Posted on 03/28/2011 10:13:42 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
The accusations against Fr. John Corapi have unleashed a firestorm of comments from his devoted followers and those who are not impressed by him. Elizabeth Scalia sums it up here with common sense and compassion.
I have nothing much to say about Fr. Corapi himself, except that these things are complicated. Right now everyone should step back, take a deep breath, withhold judgment, and wait to see what happens.
I have no opinions at all about Fr. Corapi. All I know is that he is a Catholic media star, is supposed to be a holy man, a great preacher and evangelist. If he has fallen I'm sorry, but we should give him the benefit of the doubt.
I never met the man, but I do—in a roundabout way—have something to thank him for. It happened like this. I was visiting EWTN to do a show with Marcus Grodi and a couple rushed up in the airport and started saying how much they loved my preaching and my work. I was, of course, flattered to be 'recognized' and treated them with gracious condescension as I knew a 'media celebrity' should do to his adoring fans. I asked them politely which of my books they most enjoyed, and they looked confused, "What books? Aren't you Father Corapi?"
"No. I'm Fr. Longenecker."
"Oh, we never heard of you. We thought you were Fr. Corapi." And off they stalked, much disappointed.
So I must thank Fr. Corapi for indirectly giving me a salutary insight into my own overwhelming vanity and pride, and for giving me much to think about afterward. The job of being a priest is hard enough without the minefield of psychological tricks the devil has in store for us.
Think about it. Most priests have an awful lot of power. No one really tells us what to do. We can make up our own schedule. Many of us hold the checkbook for the parish and with a bit of ingenuity can spend money as we like. On top of all this we are surrounded by a group of people who really want to love us. They want to invest in us and want us to be the role model for them and their children. They are longing for someone to look up to, and we, poor souls that we are and longing to be loved, fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
Add to that any kind of a reputation as a writer, speaker, or 'Catholic celebrity' and the minefield is suddenly doubled. They thought you were wonderful to start with, and now thousands hang on your every word. You start to attract all sorts of vulnerable and needy people. If your celebrity status grows, you start enjoying 'success'. Media people want to jump on your bandwagon. Offers come your way. More money flows in. You can't help it. That goes with success.
Meanwhile, you're probably getting lonely because, while thousands love the person they think you are, very few people really know you and love you for who you really are. If you are a celibate priest (unless you've developed for yourself a good support system) you're stuck in that false world of celebrity with no one to turn to. If you don't have the inner strength, you may start believing in your false image yourself. It's hard not to.
Why do some priests start believing the false image of themselves? I'm afraid to say that too many men who are drawn to the priesthood already have a poor self-image. Often they lack real personal identity or they dislike the person they are. It's very attractive, therefore, to have a job where you put on a uniform and assume a different persona—the persona of a hero, a good guy, a knight in shining armor. Priests aren't the only ones who fall into this trap. Policemen and soldiers and nurses and others in the helping professions do the same.
So for the priest: every morning we put on the uniform. We're God's guys. We dress the part. We parade up and down in our long robes and we try our hardest to be saints. Much of it is a part we have to play. The church even teaches us that we're Christ personified. It's a part we have to play, and also a part we have to grow into, but until we grow into it fully we have to act the part.
It is, very often, a useful fiction, but if we fall into the trap of believing the fiction ourselves we're really in trouble. The bubble gets bigger and bigger. We feed the adulation and those who adore us grow more fervent in their worship. Meanwhile the real friends—those who would criticize us and bring us down to earth—often simply walk away, or worse, in our egomania, we drive them away, refusing to take criticism; we see them as 'naysayers' and we are glad to see the back of them.
Then too often the bubble bursts. The secret sins come out. The priest or pastor is disgraced. Why does this happen so often? I think it is almost like one of those 'accidents' that the shrinks tell us were somehow 'deeply intended'. The priest can't live with the lie he's living and some deep and dark part of him makes it become public. It's as if he has to have a public confession. I've seen it happen so often, and it's always the ideal priest, the 'perfect' monk, the 'most fantastic' bishop or pastor with the most to lose.
