Ba Ba Black Sheep, Have You Any Bull?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

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.

Fr. Corapi's Black Sheepdog Announcement

On my life's journey in the Archdiocese of Boston, I've crossed paths with more than my share of falsely accused priests.

Maybe my witness of my love for Christ, so deep that I choose pleasing Him above all things, makes them feel safe.

Whatever the reason, I have been privy to their experiences at the hands of the diocesan kangaroo process.

What Fr. Corapi describes is right on the money.

The accuser does not have to meet any litmus test for 'credibility' of the accusation. In fact, their story can be impossible to have taken place, the priest can have witnesses and facts that vindicate him and they are still out of their ministries for over ten years.

During that time, the allegations are withheld from them and their attorneys. They are forbidden from defending themselves.

Their money is cut off so that hiring an attorney relies on getting somebody to do it pro bono.

What do you think the chances are of that?

They bankrupt you financially, morally and spiritually.

There are no rules of civil procedure. In fact, the accused does not have to testify under pains and penalties of perjury while the priests are forced to sign away their right to civilly recover damages for libel, slander and defamation of character. You cannot cross examine.

The diocese, at least here in Boston, provides the accuser with a coach.

You read that right. The archdiocese helps to coach the accuser.

I am not able to disclose at this point in time what I know about their kangaroo process but some day we're going to blow it out of the water.

You think you're disgusted with them now, just wait until you hear what they have been doing to innocent priests.

I've often said to them that we should put together a book of ten or twelve of their stories. Let it rip.

The overwhelming majority of them go through a period where they want to leave the priesthood. In fact, every one of them I know has gone through this period. Most of them will thankfully celebrate Mass privately every day as they are allowed to do and somehow hold on.

The rage and depression they experience is very, very intense.

Bishop Gracida captures the essence of my thoughts on Fr. Corapi's announcement.

Like Bishop Gracida, I understand Fr. Corapi's rage. I can't make a judgment about the merits of case but as he is professing his innocence, I understand his unwillingness to let the accuser and her enablers at the local Chancery rob him of serving Christ.


I am thrilled that the matter sounds like it is headed to civil court where evidence needs to be presented and examined, witnesses can be called and the accused has access to his civil and constitutional rights.


My colleagues at Boston Catholic Insider highlighted a story of one of the Boston priests abused by false accusers and Chancery enablers, Fr. Murphy, RIP.

Collateral Damage

The first time the Rev. Charles Murphy was cleared of accusations that he improperly touched a minor, a girl 25 years earlier, everyone who ever met him said they had never doubted his innocence.

It was 2006 and priests were all over the news for every awful reason, most of them deservedly so. But Father Murphy swore his innocence, the archdiocese ruled the allegations lacked substance, and the woman dropped her suit on the eve of trial.

When Murphy triumphantly returned to the pulpit of his sun-splashed church in South Weymouth, the applause could be heard across the South Shore. Father Charlie, as he was known, was back — back cracking cornball jokes from the altar, back as a fanatical hockey fan, back as the mad plow driver clearing the parking lot at the hint of snow. He was also back ministering in prisons and helping the deaf, a man of the cloth to his core.

“He was just the same guy as before the accusation, a bubbly guy, fun, a little bit of a jokester, but a diligent priest,’’ said Joe Corcoran, the developer who befriended Murphy decades earlier at St. Agatha in Milton.

Amid so much joy, it would have been impossible to imagine the turn that Murphy’s life would eventually take.

That turn came in April 2010, when lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who had lodged the first unfounded complaint, brought another. This one involved a man, not a woman. It went back 40 years rather than 25. It centered on accusations of fondling at the old Paragon Park in Hull and on a ski trip up north.

When the charges hit, Murphy canceled a long-planned party celebrating his 50th anniversary as a priest. He cleaned out his room in the church rectory and went to live with his brother. Two accusations in four years, he knew, did not look good.

But it didn’t matter to the prominent friends and everyday parishioners who refused to give up their faith. They hired a lawyer, who in turn brought in a private investigator, who discovered that the alleged victim was mired in financial problems, had a long list of liens placed against him, and faced massive credibility issues even within his own family.

