www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Fr. John Corapi on Administrative Leave

In that case, he should have gone into politics. He'd fit right in.

Yes I know of this..although such an extreme example is rare amongst married men. In my opinion, this man gave himself over to subjecation of a sexual demon which made him act in the most abominable and sacriledge manner towards young boys. For me, such behaviour is *literally* (not figuratively) demonic! I sometimes wonder if those who I personally believe are temporarily demonically possessed, even realize what they have done! That is why so many do not remember their actions, and why they often live such successful schizophrenic lives.
His poor family and those poor victims! I do pray that God will have mercy on his soul.
Never the less, since so many good priests have left the RC church to marry, why not allow it (I used to feel differently years ago about this matter) and NOT lose them?

I don't dispute you but I am curious why you say that.

The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity is a new establishment, and could possibly have some non-standard rules about personal assets. However, it certainly seems strange to me that anyone would be allowed to retain any significant amount of personal assets upon becoming a fully-professed member of a canonically-established religious community.

In the case where someone is a "delayed vocation" with an established career, it would seem to be especially important to have the candidate provide a full disclosure of owned assets, along with provisions for their disposal (i.e. it would be wrong for them to go to the community, since that makes the person a member and a benefactor at the same time--not a good situation--while turning them over to family members also presents problems, since in some cases the person could retain the use of the property).

In other words, it would appear that either his superiors were extremely naive in not having taken steps beforehand to avoid foreseeable problems, or Corapi himself was dishonest from the start. Either way, the whole thing stinks.

Let us pray that God may put an end to such nonsense!


Peace,
Deacon Richard

Watch out, he may just do that!

The question is whether politics is a big enough stage for his ego.

With guys like Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, and, of course, Barack Obama, Father Corapi will get a run for his money.

In the following article you will note towards the bottom, that he won a successful lawsuit and was awarded a great sum of money against a fraudelent doctor who then became the object of an FBI investigation...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Corapi

As a religious priest who took a vow of poverty, any money he won from any lawsuit should have gone to his order. Any attempt to rationalize Fr. Corapi's financial state is doomed to fail because of the facts, 1) he has access to large sums of money, and 2) he is not supposed to have any money.

For interested parties, Fr. Corapi responds to the SOLT "findings"


http://www.sanctepater.com/2011/07/father-corapis-response-to-solts-press.html#links

Fr. Corapi was not a relgious priest as that term is generally understood, he was a member of a society of apostolic life. Members of societies of apostolic life are not religious. They don't take vows of poverty and are able to receive and keep property in accordance with the constitutions of their society. Fr. Corapi's superior has indicated that his lifestyle contravened their constitutions, but what those restrictions are, we don't really know. (Latin Church secular priests are also bound by the Code of Canon law to simplicity of life, which is different than poverty, strictly speaking...)

I think the Latin Church would be better if they simplified their taxonomy of orders. How about two: monastics and not monastics? Works for us. One order, one rule, for both men and women, implemented with the requisite flexibility to meet the spiritual needs of each individual member. Do away with the mendicants and other religious orders, apostolates and whatnot, and get back to basics.

On secular priests being called towards simplicity in life, I am reminded of the old Scotch whiskey ad, which showed a man in a dinner jacket seated in a plush leather chair, with a beautiful woman perched on his arm. "My needs are simple", he said. "I want only the best".

Shlomo Stuart,

I think all the Churches within the Catholic Communion would benefit from your suggestion. Within my own Church, all non-married priests were monastics. Many times a central monastery would serve as the house for the parish priests of a village. So lets say you had a village with 6 Maronite Churches, then you would have a central monastery with at lest 6 priests who were the pastors. The only exceptions was a parish were the priest was married and that ministry was with that family. For example when you run into someone with the name Khoury, that family was the priestly family (similar to the Cohen in the Jewish faith) for a particlar village Church.

Not to have the Church become like the midieval Assyrian Church, but one where religious life is a full part of society. I have tried to turn my homelessness into one of witnessing the Gospel to others, and trying to live a holy life (though I am a great sinner) as an example to others both homeless and not.

Fush BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Sounds like do unto others as you would not have them do unto you. I'd say, let East be East and West be West.

But the Western practice was a radical discontinuity from the common Tradition of the undivided Church, and one must therefore ask whether or not the current system of religious orders, as it presently operates, is consistent with the Tradition, and in fact serves the purposes of the Church. Or does the fissiparous nature of Western religious orders result in dilution of effort, redundancy, confusion of mission and the effective death of true monasticism in the West. These are not trivial issues.