What's to learn from it? Simple lessons really. First of all, don't believe what you see. Even the best holy man has got a shadow side. The good ones admit it. Secondly, just because of this don't drift into cynicism. You weren't supposed to put your trust in those guys anyway. You were supposed to look through them to see Jesus. Thirdly, while you don't believe what you see, still strive to think the best. Don't idolize that priest, but don't cast him away either. He's a real man. He has faults and foibles and sins and secrets . . . just like you. Try to love him for that and not for how good you think he is at his job. Most of all, look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Putting your trust in a priest—no matter how wonderful he is—will always be a let-down. Furthermore, it's an immature thing to do. Too often instead of doing the hard work of becoming saints ourselves we idolize someone who has become a saint or whom we think is a saint. That's shallow and too easy. It's like a religious form of those teenage girls who scream and cry and faint when they see their boy pop idol. They mistake their own immature high-octane emotions for real love. Likewise, when religious people idolize their parish priest or some Catholic media star, they often mistake their love and admiration for that person for real religious emotion and fervor.
It's bubble gum religion, and if God takes away your idol, well then you might just turn your eyes to the one true God instead. And that would do you, and your priest, a favor.
What should we priests learn from it all? To make it our first priority to be real. To do the hard work of becoming who we really are. To be ruthlessly honest with ourselves. Not to let ourselves off the hook. To have a good confessor and director.
The task of really becoming ourselves is also the path to sanctity. That's why, in a paradoxical way, I actually have more time for the priests who are not 'shining stars'. Maybe we should all look again at Fr. Grumpy and Fr. Sarcastic and Fr. Drinkalot and Fr. Hissyfit and Fr. Layabout. Maybe the ones whose problems are 'out there' are actually more real—even if the reality hurts.
Add to that any kind of a reputation as a writer, speaker, or 'Catholic celebrity' and the minefield is suddenly doubled. They thought you were wonderful to start with, and now thousands hang on your every word. You start to attract all sorts of vulnerable and needy people. If your celebrity status grows, you start enjoying 'success'. Media people want to jump on your bandwagon. Offers come your way. More money flows in. You can't help it. That goes with success.
Meanwhile, you're probably getting lonely because, while thousands love the person they think you are, very few people really know you and love you for who you really are. If you are a celibate priest (unless you've developed for yourself a good support system) you're stuck in that false world of celebrity with no one to turn to. If you don't have the inner strength, you may start believing in your false image yourself. It's hard not to.
Why do some priests start believing the false image of themselves? I'm afraid to say that too many men who are drawn to the priesthood already have a poor self-image. Often they lack real personal identity or they dislike the person they are. It's very attractive, therefore, to have a job where you put on a uniform and assume a different persona—the persona of a hero, a good guy, a knight in shining armor....every morning we put on the uniform. We're God's guys. We dress the part. We parade up and down in our long robes and we try our hardest to be saints. Much of it is a part we have to play. The church even teaches us that we're Christ personified. It's a part we have to play, and also a part we have to grow into, but until we grow into it fully we have to act the part.
Related threads:
"The Greatest" of Falls? Was Corapi Complicit in The Euteneuer Scandal? [Catholic Caucus]
Official EWTN Statement Regarding Fr.John Corapi [Catholic Caucus]
Statement of Santa Cruz Media, Inc. Relative to Fr. Corapi’s Suspension
A Call for Prayer [Fr. Corapi Accused of Sexual Misconduct][Catholic Caucus]
The penitent priest and the Catholic crackpot: Saving Father Euteneuer
Beyond the 'grave': Parents' statement on Father Euteneuer
Statement of Fr. Thomas Euteneuer: ‘Setting the record straight’
What really happened to exorcist Euteneuer?
This is actually one of the best commentaries I’ve seen on these recent headlines. I printed out this column last week, faxed it to my pastor, and asked him to publish it in his bulletin.
“Putting your trust in a priest—no matter how wonderful he is—will always be a let-down. Furthermore, it’s an immature thing to do. Too often instead of doing the hard work of becoming saints ourselves we idolize someone who has become a saint or whom we think is a saint. That’s shallow and too easy.”
Gotta like this comment!
