Saturday, June 18, 2011

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:

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Father Corapi has made a brilliant move, proving himself to be a humble man of God who will not stop speaking the truth no matter what the personal cost to him. Let us not judge at a time like this. Much pain has been inflicted on the faithful by this unearned scandal. Let us pray for healing and unity in our church. Let us pray that the truth will always prevail. That is what Father Corapi would want us to do. And God bless him for standing up for the truth, even if in order to do so he must give up the prestige of public ministry and the title father. He remains a priest forever and I have a strong feeling his private Masses will bear much, much fruit. Thank you for this blog. PEACE!!

Teresa said...

@Anon Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. God Bless.

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of ignorant talks and opinion about Father Corapi's announcement. I for one, can relate to false accusations, albeit, not this major but still bear the pain for years. IMO, Father will not be distracted or detracted from pursuing the Ministry of saving and educating souls for Christ. We need to be more earnest and vigilant than ever in this times of good and evil as our enemy is "roaring like a lion seeking to devour souls...." May God Bless Father John Corapi and his new ministry and may God Bless us all.

Kevin said...

"Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace." ACTS 20:24

Subvet said...

Who was it that said the floors of Hell are paved with bishop's skulls? Seems appropriate right now.

Patrick Button said...

Subvet: I think that was Dante.

Teresa said...

@Subvet Good saying.

@Subvet and @Patrick After doing a net search I found out that it was Athanasius who said that. He was very wise.