Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Ba Ba Black Sheep, Have You Any Bull?



Fr. Corapi is a train wreck. How sad.

The gig is up. I pray the man still has the ability to lay it all down and come home.

Last week while dealing with the of luminaries in the Boston Chancery, I heard a snippet of the closing arguments of the Casey Anthony trial struck me: It is fascinating how people will pile one lie on top of another just to stall the inevitable.

While SOLT has done the right thing publicly revealing what they know..all this time, Fr. Corapi had his own brothel which he retreated to and his supervisors didn't know? What were they doing? Running a travelogue blog? What else don't they know about their priests?

Fr. Corapi had to know that a civil trial would bring his charade to an end. He was just buying time. Out of fascination, I checked his website to see how close to SOLT's announcement he kept the charade going and he had a 50% off inventory clearance, last chance sale during Fourth of July weekend.

What gets me is, he took on the persona of a crusader for falsely-accused priests which he had to know would compromise men who are really falsely accused. The poor man has sunk as low as a soul can get. God help him.

As a sucker for a sob story, I have have been sucked into the vortexes of narcissists, here and there along my journey. When the veil rips, when all is said and done, I have never let those experiences change who I am. Never let those experiences rob me of my trust and love or true charity. Sometimes it's taken me a while to get there, but through the grace of our Sacraments and the magnificence of God, all things are possible.

It was plausible to me that a crusade to restore the rights of falsely accused could be distancing itself from the ecclesiastical for a civil trial.

A man, or woman, deserves - and has the right to - the presumption of innocence. The accuser has the burden of proof. . Juries set murderers free when they feel the prosecution has not met the burden of proof.

This can't be turned upside down.The President sets terrorists free when the evidence is thin. Even if you are incapable of charity, you are required to acquiesce to the laws of the land. Our priests are entitled to the presumption of innocence until the evidence presents itself.

You only have to look around the internet and our comments boxes here at TTC to see the torment of turning everyone into the boogeyman (or boogeywoman!)

The question is out there, did Fr. Corapi ever really have a conversion, or was the whole thing a beard. It's a good question. My limited experiences have left me with the belief that these people suffer from a combination of mental and spiritual problems. A tangled mess from sin. The evidence that he required a confidentiality agreement and paid people huge sums of money for it does not bode well.

I actually think a confidentiality agreement may benefit our Lord in some circumstances. Our human weakness and flaws can scandalize the truth we proclaim. I wouldn't want the weeds I'm not pulling from my yard so I can go to the beach or the times I react poorly to frustrations and challenges to be splashed all over the Deposit of Faith. But if you've got enough dirt going on that you pay somebody 100,000 to keep quiet about, that's another story all together. You shouldn't have to pay anybody at all - but the truth is, most employers work it into severance agreements.

$100,000 is a bit of an indictment if you ask me.

I was struck by the readings this week . The Old Testament readings, Jacob, with the help of his mother Rebekah, trick his blind and dying father to giving the blessing that belongs to Easu to Jacob. Eventually, he struggles all night in the tent with God who spares him his life. In the New Testament, Jesus is driving out demons.

The Magnificat had a fortuitous reflection from Father John Tauler, O.P.:

Against...good men the fiends who have fallen from the order of the virtues level their fiercest strokes. All their cunning devices are set to work to hinder their salvation; for they, if they but persevere to the end, will be given the places in that rank of heavenly spirits from which those demons themselves have fallen. The malignity of these evil spirits is inevitably great, and it works incessantly. We must stand our watch against them with sleepless vigilance; for often times their deadliest scheming takes the form of something good. Especially do they strive to divide and scatter our affections away from God and to waste them upon a multiplicity of created things. Often enough, when one has reached a state of moderate virtue, the demons will do their utmost to hinder him from advancing to that further state of perfection which God would have him reach. This is a very dangerous condition to him, and the devil is well aware of it; in our times there are more souls thus halted, while God calls them to go forward, than at any previous time. Saint Bernard says: "In the way of God, to stand still is to go backward".

