Sunday, March 20, 2011

Fr. Corapi Has a Bad Hair Day and Suddenly He's the Next Charlie Sheen


Having been a blogger for close to ten years, I've heard many stories about sexual abuse and abuse of power. And, I've heard these stories from both legitimate sexual abuse victims and priests who have been falsely accused and exonerated.

The fact is, the Bishops made a policy that tells us what we already know. They really don't care whether an allegation is true or false, they are fundraisers and everything they do is focused on protecting the money. When Catholic were willing to take money and cover up their children's abuse for the sake of saving Father's reputation - and the faithful played along - it was focused on the keeping people in the pews giving them money.

Now that the pendulum has swung the other way, the Bishops created another policy, the "Dallas Charter", which again, has nothing to do with meritorious allegations, justice, truth or protecting children. It removes priests without affording them the opportunity to exonerate themselves. Even when the accuser is found to be lying, the priest is removed permanently because the Bishops are basically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually castrated... fundraisers. There are a couple of handfuls of exceptions to this of course -- and we have many Bishops who are sitting on the bench underneath the castrated fundraisers -- but the situation is what it is. Let us acknowledge it.

When somebody comes to you with allegations of sexual abuse or a priest comes to you with allegations he has been falsely accused and abused by the diocese, you respond by asking questions.

You ask what happened, when, where, what time. You ask if for details that you can corroborate - people who saw, heard, were around at the time.

Sometimes, they will tell you Father abused them on a trip to New York but it will turn out that Father did not go on the trip to New York, or Father wasn't even a priest in the parish at the time.

Other times, you find out the accuser has also accused their father, brother, cousin, uncle, grocery store clerk, mailman and John F. Kennedy and all of the details come together with the realization that the accuser is a mentally ill person, drug addict with a gripe against the Church who in desperate need of cash and attention.

Still, there are other times when the accuser doesnt' want to answer questions or even tell their story - they just say Father had sex with them and they demand you accept that statement and find the accused guilty.

I am in the habit of using the brain God gave me. I don't take anyone's statement on face value. I do the diligence. If people don't want me to do diligence, that is suspect to me. You know that routine? If you don't immediately condemn the accused without facts or a real victim, you are a pedophile protector or hurting the invisible victim or you are demonic.

If people start throwing around intellectual or spiritual malarkey accompanied by histrionics and emotional tantrums, instead of giving me the the facts and witnesses, that has the stink of a deceiver and manipulator.

When allegations about Fr. Euteneuer first began to surface, I proceeded with caution but my instincts were not good. Of course, there was never anything in Fr. Euteneuer's presentation to lead me to suspect he was anything but a deeply faithful and orthodox priest who understood and even used the gifts of his ordination to practice in the mystical world. But, all the experiences we had in the aftermath of his disappearance began to have a shocking context. Rational and faithful Catholics, people I respect, who had historically supported and admired Fr. Euteneuer, looked gaunt and scandalized.

When Fr. Euteneuer and his Bishop realized the charade that he was being persecuted for his orthodoxy was finally up and they put together a public statement admitting sexual abuse during the ritual of Exorcism, the despicable statement they called 'an apology' validated his spiritually manipulative nature.

Each case has to be discerned and played out. The accused has rights that we are handling with gross negligence.

Listen, people. This is getting beyond ridiculous.

It is at the point now where people are demanding when they produce a picture of Father on a bad hair day or with a tan - and circulate it through the internet -- it is evidence he is the son of beelzebub.

Push back.

We have not served our priests well in this witch hunt atmosphere.

Stand up and fight.

Be a man.

Be a handmaiden of our Lord and His Church.

We don't have any facts about Fr. Corapi's accuser and her allegations. When and if we do, you'll need to have your brain handy and you'll need to check your emotions at the door of discernment.

The accused have to have a process. We have a duty to see that falsely accused are exonerated and returned to ministry. They are crying out for justice and our response has been abysmal.

We've got to pony up.

************




People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.


21 comments:

Anonymous said...

How terribly sad and disappointing it is to read the comments about Father Euteneuer. You don't know the circumstances - nor any of the behind the scenes activity - including the demand for his silence. He has done, and is doing all that has been asked of him by all parties.

TTC said...

You seem to have lost me.

This is what I know about the circumstances:

The Bishop and Fr. Euteneuer enjoyed for months the public chatter from Catholics concerned he had been taken out of circulation for his orthodoxy.

