"I didn't do very much of that quite honestly in the twenty years that I did minister," he says, adding, "90 percent of what I did in the past did not require ordination. Speaking through social communication—radio, TV, so forth—that's not ministry, strictly speaking. My particular mission was speaking, writing, and teaching—not so much in the sacraments, but outside of them, in conjunction with them. So what I'm going to be doing in the future is pretty much the same thing."
I can't think of any priest I know who has so effectively and completely marginalized—even minimized—the most transcendent aspect of his priesthood: celebrating the sacraments. Any one who has been given the great gift of Holy Orders knows that ordination is not strictly about what we do, but about what we are, and what we become. And yet, a priest becomes, by sacred ordination, alter Christus, another Christ. Fundamental to that is grace—the grace to reconcile the penitent, anoint the sick, baptize new Catholics and, most humbling and overwhelming of all, transform bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in the sacrifice of the mass....
....At a time when parishes are starving for priests, and some men are spending hours every Sunday on the road, shuttling from parish to parish to celebrate mass and hear confessions, John Corapi, like Bartleby the Scrivener, shrugged and said, "I prefer not to." And that, evidently, was fine. He had other things to do. He traveled, he spoke, he recorded, he wrote books. He strode across stadium stages to thunderous applause and cried out for repentance and faithfulness, and told again and again of his astonishing journey from rags to riches to rags to redemption. He confronted medical crises, and fought legal battles, and emerged even stronger. And that was fine, too.
“I didn’t do very much of that quite honestly in the twenty years that I did minister,” he says, adding, “90 percent of what I did in the past did not require ordination. Speaking through social communication—radio, TV, so forth—that’s not ministry, strictly speaking. My particular mission was speaking, writing, and teaching—not so much in the sacraments, but outside of them, in conjunction with them. So what I’m going to be doing in the future is pretty much the same thing.”
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Sounds like an honest statement of fact to me.
Fr. Corapi is not “marginalizing” the Sacraments, he is simply stating that his PARTICULAR mission did not involve their administration.
So this author wanted the Father to give up his very effective international, public ministry to serve as a parish priest somewhere? Not to minimize the fundamental and crucial importance of parish priests, but Fr. Corapi had a very useful and constructive role as well.
1. Consecrate (the Eucharist)
2. Shrive
3. Anoint
Those are 3 the functions of the priesthood. Everything else, the 1000 other things, are not ESSENTIAL to being a priest. Some are pastors, some are teachers, some are theologians, some are counselors, some are missionaries, some are in community, that is a religious order, some are diocesan, some are assigned to special work, pro-life, hospital chaplain, prison ministry, Indian reservations and poverty relief, etc...but Ordination in Holy Orders comes down to those 3 things. If a man did only those for 50 years he could be a successful priest.
Fr. Corapi has always seen the priesthood as a vehicle to become a multi-millionaire, he has never lived in community with his Order, he’s a maverick with a private (for profit) company. This is unheard of. Even “superstar” priests subordinate themselves to their superior (or bishop depending on status) and usually hand money back to the religious order, or operate as non-profits for a particular cause.
The cause here is Corapi’s personal wealth and ego gratification. As my earlier posts have explained, to some scorn, he never should have been ordained.
Excellent article. Thanks for posting it.
Was was not familiar with Fr. Corapi until this crisis arose. At first, I was sympathetic to him, and to the bishops’ ill-considered practice of considering priests guilty until they are proven innocent.
But the more I hear of him, and read what he says, the more I feel impelled to warn that Catholics should keep their distance and recognize that their true home is the Catholic Church, not one member of that Church who seems inclined to rebel and take pride in himself rather than put first things first.
Take care. I no longer think this guy can be trusted. I certainly pray for his well being, his exoneration from all false charges, and his faithful return to the Church. But I’m afraid that his self-image as a “black sheep dog” is all too suggestive of the mistakes he is now making. And if he goes off the rails this quickly, how sound was he in the first place?
His actions here are very odd, and hard to fathom. It is almost like he was planing this move anyway, and the suit moved up the time frame.
Bishop Fulton Sheen comes to mind in the sense that he was without parallel a great evangelist but his commitment to the Mass was daily. It is the Eucharist that distinguishes Catholicism from the 35,000 or so other Christian denominations. Sans Eucharist, Catholic priests who evangelize play the role of the “Billy Grahams” of this world and all the celebrity and vapidity that it entails.
I seem to recall from ¨Father Smith Instructs Jackson¨ - a conversion guide I studied in the mid-60s - that saying mass, or one´s participation in it daily, was a requirement for priests. Am I wrong, or has this changed?