In this state of stagnation are all those worldly hears , who say: We do as any good works as others do, and that amply suffices for us,; indeed, we are better than those who pretend to greater perfection and we will continue in the good ways of those who have gone before us. But, when some great trial comes upon these men, then shall we hear their lamentations: it will be shown that they were not as good as they thought they were. The evil spirits will work their fiendish will upon them, and at last lead them away without resistance. The contrary will be the case with fervent spirits, who have hearkened to the counsel of these good angels. When their trials are passed and gone, they will be found all purified and made holy by them; they will be, as it were, on terms of familiar friendship with those bright spirits, who will continue to conduct them towards a happy end.

I'm reading another book sent to me by a gracious TTC reader. I have more to tell you about my encounter with this gracious woman, but I'll save that for later. The book is called The Prayer of the Presence of God by Dom Augustin Guillerand, A Carthusian Monk.

We must pray always in order to be on our guard. Our life, both of body and souls, our natural and supernatural life, is like a fragile flower. We live surrounded by enemies. Ever since man rejected the Light that was meant to show him the way, everything has become for us an obstacle and a danger; we live in the shadow of death. Instead of pointing to the Creator and leading us to Him, things show only themselves, with the result that we stop at them. The Devil, to whom we stupidly gave them when we gave him ourselves, speaks to us through their many voices; his shadow darkens their transparence.

The tempter is lurking all around this vortex. Watch out, least we trip and fall ourselves.

Ad majorum Dei glorium.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

You said that the accusers were engaging in "bullsheet." You should have waited for the facts. You were wrong.

Innocent until proven guilty does not mean that we assume the accusers are "liars." You assumed this.

And you made a fool out of yourself.

TTC said...

Listen, how Catholics responded to Fr. Corapi was more than bullsheet, it was despicable, dishonorable, uncharitable and disgusting.

The outcome does not vindicate the vultures pecking away at the Body of Christ. You're a sick brood of vipers. Who in their right mind would want to be a sinner crawling back into a parish to sit beside you.

Contact a mental health professional and a good priest and get some help for yourself - and stop stalking me.

TTC said...

And, n.b.

"Innocent until proven guilty does not mean that we assume the accusers are "liars."

I never disagreed with that. I do object to the vultures who insist that our priests not be afforded due process.


"You assumed this."

No, the lies and bullsheet were coming from folks like you, mischaracterizing what I and others were doing - and will continue to do - as some kind of cult and all the other creepy comments and behaviors in the peanut gallery.

Stop creeping, before I out who you are.

Anonymous said...

I still think the accusers are most likely a bunch of low-lifes. And I'll be looking forward to Fr Corapi's next statement. In the mean time, I have suspended any donations I have been giving to EWTN. As long as they have Mark Shea writing for the Register.These peple are such hypocrites, after lambasting Fr. C, they say to 'pray for him'..

http://markshea.blogspot.com/2011/07/mercy-and-forgiveness-for-fr-corapi-and.html

Now, all the pussy catholic politicians can go back to voting for child slaughter without being called on it...

Jasper

Anonymous said...

Carol, you took the words right out of my mouth. Imagine! Being raked over the coals for giving someone the benefit of the doubt, and assuming their innocence until proven guilty.

All I can say is that I am most glad that Our Lord doesn't use their yardstick to measure.

Veronica

Anonymous said...

Jasper, I agree.

Veronica

TTC said...

"Imagine! Being raked over the coals for giving someone the benefit of the doubt, and assuming their innocence until proven guilty."

LOL. You said it girl.

Anonymous said...

You know, we really should all just pray for him. If the statement of SOLT is accurate and the complete truth, Fr. Corapi needs prayers a lot more than criticism and analysis. I can't think of the complete text from St. Paul at the moment, but didn't he say something about beating his body into subjection (or something like that) lest he became a castaway too?

And there's obviously a problem here and it has to do with famous priests. Perhaps fame and the priesthood are not a good match in this day and age - be they exorcists or EWTN personalities - it produces rancid results.

Veronica

Anonymous said...

What is it exactly in the words of the commentators that was so bad?

They didn't declare him guilty of the sins of which he was accused. They examined the whole Black SheepDog thing - I mean - all of it - from the tone of the new site - to Corapi's own words which contradicted themselves from message to message - to the big ordination anniversary sale announced just days before Corapi HIMSELF announced he would no longer be called "Father" but just "John" (which he did...before he changed his mind.)

Carol - all of this came about because of Corapi's own adoption of a new strange public persona. He's the one who has - from March - made public the fact that he was accused. He's the one who threatened to release audio tapes of his accuser. He's the one who said he was embarking on a new journey or whatever....

