Corapi and hypocrisy

I don't really think this is about "conservative" and "liberal." Whether a priest preaches about chastity or not, he's supposed to be vowed to it, and when he falls, it's still a hypocritical note.

"Note to conservatives: If you’re going to focus on sexual sin, you might want to make sure your own house is in order. The same goes for progressives who decry social sin. Don’t get caught driving a BMW to your summer home. Sadly, Corapi may have been guilty of both."

Hmm. That must mean Heidi is sinless, or at least her house is in order if she is focused on judging conservatves and progressives. Surely no BMW's in her garage or finer items in her abode. Always thought this perspective was a poor argument. If her assessment is correct, nobody could/should say anthing about nuttin'. The message a conservative or progressive has may still be true in "Corapi type" circumstances, what is lacking is credibility.

"There is a temptation to gloat when a high-profile person who has publicly criticized more progressive Catholics falls so far and so publicly. That would be wrong, not to mention unchristian. News of serious misconduct by priests and other church leaders is always tragic, not only for victims of that misconduct but for the church as a whole."

Thank you. This is what should proceed any discussion about a polarizing figure, either left or right.

I've heard that Hans Kung likes fast & expensive cars! To be fair to Corapi though, aren't some of these charges (prostitute & drugs) from the time before he was a priest? That should be clarified. As improper as that behavior was for anyone, it is not priestly misconduct. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone!

It will be interesting to see where this "Black Sheep Dog" ministry goes. Can he operate as an independent Catholic layman? It seems that this would not exactly work very well, given the structure of the Catholic Church. Perhaps he will become sort sort of Protestant? I disagree with Corapi on a lot of issues, but I must admit that he is charismatic and even slightly likeable, thus I can see why he built such a following. Finally, Corapi seems more of a biker than BMW guy.

Maureen cites the following, with rather confusing commas, but ok, just plow through and it grows clear:

the Society found that Corapi:
did have sexual relations and years of cohabitation (in California and Montana) with a woman known to him, when the relationship began, as a prostitute; He repeatedly abused alcohol and drugs; He has recently engaged in sexting activity with one or more women in Montana; He holds legal title to over $1 million in real estate, numerous luxury vehicles, motorcycles, an ATV, a boat dock, and several motor boats, which is a serious violation of his promise of poverty as a perpetually professed member of the Society.

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so like this guy GOT ordained, and not me?

I guess the wojo church favored wealthy folks a la Marciel for the priesthood and not those of us with a preferential option for the poor, thought us commies or something, not just, you know, regular Catholics doing, you know, real Catholic stuff . . .

so anyway,

this guy, with all his past, GOT ordained??

makes you wonder
goes to validity
globally

Dude, where's my church?

I have always been naturally suspicious—which, of course, is not a Christian virtue, yes, I am working on that. I have admired Fr. Corapi for years, and agreed with nearly everything that I heard him say, as it was all very close to the Magisterium of the Church. He was one among many Catholics that I greatly admired, yet I saw him as The Brightest star of all. And when he was accused, I knew it would only be a question of time before he was exonerated. Then came his announcement to cavalierly leave the priesthood. This set off alarms. Then when I read that he had had his employees sign a non-disclosure agreement, my heart sank… and I guessed, correctly and sadly, that his fall was near…Fr Corapi is not the first star to fall from grace, nor will he be the last, but the Church Christ established will survive and no betrayal, however large, will prevail against it.

It is tempting to gloat in these situations because the downfall of someone like this seems to vindicate those of us who are challenging the culture of the clerical system within the Roman Catholic Church. Of course there is clericalism in most professions and certainly in politics. Those of us not educated in the way the experts are defer to their knowledge and treat them as better or more important than the rest of us.

But Jesus is the one who broke down all those walls for us - reaching out to the poorest, most vulnerable, the lowest in society to teach us that we are all God's children... not one of us created any better than the next - not one of us loved by God any less than the next.

We share this world with one other - each one with his or her own mind, heart, and soul.

Lead well, judge not. That's all we have to do.
Thank you for this article.

It will be a cold day in hell before the people of God should stop preaching until they have no sin.

From the gospels, Jesus seemed to have more annoyance with hypocrisy than with falling from grace and committing sin(s). It just seemed to bother him more. I have to say, it does bother me more.

I find the story of Father Corapi tragic and deeply painful. This priest is a self-acknowledged and chronic addict whose addictions destroyed his life and his mental health prior to the priesthood. The degree of addiction and decompensation, by his report, was exceptional. That he relapsed so spectacularly should have been no surprise to him, SOLT or any other person who cares about him.

That he is responsible for later decisions is irrefutable. That others benefitted from his decisions (past and present) also seems irrefutable.

AND I hear in this story a tragic story of a whole network of people who ignored indicators that an exceptionally vulnerable person was on the path to destroying his life - and so much more - a second time.

