Church officials comment on Father Corapi's case



Father Corapi (photo: EWTN)



This weekend there was a flurry of blog, Twitter and Facebook activity surrounding a statement on the website of Father John Corapi in which he explains that he had been put on administrative leave following accusations of drug use and sexual exploits with adult women.

There was no indication of who had put him on leave, and today we learn that it was the superior of his religious order.  That superior, and bishops involved, are asking that innocence be presumed until a full investigation can be carried out.  More on that in a minute. 

Father Corapi was scheduled to speak this weekend in Dekalb, Illinois later this week and ticket sales have been suspended.  The site has been replaced with this note:

Here is something that was at the site before it was modified.  I don't know how many were expected, but it looked like a pretty big event being in a stadium.

The Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, where Father Corapi was scheduled to speak has issued a statement explaining the cancellation.  Here are some excerpts from the two page statement (emphasis mine in bold):

March 21, 2011

For Further information: Frank Vonch, Director,

Catholic Charities, 815-399-4300

Fr. Corapi’s superior pulls plug on Catholic Charities fund-raiser

Father John Corapi will not appear as planned at the Northern Illinois University Convocation Center on Saturday, March 26, or meet with sponsors of the event the night before in Rockford. 

Corapi was to be the only speaker at a major conference planned as a fund-raising program for Catholic Charities, according to Frank Vonch, director of the agency. “Without him there is no program,” Vonch said

He goes on later to say he doesn't know how Catholic Charities will recover expenses that went into preparation for the event which has been going on for nearly two years.  Continuing on the Diocese of Rockford statement:

Vonch said today that he received word from Father Corapi’s religious superior, Father Gerard Sheehan, Regional Priest Servant of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, that Father Corapi would not be able to fulfill his engagements in DeKalb and Rockford because he “has been placed on administrative leave from priestly ministry, in accordance to the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church.”

[snip]

On Friday, March 18, all bishops in the U.S. were sent a memo by Msgr. David Malloy, General Secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that read: “The Diocese of Corpus Christi has informed the Conference of its concerns with regard to Fr. John Corapi, SOLT. The superiors of the Society of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity (SOLT), headquartered in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, have notified the diocese that Fr. Corapi has been placed on administrative leave and has had all of his priestly faculties removed. The superiors of SOLT have further advised the diocese that this action was taken after SOLT received allegations of misconduct on Fr. Corapi’s part, but that these allegations do not appear to involve minors or claims of criminal activity.” 

More quotes in other sources

I don't have time to quote and excerpt from all that I have so I will offer you a reading list.  This first article by Catholic News Agency has quite a few quotes from officials involved, as well as from EWTN explaining why it put his shows "on leave" until further notice.

• Fr. Corapi placed on leave after misconduct accusation

Before I take you to other blogposts and commentaries on this, I strongly encourage you to read a post made by Father John Zuhlsdorf today (aka, "Father Z").   This post is Father Z at his best, drawing from Church history and patristics to teach a spiritual lesson about a particular kind of attachment.  He also uses the opportunity to speak about how easily we can idealize any priest.  While he may be responding to emails about this case with the blogpost, I think Father Z is trying to speak about how certain spiritual matters that can get tangled for some in cases like these.  Have a read:

• Priests, holiness, and avoiding a spiritual peril 

Fr. Dwight Longenecker blogs on something similar in, Priests and Pedestals.

Here are more fresh blogposts and items to read.  In some cases, the combox dialogue can be interesting to skim.

• 36 Hours after Corapi-Stormfall – UPDATES! (Elizabeth Scalia, The Anchoress)
• Digory Kirke solution to Fr. Corapi situation (Mark Shea)
• Fr. Corapi: Convicted Already? Updated! (Pat Archibold, N.C. Register blogs) 

Note: This post may get updated, so check back. 

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