By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)

20 June 2011

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Charismatic speaker was accused of sexual misconduct

The Rev. John Corapi, a nationally televised Roman Catholic priest, known for his no-nonsense style and declarations of “My mother [Mary] wears combat boots,” has declared that he is leaving the priesthood. Accused of sexual misconduct by a female employee, Corapi posted a video on his Web site in which he said that there are “persons in authority in the Church that want me gone.” The 64-year-old also blasted church officials for their “fatally flawed” handling of allegations against him.

 

The Rev. John Corapi was suspended from his religious order in March after one of his female employees accused him of sexual abuse. EWTN suspended his programs pending an investigation by his religious superiors.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Corapi had won many adherents on the basis of his unusual conversion story. Once a prominent and wealthy real estate agent in Los Angeles, he saw his fortune disintegrate because of cocaine addiction. Corapi was homeless for three years until he checked into a psychiatric facility. He decided to turn his life around in 1984 and later enrolled in seminary and was ordained as a deacon in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1990. He was ordained as a priest a year later by Pope John Paul II.

Corapi became a celebrity among devoted Catholics for his appearances on Eternal Word Television Network, a globally broadcast Catholic TV and radio network. His appearances at Catholic conferences are known to draw upwards of 10,000 fans each.

Now based in Montana, Corapi worked as a priest in Sacramento, Calif., Hudson, N.Y., and Robstown, Texas. He was best-known for his television ministry.

Corapi was suspended from his religious order in March after one of his female employees accused him of sexual abuse. The Catholic television network also suspended his appearances pending an investigation by his religious superiors.

In his eight-minute audio statement, Corapi stressed that he is innocent, but indicated frustration with a church judicial process that he saw leading to “[leaving] me suspended indefinitely and just [letting] me fade away.

“You are for all practical purposes assumed guilty until you can prove you are innocent. This one is truly baffling. No civilized society operates that way,” he said in the statement.

“I accept moving on, but I am not ready to be altogether extinguished just yet,” Corapi added. He said he will continue to write and speak publicly on “broader” topics under the name “The Black Sheep Dog.”

Corapi’s fans have waged an aggressive campaign to reinstate the priest, whose “Father Corapi and the Catechism of the Catholic Church” show was among the most popular in Catholic media.

“A lot of people are shaken, especially conservatives — they idolized him,” Deacon Greg Kandra of the Diocese of Brooklyn says. “He’s very orthodox, extremely conservative. He has professed a great devotion to the Blessed Mother and Padre Pio. He’s not one of those people who goes for feel-good Catholicism.”

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Father Corapi’s Bombshell

The popular speaker announces plans to leave the priesthood amid an investigation into allegations of misconduct, and his religious superior breaks his silence on the investigation. A Register news analysis.

National Catholic Register

19 June 2011

by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND

Father John Corapi, the popular Catholic evangelist, announced on June 17 that he would leave the priesthood and begin a new endeavor outside Church control — called “Black Sheep Dog” — focused on a “broader” message and a global audience.

Three months have passed since Father Corapi, a priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), was removed from public ministry by his order while it investigated allegations of misconduct leveled by one of his former employees.

Posted on YouTube and on the website of Santa Cruz Media, the company led by Father Corapi that distributes his bestselling catechetical materials, the announcement shocked his many supporters, some of whom had vented their anger at the priest’s religious superiors and at EWTN and other media outlets, which suspended his programs after the allegations against him became public. The Register is a service of EWTN.

Raising more questions than it answered, the message did not state the precise reason why Father Corapi chose to resign from the priesthood, rather than waiting for the outcome of SOLT’s investigation of the alleged misconduct.

However, Father Gerard Sheehan, regional priest-servant of SOLT and Father Corapi’s religious superior in the U.S., confirmed June 19 that the order’s investigation faced complications created by a civil suit filed by Father Corapi against the former employee who had accused him of sexual misconduct.

“When she left the company, she signed a contract that she would not reveal anything that happened to her while she was at Santa Cruz Media. Father Corapi paid her for this. Father was suing her for a breach of contract,” said Father Sheehan, though he did not specify why Father Corapi had initiated the non-disclosure agreement.

The civil suit against the former employee created a problem for SOLT investigators.

“In canon law, there can’t be any pressure on witnesses; they have to be completely free to speak. The investigation was compromised because of the pressure on the witnesses. There were other witnesses that also had signed non-disclosure agreements,” said Father Sheehan.

“The canon lawyers were in a difficult situation, and Father does have his civil rights and he decided to follow his legal counsel, which he had a right to do,” he said. “We tried to continue the investigation without speaking to the principal witnesses.”