There is no comparison here, in my mind, with characters like John Edwards or his conservative counterparts.

Corapi ended up on the streets as a vagrant for three years! This is a profoundly vulnerable man, regardless of the burning white light in which he has lived since his conversion. And I would venture that he is an even more vulnerable man BECAUSE of that burning white light.

None of this calls into question his conversion or his faith.

And it does not make me think he is your run-of-the-mill hypocrite, either. This is a different animal than Edwards and the other family values hypocrities.

Father is a "hypocrite" in the way of an addict. He is someone whose chronic and severe lack of health is so profound that truth is valuable only when it serves the addictions and the complementary dysfunctions that sustain the care and feeding of thopse addictions.

That he is a man in power; that he is a conservative, orthodox Catholic; that he is a rock star does not change the fact that he is, apparently, a very sick man again. And it DOES distinguish him from the John Edwards and Larry Craigs of the world.

He is accountable AND he deserves our compassion for the lifelong struggle with addiction he is still fighting and, often, losing. What a tragedy for everyone, Father Corapi most of all

Jean

Like Fr Corapi, you submiitted to temptation, you were tempted to gloat and you did just that after saying you wouldn't...now who's the hypocrite? At least Fr Corapi during his years of ministry said he could fall back into these temptations.

Maybe then you ought to help clean up the out of control homosexuality of NCR writers. Or the promotion of abortion, or womynpriests, etc, before pointing the finger at others.

Clerical culture and the Roman Catholic cult of personality leadership model is an unending loop of tragedy. Someone will take Corapi's place, the same pew serfs will gather around with money and adulation, everyone will try to save face when his double life is eventually exposed, then there will be plenty of fretting and prayers. At that point, the cycle will start over again with a new deeply flawed priest hero to worship.

This is how the business of Roman Catholicism works. This is how they want Catholics to spend their spiritual lives.

Corapi is actually the third TV priest to jolt the faithful in recent months. He packed a lot of Catholic money away and now has the gall to continue his business enterprise independently. Father Thomas Euteneuer was exposed for his weird abusive sexual behavior and is now somewhere in the clerical backwaters. Father Michael Manning's long time sexual relationship with his cousin slowed him down for a couple of months, but now he's back in his TV/Internet business like nothing ever happened, with the combined blessings of both his religious superiors and the local bishop.

What does the current media expression of our Roman Catholic tradition have to gain from emulating the lifestyles and values of reality television personalities? Why has cash flow become more important than the core values of our Roman Catholic spirituality?

Well, we all like to engage in a little schadenfreude when the subject has been used by others to slam us over the head for years.

I cannot tell you how many times I've seen or heard some truly mean-spirited diatribe begin with "Father Corapi says...".

Also, those of us who've expressed leariness over the cult-status this man achieved among a group of Catholics were often the target of some really ugly behavior. The crazynastyweird stuff going on among Corapi's most loyal and ardent fans is pretty freaky, but it's not really that new. This is the kind of stuff anyone who didn't worship this man was met with all the time. The vitriol and tin-foil-hat-wearing looniness and the paranoia are the stock in trade of the Corapi crowd. But that's because Corapi himself was never a kind, postive, straight forward sort himself. He knew his audience, he knew how to win them over, how to work them, how to manipulate them.

For years, Corapi has been speaking of a "plot" to "get" him by entrapping him in some snare with a woman. He's told his fans that anonymous people send prostitutes to his house on a regular basis to catch him up. If any one dared to point out just how ludicrous this allegation was, we were snarled at and cursed and condemned, called Satan, etc. Well...'scuse me if I'm sitting back and enjoying this to some degree. What is it his fanboys and fangirls are saying now? That he's just human? Yep. Me too. So shoot me. I'm smirking a little bit -- oh, heck, I'm smirking a LOT. Hypocrite? Maybe. But it goes down easy with a cold beer and a plate of nachos, so whatever.

Come on.

Who has been trying to make abuse of children the stick to beat the pope and and hierarchy. The Catholic progressives. It is just about the only thing you blog about.

Now, when a "progessive" like J. Glenn Murray is abusing children, he gets a pass because he doesn't preach about sexual sin? Sick. He and Corapi both belong in a small room together for a long time.

If you want to see hypocrisy in living color, reread your own essay, madam.

Father John Corapi was a very effective priest for Christ. It is easy to jump to conclusions and that's something I will not do. We do not know if SOLT got its facts right or if its conclusions are based on faulty information. I think the verdict is out until the lawsuit that Father Corapi against his accuser is litigated. I believe Father Corapi will one day return to the fold and will be largely vindicated.

