Is It Right For the Church To Presume Guilt? Fr. Corapi Breaks His Silence

Okay, now I know the Church or the bishops were wrong in the way they handled the sex abuse cases prior to the sex abuse scandal becoming public but IMO the Church had a reactionary approach and committed a wrong (and two wrongs don't make a right) by having a zero tolerance policy which presumes the person accused is guilty even when there isn't any evidence to prove one way or the other.  In Father Corapi's case his accuser wasn't a child at the time that the alleged incident took place.  In fact the person who made the complaint is a disgruntled former employee yet the bishops investigating have made no distinction there.  Cardinal Avery Dulles recognized that the process is flawed. The process needs to be changed to favor neither party.  It needs to be similar to that of civil law.

What choice did Father Corapi have? To stay in investigative limbo for years?  People such as Mark Shea think that he is abandoning his active ministry to the priesthood.  Has he really had an active ministry since he was placed on leave?  I don't think so.  How do the people who are criticizing him know that he would return to active ministry, period?  Have these people ever been accused?  Accused of something falsely?  Well, I have so I can sympathize with Father Corapi.  While I do not know for sure if he is innocent or not I suspect that he is innocent. His new ministry in my opinion is a way for him to teach the truth about the Catholic Church without being boxed in because of the situation he was placed in by the bishops who are investigating the allegation made against him.  They want him to produce evidence of something that didn't happen.  Is that even possible?  You might ask the question "Is Fr. Corapi trusting in the Lord?"   Actually I think that he is trusting the Lord.  He is trusting that the Lord will bless his new ministry, which is not an adversarial one against the Church but in fact preaching the Church's Truth - Jesus' Gospel - but in a different capacity than before.  When God closes a door he opens a window.  IMO Fr. Corapi is rising from the ashes and accepting his plight - the injustice being done against him - and moving forward to preach the Word of God as God has called him to do.  One last question - What would happen if some person made a complaint against one of the bishops who is investigating the allegations against Fr. Corapi would that bishop want to be held to the same standard - impossible, harsh standard - that he is holding Father Corapi to?  He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.

Here is his statement below: