On the Fr. Corapi situation...

Yesterday, I came across a press release from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), the religious order to which Fr. Corapi belongs.  The crux of the statement reads

SOLT's fact-finding team has acquired information from Fr. Corapi's e-mails, various witnesses, and public sources that, together, state that, during his years of public ministry:

He did have sexual relations and years of cohabitation (in California and Montana) with a woman known to him, when the relationship began, as a prostitute; He repeatedly abused alcohol and drugs; He has recently engaged in sexting activity with one or more women in Montana; He holds legal title to over $1 million in real estate, numerous luxury vehicles, motorcycles, an ATV, a boat dock, and several motor boats, which is a serious violation of his promise of poverty as a perpetually professed member of the Society.

As a result, I have removed the link to Fr. Corapi's website.  I am personally deeply saddened by this turn of events.  For those who don't know, Fr. Corapi was an incredibly engaging and charismatic speaker, with sound catechesis and a penchant for "telling it like it is."  Such honesty on church teaching was refreshing and, I daresay, much needed (especially in our current culture of death and political correctness).

I do not know -- nor am I willing to speculate -- as to whether the charges brought against Fr. Corapi have any degree of truth.  Based on the above, it appears that there has been some level of misconduct, though again, I am not privy to the details of the situation.  What I do know, however, is that the allegations were filed on Ash Wednesday (mid-March) and that a mere 3 months later, Fr. Corapi announced he was leaving the priesthood.  Regardless of anything else, this one action is cause enough for me to have serious doubts about Fr. Corapi's credibility and stability.  In my mind, this is tantamount to filing for divorce -- and it is an action I cannot support in any way.  Furthermore, his "new platform" of calling himself "The Black Sheep Dog" is just plain weird, and the picture he has chosen to use for his website is, quite frankly, a little creepy in my opinion.

At this point, I can only hope and pray that he comes to his senses and returns to his religious order.  It is a shame for the Church to lose a priest under any circumstances, but this feels like a particularly deep blow.  I encourage you to pray for Fr. Corapi as well.  May this be a good reminder that we are all called to pray for all our priests as there is no question they are constantly besieged by vicious spiritual attack.