Fr. Euteneuer admitted he used sex in his rituals except he wouldn't own up to the fact that breaking his vow of chastity was a sex act. If you've broken your vow of chastity the woman on the receiving end of the violation of that vow definitely considers it a sex act. And if she gave it to you freely, she did it because she was lured into something emotionally. He couldnt' even be a man about it.

When the charade was up, his despicable letter called the people outing the charade crackpots - some of whom were victims of his spiritual abuse.

It was very convenient for him to shush up - so let us not look upon that silence as a virtue. Please.

The thing that is troubling about your post is that you seem to represent yourself has having knowledge that both Fr. E and his Bishop were covering up sex rituals done under the guise of exorcism and you did not go to the police or the district attorney.

TTC said...

As an FYI - I'm not going to allow public relations people for Fr. Euteneuer put their misstatements of facts and talking points up here at The Tenth Crusade. I don't have the time to double back and correct the record - and I don't want things that are untrue to sit on my blog.

Sorry about that. Another time when I have the time to correct your misstatements, I will be happy to chat.

TTC said...

pps

I did extensive fisking of Fr. Euteneuer's crackpot 'apology'. You're welcome to run a search on the blog by inserting Fr. Euteneuer's name into the search engine. I spent numerous hours on this blog and others putting the truth back on the table when Fr. Euteneur's groupies were insisting he did not admit to sexualizing his religious practices with a distraught and spiritually unhealthy woman. But he did. And, HLI admitted that they received the complaint that the sexual abuse took place during exorcism.

This is an entirely different situation. A former employee has sent around a letter saying she and other women had a Charlie Sheen thing going with Fr. Corapi. We have yet to see her face, hear her allegations, ask the questions and sniff around for some answers to see if she is a disgruntled former employee or if her allegations have merit.

Meanwhile, any initiative to pass around the pictures of his bad hair day saying it is proof positive he has derailed is kooky if you ask me. And cheap.

In the interest of full disclosure, I dye my hair too. Sometimes, I even put in highlights. And, I paint my toes and nails. Furthermore, I also absolutely love sitting in the sun by the ocean with a good book, soaking up the sun - and getting a nice healthy tan in the summer.

Go sell crazy somewhere else. We're all full up here.

Jeanette O'Toole said...

This is fiction, Carol, but you/your readers might like it:

The Victim's Salvation

Prayers for Fr. Corapi ... I liked his "Pio" look, but donning a shoe-polish beard and "tanning" doesn't mean he's guilty of wrongdoing, I agree.

If Father is innocent (which one can only assume until proven otherwise), he can entertain a much greater "success" IMO than usual (with Jesus, Mary, the angels and saints) via this accusation by becoming a more humbled man (and saint!). Not the kind of "win-win" any priest desires, but ... to whom much is given ...

Thank you for the post!

Anonymous said...

Fair enough, Carol. I appreciate that you are one of the only people out there willing to wait and see if the victim in Fr. C's case is legit or not. So many others out there are singing Corapi's praises, and cursing the woman, whomever she is, and also Fr. Corapi's Order without any knowledge of the facts beyond Fr. C saying he's innocent. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't.

God bless,
Adele

Jack O'Malley said...

Carol, you are exactly right about the financial self-interest of the bishops. This has a precedent in Scripture and Tradition starting with Saul of Tarsus and his "gift for the Jerusalem church" collected from the "Gentiles", a.k.a. Greeks.

I don't know much about Corapi but a good while ago I heard him a couple of time on EWTN and, to tell you the truth, he bored the bejasus out of me. He is no Bishop Sheen. That aside, I did a bit of poking around about him and there is some dispute about his original military service record. I gather he has ammended his resume afterwards.

If you know anything about this, please follow up with your usual thoroughness and accuracy.

TTC said...

Jeanette, thanks for the comments and the link -- I'll check it out.

Adele, the reason why Catholics are defending him is because for some reason, there are some folks around town who want to see them removed irrespective of the credibility of the allegation. There is no process in place - none - that examines the veracity, gives the priest his opportunity to gather witnesses, refute facts -- and sometimes even be told the name of the accuser himself. And, it goes on like that for sometimes decades. The priest is never returned, even when found innocent.

So long as there is no process that is timely and just, exonerates the innocent and returns them to their vocation -- I would say that the kangaroo court is getting the respect it sadly deserves. This system is not benefiting anyone and it has to come to an end.