The investigation was halted after Father Corapi “sent us a letter resigning from active ministry and religious life. I have written him a letter asking him to confirm that decision. If so, we will help him with this process of leaving religious life,” said Father Sheehan.

He expressed disappointment that Father Corapi chose not to remain in SOLT and to refuse the order’s invitation for him to live in community, leaving his Montana home. Father Sheehan said he had tried to arrange a meeting with Father Corapi before any final decision was announced, but had not heard back from him. Father Sheehan said that SOLT would issue a statement shortly.

“We wanted him to come back to the community, and that would have meant leaving everything he has. It would have been a drastic change for him,” Father Sheehan said. “We will continue to move pastorally and charitably, taking steps to protect his good name.”

Father Corapi’s YouTube message did not address his relationship with SOLT religious authorities. Though his statement reads “I love the Catholic Church and accept what has transpired,” it offered a conflicted message on the respect due the Catholic hierarchy.

On the one hand, Father Corapi affirmed the right of the bishops to implement new guidelines for addressing clerical misconduct. Yet, he persistently attacked the logic and integrity of those guidelines, and sharply criticized Bishop William Mulvey of Corpus Christi, Texas, for taking action to forcibly remove him from active ministry.

The YouTube announcement and a text version of his statement began with an acknowledgement that the upcoming Trinity Sunday, June 19, 2011, marked his “20th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood in the Catholic Church. For 20 years I was called ‘father.’”

Expressing his gratitude for ongoing expressions of support, the priest then stated: “All things change, only God stays the same, so I have to tell you about a major change in my life. I am not going to be involved in public ministry as a priest any longer. There are certain persons in authority in the Church that want me gone, and I shall be gone.”

Echoing themes repeated in recent Santa Cruz Media posts that asserted his innocence, questioned the motives of his accuser, and criticized recent Church policies that suspended priests from active ministry following allegations of misconduct, he presented himself as one of many priests victimized by disciplinary practices established after the 2002 clergy abuse crisis.

“For 20 years I did my best to guard and feed the sheep. Now, based on a totally unsubstantiated, undocumented allegation from a demonstrably troubled person I was thrown out like yesterday’s garbage,” he stated.

He provided few substantive details regarding his new Black Sheep Dog initiative, but sketched out an ambitious mission: “I shall continue, black sheep that I am, to speak; and sheep dog that I am, to guard the sheep — this time around not just in the Church, but also in the entire world,” he stated.

He confirmed plans to produce radio programs and publish books, including an autobiography Black Sheep Dog. His mention of the book’s imminent release suggested that his bombshell announcement had been planned for some time.

The announcement will likely prompt scrutiny of Father Corapi’s ties to the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), the apostolic religious order he joined twenty years ago, and raise questions about whether SOLT superiors should have allowed him to live and work apart from his religious community.

In a previous interview with the Register, published after Father Corapi’s suspension, Father Sheehan implicitly acknowledged that the accused priest was not living in conformity with SOLT’s constitution, approved in 1994.

“The founder’s arrangement with Father Corapi was established before that time, when Father Flanagan believed that every mission should take care of its own needs,” noted Father Sheehan at that time. “Now, according to our constitution, a different way of life has been established for members. All the money we make is turned over to the society, which gives us an allowance.”

During that interview, Father Sheehan confirmed that SOLT had “begun to address the issues of members who joined the society before the new constitution. The society is moving to a more organized structural phase of its existence, with all the Church discipline that entails.” The implication of his remarks was that Father Corapi had not accommodated the discipline imposed by the new constitution.

Father Corapi’s status in the Diocese of Helena, the location of his home, also raised questions about his legal ability to exercise his ministerial priesthood. In the wake of his suspension, the chancellor of the Diocese of Helena, Father John Robertson, stated that “Father Corapi has a personal residence in Kalispell, Mont. He does not hold priestly faculties in the Diocese of Helena.”

Father Corapi’s YouTube statement did not address questions raised by these recent public disclosures. In the message, his ire was reserved for the Bishop of Corpus Christi.

“I did not start this process, the Bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas ordered my superiors, against their will and better judgment, to do it. He in fact threatened to release a reprehensible and libelous letter to all of the bishops if they did not suspend me. He has a perfect right to do so, and I defend that right. Bishops aren’t bound by civil laws and procedures in internal Church matters.”

His remarks raised questions about the role of the bishop of Corpus Christi in the decision to place him on administrative leave. The motherhouse of SOLT is based in that diocese. In the wake of his suspension, Marty Wind, a diocesan spokesman said that his case was outside the jurisdiction of the diocese and that SOLT authorities had initiated the action to temporarily remove him from active ministry.