It took nearly six months — about five months longer than it should have — before an archdiocesan review board cleared Murphy of the allegations in September and Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley restored him as a senior priest. But this time, there was no triumphant return to the pulpit. In fact, when Murphy reappeared at St. Francis Xavier in South Weymouth to say Mass, he couldn’t summon the strength to deliver a sermon.

“He would say to me, ‘I just can’t preach. I just don’t have it in me,’ ’’ said Jack Pender, his longtime confidant. “It was so frustrating for him.’’

His spirit was evaporating. His antidepression medicine kept him up at night. He moved to Regina Cleri, a North End residence for retired priests, where he continued his tortured descent.

Garabedian is a talented lawyer who has done vital work on behalf of hundreds of victims of abusive priests, but in terms of Murphy, what he did is a disgrace. Garabedian told me this week his Milton client was “credible.’’ He wasn’t. He lashed out at what he described as a “kangaroo court,’’ the respected, independent archdiocesan panel that cleared Murphy. He didn’t utter the only words worth hearing: I made a mistake.

They brought Murphy to a hospice in Haverhill a couple of weeks ago after doctors determined there was nothing left to be done. There was no cancer, no apparent physical disease, just a broken 77-year-old heart that refused to mend.

And that’s where he died Saturday evening, a wisp of the man he once was. Garabedian lost his compass on this case, and thousands of people all over Massachusetts lost a truly wonderful priest.

We are letting this happen to our priests.

Shame on us.

Independence Day Message from Fr. Corapi

I have fond memories of the 4th of July going back to when I was probably only four or five years old. We remember the parades, the picnics or barbecues, and the happy gathering of families. During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain actually took place on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the resolution of independence previously put forth by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. After debate and revision Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4th.

Of note is the letter John Adams, one of only two Founding Fathers who went on to become president, wrote to his wife Abigail:

…This day ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever more. (Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society)

Like so many of the Founding Fathers, Adams recognized that the day of deliverance came from the providential hand of almighty God. I am not sure about large numbers of duplicitous politicians and other so-called public servants today, whether elected or appointed.

Freedom is a great thing, and we do well to celebrate it on the 4th of July. That being said, it’s something rooted in truth, and apart from the truth there can be no authentic freedom.

If you continue in my word [truth] you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. (John 8:31-32)

An individual, a country, or a world that does not remain rooted in objective truth cannot ultimately live in freedom. If you are serious about your faith, my dear friends, I strongly recommend that you read #1730-1748 [in the Catholic Catechism] as we approach the wonderful celebration of Independence Day, or the 4th of July.

Some highlights of this reality:

1731: Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude [true happiness].

1733: The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes…

One of the most common errors of all time is to confuse freedom and license. Today, frequently under the specious pretext freedom, mankind acts in a manner that is really license. We are not morally free to do whatever we choose to do. Only when rooted in truth and acting in objective truth can we hope to be free. No one has the moral right to do evil. No one has the moral right to choose to take an innocent life or to engage in actions that are out of accord with right reason or any objective standards of morality we have ever known.

The inevitable consequence of abusing freedom is losing freedom. Soon, if we do not alter our present course, the United States will no longer be the home of the brave and the land of the free. Loss of personal freedoms, one at a time, is already well underway. One day we shall awake from our moral slumber and find that we have become slaves.

We must live in truth and act in truth if we are to remain free. Abuse it and I assure you we shall lose it! Wake up America! God is not a disinterested spectator. Let’s thank God for our freedom, but let’s not sit by idly while the forces of darkness divorce freedom from truth. For, as Jesus says, “The man who sins is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34)

I’ll leave you with the motto of the United States Army Special Forces on this 4th of July:

De oppresso liber! (To free the oppressed)

Indeed, Jesus came to set the captives free. Let’s do our part for our country and our world that we might all remain free in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

God bless you,

Fr. John Corapi

Fr. Corapi's Thoughts on Socialism

We're dropping the ball and losing the culture to neopagan elements.

Urging attendees to examine the current political climate, he said that "socialism is not in conformity with biblical teaching. Socialism doesn't profit the poor, but only brings poverty and misery. Socialism is about the seizure of power. It only brings everyone down to the lowest common denominator."

"The day for fence-sitting is over; the days to be a lukewarm Catholic are rapidly coming to an end."