Jacko - You must have caught Fr. Corapi on a bad day. He is on fire and doesn't hold back.

I think I did see something on his military record. I'll check it out.

Lynne said...

Jack, you would have enjoyed the Boston Catholic Men's (and Women's) Conference when Father Corapi called Boston "Ground Zero" in the Culture of Death. I was at the Women's Conference. I believe it was the 2006 conference?

The Woman of the House said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
TTC said...

Oops, I meant to deleteanother post, sorry about that.

I don't know why Deacon Kinda would say such a silly thing like administrative leave is only administrative leave. That seems to indicate he doesn't have the faintest idea what has been happening to accused priests for the last several years. Is he that far out of the loop? Is he completely unaware of the canons and civil rights being violated?

I am not much of a fan of the the Bloggers at first things. Seems the initiative has gone to the dogs since Fr. Neuhaus' death.

What happens to priests found innocent is as I describe. It is probably true that somebody so disturbed as to say a priest came out of the television set and raped her would not go through the crucible, most people who falsely accuse are pathological liars who are well practiced because they have lived their lives like vampires, sucking the life out of everything and everyone in their path to get what they need.

Our priests should not be removed every time a whackjob comes along with a story to satisfy people seeking revenge for their wounds.

Your circulation of Fr. Corapi picture and likening him to your own experiences with Fr. Euteneuer was egregious. You may have done a terrible thing to an innocent man by sowing seeds for a former employee with a grudge.

Anonymous said...

God have mercy on us all!

The Church is haywire and out of control, as are the majority of the people in this country.


Veronica

VeritasVictor said...

http://caelumetterra.wordpress
.com/2011/03/21/father-corapi-suspended/

TTC said...

Victor -

A link to some dude who suspects Fr. Corapi's conversion story is fabricated?

This goes good with the pictures of Fr with a tan.

What else you got?

Any good conspiracy theories and kooky pictures of the Holy Father?

VeritasVictor said...

http://www.ewtnnews.com/
catholic-news/US.php?id=2859

VeritasVictor said...

Be careful not to make hasty judgments and to exonnerate Father Corapi before ALL the evidence is in. There have been other fallen tv priests. Remember Fr. Ken Roberts?

http://fatherjoe.wordpress.
com/2007/04/03/usccb-monitus
-fr-ken-roberts/

You have said that you believe the allegations to be false. But we just don't know yet. They may be. But if they're not, you are only adding to the victims' pain.

Anonymous said...

Veritas

I copied the link and searched. It says it doesn't exist.

Veronica

Anonymous said...

Never mind, Veritas, I found it.

Veronica

TTC said...

Victor,

I'm really a little tired of your attempt to silence people who stand up and say we object to the process of removing priests on the assumption they are guilty 'just in case', is somehow hurting a 'victim'.

There is no such victim in this case. She has yet to step forward and tell her story. We could more easily presume she is a disgruntled employee with loose morals and a drug addiction or even a drunk. Maybe even a lunatic.

If she wants credibility, she's got to step forward.

I don't much like passive-aggressive stuff. I will continue to, and encourage others to continue, to stop taking our priests out of commission.

March 23, 2011 7:09 PM

Jack O'Malley said...

There is a good followup on the military record of Fr. Corapi at Eponymous Flower (http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2011/03/someones-dug-up-father-corapis-military.html).

A lot of linked reading but I think it's clear that Fr. Corapi has not overstated his military record.

And FWIW, I think that the dame who has accused him should come forward and state her case publicly. If she does not, she should be outed on the internet. Someone knows who she is and it's very easy to leak that information. Calumnious charges from anonymous and protected accusers and unjust sanctions from pusillanimous bishops are repugnant. Yet another reason to contemn the novus ordure church.

Unknown said...

Father Corapi is one of my favorites. Sorry to see that EWTN seems to have abandoned himn. There was one sermom I remember him preaching where he told the tale of priest who was too honest for some people and some woman took issue with him and accused him of something. The woman was quite vicious and the priests superiors removed him from the order believe it or not and they wound up telling the poor guy "now you can get married" and then the guy wound up driving a cab in his late 70's. That's a case of injustice if I ever heard it and now I'm afraid that the same thing is happening to poor Father Corapi.

For the record I think he's innocent but my main fear is when all this shakes out and if he is found innocent, it may not really mean anything because he may never wind up returning anyway. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, my prayers are with you Father Corapi.