I have followed all of this very closely. The bloggers who followed the stories did not judge Corapi guilty of sexual misconduct or whatever. They examined and puzzled over the new persona and Corapi's own statements.

Your hatred of these bloggers has really warped your vision.

As I recall you were *much* more judgmental of Euteneur's "guilt" than any of those bloggers have been of Corapi's.

TTC said...

They just examined the persona?

I don't know the reasons for it, but you are blind.

Hardly do I have 'hatred' for any blogger. I've actually been defending Mark Shea - or at least staying neutral to his bullying up until the last few months.

It is what it is.

By the way, Euteneur wasn't out professing his innocence and confessed. The warning signs were much more of an indictment than the color of his facial hair and skin.

Seriously, I don't have the time to keep answering ridiculous comments and so they'll be trashed, rather than to leave them out there scandalizing due process for accused priests and those who have defended the presumption of innocence.

I'm sure my tan and red highlights and my trashing scandalous comments I don't have the time to go over will put me on the suspected list of nefarious of the EWTN crowd, but, oh well!

Jeanette O'Toole said...

An apology would be nice (when you get around to it) to the people you bounced off your blog.

Joseph D'Hippolito said...

This whole issue goes far beyond Fr. Corapi, let alone Carol. This goes to an essential aspect of priestly formation: due dilligence of clerical candidates by their potential superiors. This is the same problem that, ultimately, enabled the clerical sex-abuse crisis to metastacise. Yet nobody wants to discuss it? Why?

We can blame individuals all we want, and many of them deserve that blame (especially in chanceries). We can blame total disregard for Canon Law. But in the final analysis, Catholics must confront the obvious lack of due dilligence in seminaries. How many more Corapis and Euteneuers are out there that we don't know about just because they didn't have popular ministries?

Anonymous said...

Why is it "ridiculous" to ask you to support your contention that these bloggers were engaged in convicting Corapi of whatever these accusations say before he was proven guilty? To provide quotes from the blogs that say "he dyed his beard thus he must have been having sex with women" which is the storyline you're claiming went down?

breathnach said...

Carol,

I bet you thought being a cult leader was as easy as passing out the Kool-aid! (LOL!)

It's a tough job, you have to deal with anonymous jackals who are hell bent on dragging you down.

I was an agnostic as regards Father Corapi, even while he was riding high.I appreciated his defending orthodoxy. On the other hand, I never felt inspired by him whatsoever.

You are under fire from cranks of the Right and the Left. The Unni-ites would like to paint Corapi as the scourge of homosexuals and therefore anyone who preaches the Truth about homosexual acts must be up to no good. An infantile, logically fallacious argument.

For those souls who were converted (or brought back around to the Church) by Father Corapi,remember he was/is only an instrument. Grace can be delivered through even a degenerate human agent.

A wonderful reflection of Alexander Solzhenitsyn brings out the point that even the most depraved and unlikely experiences can bring grace:

“Bless you, prison!” by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

“It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor.

In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts…

That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: ‘Bless you, prison!’ I…have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: ‘Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!’”

–Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Vol. 2 (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 615-17.

TTC said...

Jeanette, what exactly is it you believe I owe an apology for and to whom?

We agreed on the Euteneuer scandal but that was a much different set of circumstances. Fr. E did not proclaim his innocence. There wad no manifestation of Catholics demanding the color of his beard incriminated him. He confessed.

Fr Corapi very forcefully professed his innocence. He manipulated the trust he built all these years to to very cleverly take on the persona of a crusader for falsely accused to give all of his other actions context.

Why can't you just be honest and admit your bar was low and it was perfectly reasonable to set the bar higher given the history of his fidelity?

I read your husband's piece and I thought it was among the most uncharitable and boorish pieces written on the matter.

The behavoir is beneath contempt as far as I am concerned.

TTC said...

Why is it ridiculous?

Because up until yesterday, you had nothing to go on, and, because his appearance was your biggest conspiracy theory.

Anonymous said...

What does anyone have to go on today? A statement by "SOLT" that can't be questioned? SOLT was in on it while they might benefit -seems their biggest issue now is that he's mortgaging his house. I'm waiting for this woman to appear on talk shows. Actually, why doesn't she go on talk shows? Surely 60 minutes or some such would give her some money... Really who's supervising anyone in the Church? Why is the Pope vacationing at Castle Gandolfo? Is he a king or somethin'? Jesus had no place to lay his head - all these million dollar nuns and cardinals make me sick.