In his YouTube post, Father Corapi characterized the process that led to his suspension as “inherently and fatally flawed.” He added that “The case may be on hold indefinitely, but my life cannot be,” he said, implying that his decision to leave the priesthood and establish “Black Sheep Dog” was essentially forced on him.

The painful decision was guided by legal counsel, he said: “My canon lawyer and my civil lawyers have concluded that I cannot receive a fair and just hearing under the Church’s present process. The Church will conclude that I am not cooperating with the process because I refuse to give up all of my civil and human rights in order to hold harmless anyone who chooses to say defamatory and actionable things against me with no downside to them.”

Attempts to reach Father Corapi for comment were unsuccessful.

He used his statement of resignation as a forum for airing a range of objections regarding the U.S. bishops’ “zero tolerance” policy — though not all the concerns he outlined seemed directly applicable to his particular case.

Curiously, his statement did not explain why his case could not be resolved with the outcome of an investigation initiated by his religious superiors, and that suggested there may be other issues complicating a timely conclusion.

As with most of the recent posts regarding the allegations and suspension on his site and by Santa Cruz Media, this statement included a marketing pitch for his fans, who were encouraged to visit the Black Sheep Dog website: “I hope you stay with us and follow us into our new domain and name of ‘The Black Sheep Dog.’ Through writing and broadcasting we hope to continue to dispense truth and hope to a world so much in need of it.”

In his closing statement — where he signed off as “John Corapi (once called “father,” now ‘The Black Sheep Dog’),” he acknowledged that some supporters might turn their backs on him. But given the strong encouragement he received after his initial suspension, it is difficult to predict whether he will hold on to his many supporters — and even make new ones in his forthcoming “global” ministry outside Church supervision, Black Sheep Dog.

Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond writes from Chevy Chase, Maryland.

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Sex, drugs and a priest

Texas-based order puts priest from this area on leave amid alleged sexual affairs, drugs

TimesUnion.com 

By Robert Gavin Staff writer

Updated 10:22 a.m., Thursday, March 24, 2011      

The Rev. John Corapi (www.fathercorapi.com)

ALBANY — The story of the Rev. John Corapi has been told many times.

The Hudson native went from Green Beret to millionaire in Las Vegas. He had a mansion in Malibu, a Ferrari and a yacht — then lost it all with drug abuse that left him homeless in Los Angeles.

In 1991, at the age of 44, Corapi was ordained by Pope John Paul II. He has appeared on cable television.

His story has been one of redemption — until now.

Corapi, 63, of Montana, has been placed on administrative leave amid allegations of affairs with women and drug use. His Texas-based order, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, announced the action March 18.

“We have received an allegation that Father Corapi has behaved in a manner unbecoming of a priest and are duty-bound to conduct an investigation in this accusation,” the Rev. Gerald Sheehan, the society’s regional priest servant, said. “”Based on the information we have received thus far, the claim of misconduct does not involve minors and does not arise to the (level) of criminal conduct. Consequently, this matter will be investigated internally, and unless and until information suggests otherwise it will not be referred to civil authorities.”

Corapi’s website, http://www.fathercorapi.com, announced the leave under the headline, “A Call for Prayer.”

It stated Corapi learned March 9 that a former employee sent a three-page letter to several bishops “accusing me of everything from drug addiction to multiple sexual exploits with her and several other adult women.”

Corapi added: “There seems to no longer be the need for a complaint to be deemed ‘credible’ in order for church authorities to pull the trigger on the church’s procedure … all of the allegations in the complaint are false, and I ask you to pray for all concerned.”

Corapi’s website and past news articles state he was once at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Hudson, where he was born.

David Clohessy, who directs the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, called on Bishop Howard Hubbard to “seek out anyone who may have suspicions or knowledge of misdeeds by Corapi in the New York area.”

“We don’t know the age or gender of Corapi’s accuser, nor do we know anything about the allegations against him,” Clohessy said. “But we do know that America’s Catholic hierarchy has repeatedly pledged to be ‘open and transparent’ in clergy sexual abuse cases. That’s not really happening here.”

Ken Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Albany diocese, said Corapi was never assigned to the diocese. He understood Corapi lived in the St. Mary’s rectory while working on his doctorate and occasionally performed Mass.

As for allegations against Corapi, Goldfarb said, “we have not heard any more about him than we’re reading about now.”

Reach Robert Gavin at 434-2403 or rgavin@timesunion.com.

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Openers: Lessons from the allegations against Father John Corapi

Our Sunday Visitor

03 April 2011

By John Norton – OSV Newsweekly, 4/3/2011

You probably heard the news in late March that popular international speaker and Eternal Word Television Network personality Father John Corapi had been placed on “administrative leave” while the religious order to which he belongs, the Texas-based Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, investigates allegations of impropriety.

