The moment every priest fears.....

Fr John Corapi - an "other Christ"

They are easy targets for those with a grudge, the mentally unhinged or those who are just plain malevolent. All one has to do is launch an accusation: "He assaulted me in the Sacristy bishop" and the damage is done. The priest is suspended pending an inquiry, maybe, even the civil authorities are involved and a court case is the result.

Guilty until proven innocent!


But the damage does not stop there. The branding has only just begun, there will be whispers, mothers will hide their children when he is around and the invitations to Sunday lunch will dry up; whatever the outcome, guilty or innocent.


It must be tempting to those of the Judas mould to inform on a priest (even an innocent one) and then take the thirty pieces offered by the Diocese. Except that, it's much more than 30 pieces, it's more likely to be thousands of dollars or pounds that are on offer.


Now the great television evangelist, Fr John Corapi, SOLT, has been falsely accused (I believe). Anyone in Great Britain who has watched his EWTN Monday at 9pm programme could not fail to believe in this man - probably our greatest media orator since Archbishop Fulton Sheen.


Here is his account in his own words:

A Call for Prayer

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


Ends/...........


Pray for Fr Corapi and email him a message of support. He is undergoing the same trials that Christ endured right now and this is an opportunity for us to repay him for his wise counsel via EWTN and his writings.
Here is his website http://www.fathercorapi.com/

Raymond Blanc uses internships for his business.....could this be adopted for seminarians?

Good service, acute attention to detail, high levels of competence; the result is perfect front of house service, quality food and expert waitering. I have posted on this before, quality training is a bit of a thing with me. You can walk into any cafe or restaurant and get pretty indifferent service, then you find one where you are welcomed, treated properly, spoken to as if you have brain cells in double figures and generally given a good all round experience.

That takes a lot of effort. Top class establishments such as Raymond Blanc's use "on the job training" - work experience, internships, call it what you will. It blends knowledge based learning with practical skills; it is, in short, vocational training.

In a recent comment on my post of  7th March Anthony S Layne picked me up on a point of slight concern (if I read him correctly). He was not overly comfortable with Priests being trained or developed using commercial methods, and I understand his concern.
But, as well as the academic programme necessary for the formation of a good priest, comes a spiritual one (of course) and a vocational one. Vocational in a double sense inasmuch as the man must have what we call a 'vocation' or a calling for the ministry and a practical programme based on what will confront him in the outside world. He must communicate well, be able to speak publicly effectively, know how to respond when visiting a hospice, be able to walk into a school and strike an instant rapport with the pupils - the list is endless.
So, Directors of seminaries send their trainee priests off into the community to work alongside parish priests and to learn the nuts and bolts of their vocation - all well and good.

But what preparation is given to assessing their placements? Is the PP they will be residing with a strong and competent role model? Does he lead an intensely spiritual inner life as well as a public one, does he gather prospective converts and lapsed Catholics about him like a iron filings to a magnet?

I will not mention our excellent blogger priests by name as I do not wish to embarrass them (and they will not thank me for my next point) but wouldn't it be an excellent move to place seminarians as interns with these beacons of the faith? Not one at a time, that already takes place, but three or four so that their mentor parish priest can use them individually or as a group to aid him in his work.
That's what happens (or should happen in commerce). You seek out the centres of excellence and place your interns with them - no point in placing them in the organisations that wallow in idle incompetence!

And, while I am on the soap box concerning the development of young potential priests I must say a few words in praise of the Latin Mass Society's initiative to train priests in the Extraordinary Form of celebrating Mass. This is the best possible use of funds in my opinion so, if you can support them with a bit of cash, it will reap huge dividends.
They may already do this but if they don't they may like to take it on board and that is, to extend the Mass training scheme to Seminarians.....their website may be found by clicking here. http://www.lms.org.uk/