Jeanette O'Toole said...

I guess you're not the type to apologize. Remember to bring that with you to the confessional ... *wink, wink*

Maria said...

Oh Sacred Head Now Wounded

http://youtu.be/RMFqph991Ew

Our Lord was "wounded in the house of a friend". Should we not be moved to prayers of mercy?

TTC said...

Jeanette,

I beg your pardon, but isn't that a straw man?

I believe ten years of archives would contradict your assertion that I am beneath apology.


I asked a legitimate question - what is it you believe I owe an apology for, and to whom?

The man put on a good show. You had no facts to back up your crusades and your behavior in the com boxes has been bullying people into lowering the bar to your gossip threshold. (Including the anonymous comments you've been depositing.)

People want facts and justice demands we give the benefit of the doubt to the accused. That's why a woman in Florida was set free. You've got to close the loop with facts.

I have more constructive things to do than get caught up in managing your bullying.

Anonymous said...

You said the accusers were engaging in "bullsheet." Innocent until proven guilty does not mean that we assume the accusers are "liars."

You failed to show charity to the accusers as well as Fr. Corapi.

And you were wrong!

Maria said...

Jeanette: This is not the way.

Maria said...

Anonymmous: This is not the way.

TTC said...

Jeanette, Stop. Surely you and your husband can find another body to land on and peck away at?

It is truly sick to continue.

Anonymous said...

Carol,

Do you have any idea why these people are antagonistic?

Veronica

Jeanette O'Toole said...

I received a number of letters from people concerned about you; that is honestly the only reason I tried to post something (and I did not do so anonymously) that made sense in regard to Corapi on your blog. It's obvious we aren't going to be pals (and it's unfortunate nothing much I said made sense to you anyway; my fault, I'm sure). I'm sorry for having upset you. I will not be back.

P.S. Tom would not come onto your blog. This was of my own doing.

Caroline said...

'Watch out, least we trip and fall ourselves.'

That's a great word Carol,to remind us we're all only one bad decision from blowing it.

Anonymous said...

Caroline,

No truer words...there but for the grace of God...

Let he who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.

Veronica

TTC said...

Jeanette,

All the posts from uncle ham/anonymous/you was about you getting letters pouring in to you addressing their concerns about me?

This is the kind of nonsense I was talking about when referring to bullsheet.

It wasn't about the merits of Fr. Corapi's case at all. It was about this kind of abusive conduct and bullying. It was and remains perfectly reasonable to hold fellow Catholics to the bar of having the facts on the table before we take up a crusade to paint a priest as guilty.

Don't leave uncle ham, anonymous and others here, take them with you. i have had enough of it. Thanks.

TTC said...

Letters pouring in to the O'Toole's noting their concerns about me. That's what it was all about. Concerned Catholics.

What a sick state of affairs everywhere you turn.

Insane.

TTC said...

The pastoral concerns of nurse Anne Wilkes with a sledgehammer.

Creepy and sad.

Karen said...

Carol, you are right about the sick state of affairs....made the worse by ALL sides thinking that they are doing the work of Catholic Crusader. It's stunning how divisive our Church has become - talk about diabolical disorientation! I know that all of this must be hurtful to you despite your bravado. What you do is not easy but it is appreciated and necessary. We are all in this together, but you, more so. Thank you. That said, I bet you wish you stayed at the beach!

Anonymous said...

"It's stunning how divisive our Church has become - talk about diabolical disorientation! "

Satan must be in his glory. This is what he works for and it serves his purpose.

I wonder what Our Lord and His Blessed Mother think of us...talk about salt loosing its savor...

Veronica

TTC said...

Karen,

Thanks - but I assure you, it isn't hurtful to me. They can do nothing to me. Those days are long, long gone. I don't deserve any kind of characterization that comes from bravado.

No.

I am an observer whose anguish stems from watching my Beloved and His Church being ravaged by thieves and the mentally and spiritually ill.

Maria said...

To Ms. Scalia, ,Mr. Kandra, Mr. Shea, Ms. O'Toole and Anonynous Guests

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up;

Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.

We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known.

And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

Charity seems the lesson...