Details of the accusations remain (as of this writing) unclear, but Father Corapi said in a statement on his website that “a former employee sent a three-page letter to several bishops accusing me of everything from drug addiction to multiple sexual exploits with her and several other adult women.”

His indignation — both at the allegations and at his suspension — is palpable in the statement.

And the reaction among Catholics was even more intense.

Given the little information available, the strength of the reaction was a little surprising. At one extreme were Father Corapi’s diehard supporters, who claimed unshakable certainty that the accusations were fabricated and that his accuser must be a woman in the employ of the devil himself. (But how can you be certain? Weren’t Father Marcial Maciel’s supporters just as vehemently certain of his innocence before it became undeniable that he sexually abused seminarians and his own children, lived a double life with multiple wives and children, abused drugs and misappropriated his own order’s funds?)

At the other end of the spectrum were those who seemed pretty willing — again before a scintilla of evidence was available — to accept the accusations as true. Why? Because Father Corapi is too much of an ecclesial rockstar, too vain (in that he appears to dye his goatee and use a suntanning parlor?), too popular?

Until more information becomes available, I think there are at least two points worth reflection:

First, the danger of excessive devotion showed to some priests. Priests should be respected, loved, supported, yes, but not idolized. And Father Corapi is not the only recipient of such attention. One of the things that has struck me as a reporter is the fierce loyalty parishioners have toward a priest of theirs who is accused — even with much more evidence than in Father Corapi’s case — of sexual abuse. I wonder if part of it is that it is easier to live holiness vicariously through those we perceive as such rather than do the hard work of self-reform; and so we choose to be blind to any possible unholiness on their part.

Second is the real risk of damage being done to the reputations of accused priests. In some ways, Father Corapi will have it easier clearing his name if that is what it comes to because he is such a prominent figure with such a big pulpit, and surely will have a top legal team to assist him. Not all priests are in the same position.

Your thoughts on the case? Email feedback@osv.com.

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Popular Catholic preacher placed on leave over accusations of sexual misconduct

 Washington Post

22 March 2011

By Elizabeth Tenety

 

Popular Catholic preacher Fr. John Corapi has been placed on administrative leave by leaders of his religious order following an accusation of sexual misconduct and drug abuse.

From a report by Catholic News service:

“We have received an allegation that Father Corapi has behaved in a manner unbecoming of a priest and are duty-bound to conduct an investigation into this accusation,” said Father Gerard Sheehan, a spokesman for Father Corapi’s community, the Texas-based Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. “It is important to keep in mind that this action in no way implies Father Corapi is guilty of the allegation,” Father Sheehan said. “It is equally important to know that, based on the information we have received thus far, the claim of misconduct does not involve minors and does not arise to the level of criminal conduct.”

On his Web site, Corapi denied the charges and gave further insight on the nature of the allegations. Here is Corapi’s statement:

On Ash Wednesday I learned that a former employee sent a three-page letter to several bishops accusing me of everything from drug addiction to multiple sexual exploits with her and several other adult women. There seems to no longer be the need for a complaint to be deemed “credible” in order for Church authorities to pull the trigger on the Church’s procedure, which was in recent years crafted to respond to cases of the sexual abuse of minors. I am not accused of that, but it seems, once again, that they now don’t have to deem the complaint to be credible or not, and it is being applied broadly to respond to all complaints. I have been placed on “administrative leave” as the result of this.

I’ll certainly cooperate with the process, but personally believe that it is seriously flawed, and is tantamount to treating the priest as guilty “just in case”, then through the process determining if he is innocent. The resultant damage to the accused is immediate, irreparable, and serious, especially for someone like myself, since I am so well known. I am not alone in this assessment, as multiple canon lawyers and civil and criminal attorneys have stated publicly that the procedure does grave damage to the accused from the outset, regardless of rhetoric denying this, and has little regard for any form of meaningful due process.

All of the allegations in the complaint are false, and I ask you to pray for all concerned.

Corapi is a celebrated Catholic apologist whose journey from homeless drug addict to Catholic priest infuses his animated sermons. The fact that this famous defender of Catholicism has launched an aggressive critique of the church over its handling of his case has lit up the Catholic blogosphere.

Policies forged in the wake of the church’s sexual abuse scandal demand that credibly accused priests be removed from ministry while investigated, but the procedure is applied on the diocesan level, leaving room for interpretation. (In Corapi’s case, it’s at the level of his religious order.) Some priests (see Corapi’s statement above) say that the policy implies guilt at the outset, while victims’ groups say that the church is often too slow to act on accusations.