Posted on 03/21/2011 9:47:37 AM PDT by NYer
Father Corapi, the dynamic and well known evangelist, broke the news on his own website this weekend that he has been placed on ‘administrative leave’ following wide ranging accusations of misconduct by a former employee. Fr. Corapi is adamant that the accusations are baseless and he decries the de facto policy that now finds accused priests guilty until proven innocent so as to avoid further embarrassment as he puts it, “just in case.”
There seems to no longer be the need for a complaint to be deemed “credible” in order for Church authorities to pull the trigger on the Church’s procedure, which was in recent years crafted to respond to cases of the sexual abuse of minors. I am not accused of that, but it seems, once again, that they now don’t have to deem the complaint to be credible or not, and it is being applied broadly to respond to all complaints. I have been placed on “administrative leave” as the result of this.
I’ll certainly cooperate with the process, but personally believe that it is seriously flawed, and is tantamount to treating the priest as guilty “just in case”, then through the process determining if he is innocent. The resultant damage to the accused is immediate, irreparable, and serious, especially for someone like myself, since I am so well known. I am not alone in this assessment, as multiple canon lawyers and civil and criminal attorneys have stated publicly that the procedure does grave damage to the accused from the outset, regardless of rhetoric denying this, and has little regard for any form of meaningful due process.
I am certainly not in any position to judge the facts in this particular case, but I must believe Fr. Corapi is innocent until proven otherwise.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
We all know the devil hates priests, but I bet he doesn’t hate this policy. If all one has to do to destroy the reputation of a good priest is accuse, knowing that the Church will do the rest, the priesthood doesn’t stand a chance.
He is innocent until proven guilty. Prayers for Father Corapi.
This is very disheartening.
Yes. Prayers for Father Corapi.
Yes there is a lot of “guilty until you prove yourself innocent” running rampant through all of our society. We tolerated little, incremental pushes against our liberty. Don’t believe me, go to Wal-Mart and try to leave with toilet paper not in a bag, they demand to see your receipt because you are presumed a thief until you prove otherwise. But we have tolerated this and more ( road blocks,etc.) because it didn’t seem to “hurt” anyone. And while what is happening to Fr. Corapi is terrible, let’s face it, outside the Catholic Church ALL priests ate looked upon as suspect. What has been going on in society has of course finally made its way into the Church.
This action is SOP for this type of issues. However I smell a rat in his accuser. This is spiritual warfare.
You may be right. We shall see.
According to an earlier post, he was accused of sexual harrassment by a woman who worked under him and was fired.
No way to tell for certain if the accusation is true or false, but it certainly raises suspicions. Why was she fired? Is she now getting her revenge or fishing for a monetary settlement through some ambulance-chasing lawyer because she was fired?
In any case, he is indeed to be presumed innocent until found guilty. And hopefully some good will come out of this.
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