Well... it may be true that you don’t put a priest up on a pedestal, whatever... but I wasn’t aware that Father Corapi was on a pedestal. Moreover, his comments might have been appropriate, but more so in the context that Father Corapi was actually guilty of the false charges made against him by a disgruntled woman.
I still can’t find anything anywhere that says WHAT THE HELL HE’S CHARGED WITH . . . Does anybody know . . . in 25 words or less?
I think he’s charged with firing a vicious woman, one of the most dangerous things known to man.
“The church even teaches us that we’re Christ personified.”
Such a tragic, major theological error. Damages everybody.
Then you haven't been reading the comment boxes on the Catholic blogs.
That said, I have thought all along that this disgruntled former employee was just going after his whistle blower lawsuit award money.
“I think he’s charged with firing a vicious woman, one of the most dangerous things known to man.”
If that’s the case, it’s a damn shame that she can remain anonymous and that his name gets dragged through the mud.
I’ve always admired his and his messages, so I hope he can bounce back (if he’s innocent).
"Even during the halcyon days of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, etc., I realized that only the basest scoundrel could find satisfaction in their respective falls. To use them to score political or religious points is the province of the immoral Left, not Christians."
- FReeper Antoninus, March 23, 2011
Do you have any idea why Jerry Falwell is mentioned in the same sentence with these characters?
I dislike the way some of these blogs have wussed out on Father Corapi.
I just assumed he was innocent. I didn’t go on about putting people on a pedestal as if the charges might be true.
If this person were fired, what were the circumstances? Any statement by the now disgruntled at that time, to anyone? Any credible statements from others, either then or now?
Will any vouch for the accuser's side of things?
If it came down to it, who should be trusted? What if one or more of these "other" women either refuse to make a statement, or even on the other hand, deny such goings-on took place? Should they be believed EITHER WAY, unreservedly? Who knows?
A woman would have to be admitting to her own guilt, her own culpability, if she were to say, "yes, me too". How many human beings are that forthcoming? What are the odds? Granting of promises of a sort of 'immunity of prosecution in exchange for testimony' would be tenuous in this sort of case...for there is no legal charge to prosecute. Only accusation of impropriety, and sin, which is far different than civil charges. Not everyone is willing or ready to publicly admit their "sins". Particularly those who's identity and standing amongst a community could be terribly hurt by divulging such secrets. Such things are complicated, because humans make it so. Even those whom would sort-of like to confess, many times will tell lies when pressed. Cover it all up, if possible, particularly when such admissions could be so easily seen as being devastating for another, if they be the sort willing to sacrifice themselves "for the truth", but at the same time, not quite as eager to sacrifice others.
Not that any of this is, at this point, anyone's real "biz-ness" save for those church officials whom are tasked to inquiry of the matter. I do not envy them their task.
Even with all this, you still may well be correct, Dr. It could be much about "money".
Yet how would this accuser now get their hands on any of that settlement? It looks doubtful that could happen at this juncture. The church wouldn't be on the hook for a single dime either in a case such as this, one would think. How could hidden sin be the church's fault?
Still, jealousy (of another's money, and/or fame) can be plainly enough seen to be among human motivations...which would appear to leave it right where it started, if it is all "about the money".
Since any rational hope of "cash" coming from Corapi now is gone, if it ever was there in the first place (it could have been, at the time, if there had been an affair between them), the only that remains which could be reaped by the accuser would, at the time of the letter of accusation be; either the bitterness of tearing another down, destroying his peaceful enjoyment of the windfall, his fame and the adoration he enjoyed ---OR--- the peace that may be brought, even at cost of their own admission of "sin" by the act of warning the proper authorities, of there being the presence of a secret party-animal, wild 'N cra-azy guy among them, if the warning be brought for the safety and sanctity of others, and/or for hopes of the wider, and longer-term interests of the church.
So far, little is known of actual details of the accusation themselves, beyond what has been divulged by Corapi himself.
Some people got the impression that Fr. Longenecker’s column implied he thought Fr. Corapi was guilty. I didn’t get that impression at all.
What’s the point of going on about pedestals then?
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