Posted on 07/23/2011 7:27:10 PM PDT by reefdiver
Father Corapi will not obey order to return to community July 08, 2011 Father John Corapi has announced that he will not obey the order from his superior in the Society of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity (SOLT) to leave his private Montana compound and live with other members of the community.
In a stinging public statement released July 5, Father Gerard Sheehan, SOLT’s regional priest servant, had announced that the popular preacher and television personality is not “fit for ministry” and revealed that an investigation of Corapi’s affairs found a pattern of misconduct, including sexual relations and cohabitation with a woman, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and embrace of a luxurious lifestyle that was “a serious violation of his promise of poverty.” SOLT ordered Father Corapi “under obedience to return home to the Society’s regional office and take up residence there. It has also ordered him, again under obedience, to dismiss the lawsuit he has filed against his accuser.”
In his response, Father Corapi said that “if I were to commit to the suggestion of the Society, then I would essentially crawl under a rock and wait to die.” He added, “I resigned [from priestly ministry] because the process used by the Church is grossly unjust, and, hence, immoral. I resigned because I had no chance from the beginning of a fair and just hearing. As I have indicated from the beginning of all this, I am not extinguished!”
Father Corapi also defended his lifestyle, stating that “the Founder of the Society of Our Lady, Fr. James Flanagan, encouraged me to support myself and the Church as well. He said they could not afford to support my ministry and me personally because of the unique nature of the mission. At every step of the way, through the entire past 20 years, the Society of Our Lady’s leadership knew of my financial independence … I have never relied on the Society for shelter, clothing, transportation, medical care, or legal counsel and instead, using my history of success in business, set up my mission as any savvy business man would, meanwhile continuing to support the Society and many other Catholic Charities.”
Commenting on the allegation of sexual impropriety, Father Corapi said that “this song of greed has been sung many times before. I have never had any promiscuous or even inappropriate relations with her. Never.”
“I never paid anybody off to remain silent,” he continued. “On two occasions there were standard severance agreements executed with former employees and independent contractors. These agreements contained very common non-disclosure provisions. Any attorney who would not include such provisions in such agreements would rightly be guilty of negligent and actionable conduct.”
Father Sam Medley, webmaster of the Society of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, attributed the scandal to a lack of fidelity to the society’s charism. “This whole Corapi conundrum would have never happened if we would have been faithful to our SOLT Charism of ecclesial teams-communion,” he said.
Father Medley added:
“I was asked years ago by my superiors if John Corapi could come and work in the community life of the media apostolate I was running at the time,” Father Medley recounted. “YES, I cried! Please bring him back to community life! Canon law tells us that no one from a community should live outside for an extended period of time. This would have also meant the regulation of his bank account and other violations would have been remedied. Sadly this didn't happen.”
This is old news. Why post it now?
Old? July 8th
Wow, I had no idea. I thought he was a pretty good guy. This is very sad IMO
Sounds like the life had had before he become a priest.
Just another James Bakker, I see.
Evidently he's dyed his goatee black and waxed his eyebrows and looks curiously like Anton LeVay.
bttt
This description of him is a far cry from what was being said about him before this ‘scandal’. Part of me still smells a set up here.
The fall from grace is sad and disturbing.
Could one of you guys (and gals) explain to me how a member of an order could have a ministry (using a business model) apparently completely independent of their order. From what I know about orders (admittedly in the middle ages mostly) all work and ‘work product’ would belong to the order entirely.
Is this a case of a lax superior who gave Fr Corapi too much leeway, or does the order act more like tertiaries, or something unique to this order?
Also, I thought he left the priesthood, or was it just leaving a function but he is still a member of the order?
Need some help guys, this is above my paygrade.
Corapi has had his priestly faculties suspended. He announced in June that he was "not going to be involved in public ministry as a priest any longer." He is in a state of disobedience to his superiors but is technically still a priest. He may eventually be laicized, voluntarily or involuntarily.
I wish SOLT would have been as concerned with Fr John Fiala, SOLT, as they are with Corapi.
Even after Fiala was indicted on Sex Abuse Charges, he was allowed to live in Dallas on his own after he made bail. He didn’t have to return to SOLT in Robstown.
Then, when he was rearrested after he tried to hire a hitman to kill his accuser, he stayed in jail.
SOLT did not disclose how much money they had to pay the young victim. The Diocese of Corpus Christi, and another Diocese where Fiala served, as well as the Diocese of San Antonio had to pay the victim money, as well.
SOLT “investigated” Fr. Fiala after complaints about his conduct in KS City, IIRC, and also with this young Victim from Rocksprings, TX. They didn’t find anything conclusive.
So, a SOLT Priest is allowed to live on his own in several states, is accused of abusing minors, forcing a victim to perform sexual acts at gunpoint, is arrested, jailed, and when released on bond, still allowed to live on his own.
Wow, I had no idea
Pride is such an insidious sin.
i don’t know for sure, i believe each order sets their own rules for conduct. i was quite suprised to learn of corapi’s “deal”, i always assumed priests lived in community with each other and any earnings were common assets. i think he left the priesthood, that or he is suspended with the intention to dismiss.
if you have read any corapi threads, you know i am not a fan of his and always thought he was a phony. my acid test is: do you lift up Jesus Christ and draw men to faith in him? to me, corapi was all about corapi. yes, he mentioned Jesus every now and then, but the main thrust of his talks were about how wonderful corapi is/was. also, i went to his web site and if he truly was interested in spreading the Gospel, i would have expected to find a lot of free material on the Scriptures, Jesus Christ, the Trinity, the Church, etc. etc. i found nothing on the site for free, everything was sold and hyped at a hefty price, with the profit going right into his pocket to fund his sinful lifestyle. i was also extremely dispointed that many fellow Catholics on this site felt the need to defend this hypocrite and attack the Church because it exposed him.
we are all sinners and need the grace and forgivness offered to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ. i pray corapi comes to this belief.
Thank you for your response, it explained a lot. I agree that he shouldn’t have lived alone with his past. Also, if it is true that another SOLT priest was allowed to live alone and was accused of abuse, then I see this policy as a problem.
AFA, not originally having a vow of poverty, that shocked me. Poverty, Chastity and Obedience are the trinity of vows, to not require poverty, can only lead to problems and isn’t different than not requiring chastity or obedience.
Thanks One, I can see the problems there. Your acid test is a good one, one all Christians should have.
I was only passingly familiar with Fr. Corapi (one of my friends in San Diego like him and I had heard him mentioned at the Catholic bookstore I would frequent) until this.
From what you say, he is a regular Jim Bakker with a collar. The more I learn the more I see this man needs prayers and a lot of them.
“jim bakker with a collar”
i didn’t follow the jim bakker situation, but didn’t he admit his guilt when caught? if so, corapi is worse than jim bakker.
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