I've been a recovering addict for over 25 years and an Orthodox Catholic for the last 5 years, but I had never heard of Fr. Corapi until the recent scandals. I don't see addiction as any kind of excuse for his behavior, but it certainly explains a lot to me. Being a recovering addict, I know enough to never trust an addict (recovering or active) with anything you care about. The irresponsibility, self-centeredness and general level of immaturity of addicts continues long past the cessation of drug use. We can perform good acts, have good intentions and even be good people, but we should always be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism and suspicion, regular audits, oversight, etc.

Yes, sadly, we all fall short of the glory of God. Books with the names of our canonized saints would probably number a dozen in 2,0000 years! We're not doing well, folks. We need to do better. With God's grace, we will. Let's get started.

I feel very sorry for the faithful his religious order has deceived, including
EWTN and it wouldn't be the first time they've been left with a scandal to deal with..
Corapi wouldn't be alone in behaving in this manner either, the problem was the money he was raking in wasn't being handed over to his order.
If they were getting the benefits, it would be a different story and there were no children involved or born of the relationship to hide.
They shouldn't have taken so long to act if they had any scruples at all as with other religious order situations.

Discernment ... If we live in discernment we won't need to become passionate about a church leader in any sense. All humans have feet of clay. And all persons deserve respect - but not adulation or hero worship. We are called to be critical thinkers, able to discern and stand on our own two feet before the Lord in communion with others ... But no hero worship. Let us be skeptical but not cynical. The mind is a terrible gift to waste.

John Corapi if anyone watched him on EWTN often put down women at every chance he got. I don't think this makes him a conservative, just a bully towards women. His attitudes towards women obviously plays itself out in real life in a lust for both sex and money and need to control any female relationship. He is an abusive priest, but it was evident to listen to him on EWTN.

I am equally sorry EWTN has so commentators who offer more than a 3rd grade immature theology to Catholics. Catholicism has so much more depth to offer than what EWTN offers.

So Corapi was "conservative"? He was something, but "conservative" doesn't come to mind. If he essentially wrote the liberal Vatican 2 book (and he did) perhaps he's "conservative" but he ain't traditional. There is no conservative or liberal within the Church, those are political terms as Corapi himself pointed out. You're either one with the tradition of the Church or your not. Period.

Mr. Shuster,
You appear to me to have a poor understanding of Roman Catholicism. We don't go to Mass to hear a rock star preacher at his best; we go to hear the Word of God and to receive his flesh.
If we can demonstrate that a priest has deep flaws, well, if we're honest with ourselves and examine our own lives, we'll find we're each deeply flawed too. Such is the nature of concupiscence.
I would be very pleased if the Church generally exercised more rigorous supervisory oversight into her ministers and required more rigorous business accounting procedures. I would think we'd catch many of these sorts of problems much sooner.

I'm deeply saddened by the view this article takes. If a prosecutor had behaved in court in the manner that many of Corapi's detractors did from the first day, that prosecutor would've been tossed out quite quickly. I've been horrified by all the presumption of guilt.

Corapi is about the 6th or 7th priest/presenter on EWTN to have fallen into sexual disgrace. I wonder if Dr. Kennedy's recent article on set decorator Catholicism also speaks to this issue. How many of out priests are really that well integrated in terms of spiritua;ity amd sexua;ity?

Heidi, you really need to read the following:
http://www.conversiondiary.com/2011/06/and-the-truth-shall-make-you-free...

He has recently engaged in sexting activity with one or more women in Montana;
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and tercing in Idaho and nonesing in Wyoming? A veritable Rasputin ine Winter Palace of the Queen Mother Angelica!

It is amazing, though hardly surprising, that the supporters of this priest refuse to see the truth about him.
Hans Kung! Give me a break. Kung is a diocesan priest with no vow of poverty and can like as many expensive and fast cars that he wants.
Corapi duped a lot of people.
I never listed to him..... Just the way he looked and spoke scared the he'll out of me!
I guess I should thank him for that!

I have much difficulty having any sympathy for John Corapi. He has made millions of dollars preaching and passing judgment about a life that he himself was living completely in contradiction with. When faced with accusations, he accuses his accusers, sues them to keep the silent, and leaves the priesthood, presumably so that he can maintain the lifestyle he has now sadly grown accustomed to. Regardless of his past life, he is accountable to the willful choices he has made and for which he is accused. He is anything but an example of the gospel, regardless of what he preaches, and his "private" sins are much more dangerous as public figure and are therefore considered scandal according to Catholic moral thought.

I think everyone is missing the boat here. I know that I sin and I know that I am a sinner. The devil is always poking and prodding me and I sometimes give in. Then I run to the arms of Jesus and ask for forgiveness. Does that mean I cannot help out or preach God's word to someone who DROWNING in sin. Letting them know what they are doing is wrong? Absolutely not. If we waited until we were all pure and white as wind driven snow to save someone's soul, we would all be damned. Even a sick doctor can prescribe medicine. We're all in the boat together, and it our DUTY to evangelize the word of God no matter what our im-perfect state is.