is a Wiki article on him that provides a pretty good summary.


Unfortunately, there have been quite a few priests who gained some measure of celebrity and then developed personal problems, ended up in the middle of some scandal, and left the priesthood or were sent away. Often they have had some issue in their past which crops up again when they become a celebrity. We should always pray for our favorite celebrity priests as they have to deal with a lot of temptations due to the attention they get.
 
Last edited:
A very good preacher who was on EWTN regularly. He would also travel around the States and give talks. He had some sort of huge scandals (sounds like with a women and maybe a return to drugs). I have heard that he is back with his Order and living a life of prayer. You can still hear his works on The Virgin Most Powerful website.
 
Fr Corapi is a good lesson to me, that without some silence in your life and without obedience you don’t really have Christ.
 
Given some of his talks and the way things turned out, I often wonder if he was ever authentic or if he simply found a way to generate money at the expense of his soul.

Still believe him to be a lost one that needs prayers.
 
I pray for him frequently.

I found his talks during a very dark time in my life and his preaching helped renew my crumbling faith.
 
Whether he had a fall from grace or was just rumored to, I don’t know. But I have to credit him to a very large part with deepening my faith and bringing me out of being an ill informed Cafeteria Catholic. He spoke truth!
 
Basically this.

The difference between him and Fulton Sheen got me is Fulton Sheen’s talks would leave me feeling calm. Corapi’s talks would give me a vague anxious feelings.

I wish him well, though, and hope he returns (or has returned) to his vocation.
 
F_Marturana said:
The difference between him and Fulton Sheen got me is Fulton Sheen’s talks would leave me feeling calm. Corapi’s talks would give me a vague anxious feelings.
Click to expand...
My opinion is that each man’s talks probably reflected the inner disposition of the individual. I think Sheen was a man basically at peace, and Corapi had a lot of inner demons to fight.
 
There is no good reason to speculate on Fr. Corapi’s personal struggle. Some false statements have been posted that should not have been posted. He was and is a priest as mentioned in the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. The work he did impacted many people that heard him speak and had a great following. Priests need our prayers to live their vows - they serve the Sacrifice of the Mass for us to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist. The greatest Gift!
 
No “speculation” involved. Fr. Corapi himself stated publicly and in detail that he was in recovery from a serious substance abuse problem he had before becoming a priest. Those of us familiar with addiction know it is a disease that never “goes away”; rather, an addict will need to make an ongoing effort to avoid relapsing back into their bad habits. It is also not necessary to avoid speaking about this, and in fact the culture of regarding addiction as something that should be hidden and not talked about is not productive in fighting addiction.
 
I am defending Fr. Corapi as the good Priest that Holy Father, Saint John Paul II ordained.
Fr. told his story with his teaching based on experience - emphasizing all the while how prayer, the Blessed Mother’s aid in asking Jesus for His Mercy, turned him around.
I invite any CAF Catholic poster to explain how “falling again” is not in our baliwick. Didn’t Jesus fall three times carrying His Cross? Would Jesus not forgive when the sinner is in sorrow and pain for failing? We know those answers.
Listing the sins we speculate a person has committed is like sneaking an ear to a confessional. That’s what I am saying.
 
No one said he is “bad”. We have observed that he has some personal struggles, about which he’s been very open.

Addiction and mental illness are diseases, not sins, and Fr. Corapi has spoken publicly on numerous occasions about his issues.
When you act like it’s shameful to mention, or get overly defensive about it, you’re just contributing to the culture of hiding one’s addiction rather than acknowledging it and getting help.
No one is mentioning it in a gossipy or uncharitable way either and in fact the entire thread is generally positive towards Fr. Corapi and the good he has done for people.

It would be different if Fr. Corapi had not disclosed himself that he had this disease of addiction and we were just making guesses or repeating hearsay, but he’s pretty much owned his issue.
Please stop acting like it’s some bad or dirty thing to mention it out loud.
 
Excuse me - there is nothing I shared fits how you have taken my response.
The following required me to stick up for him: (Not your posts).
“Celebrity priest. Came into a bunch of money. Lots of issues. Rumors of even worse issues. Left the priesthood rather than follow the directions of his superior. At best, a sad tale. At worst…”
“Given some of his talks and the way things turned out, I often wonder if he was ever authentic or if he simply found a way to generate money at the expense of his soul.”
 
Last edited:
grotto said:
The following required me to stick up for him
Click to expand...
Didn’t realize what I said was considered an attack. I believe it a legitimate question given how circumstances played out.

One can watch videos of him from early on to his later work and eventually into his “black sheepdog” phase and see a definite progression.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top