Father John Corapi: Will He Succeed as "The Black Sheep Dog"?

About three years ago, as I was pregnant with my third son, I sat on my family room sofa flipping channels in the middle of a weekday as my contractor worked in the background preparing our home for our new bambino.  I flipped over to EWTN, and there before me was a phenomenal speaker; a priest.  But this was a priest like none other I had ever seen or heard.  His voice was very deep and he spoke as if he were St. Michael here on earth.  I turned the volume up so high as to not miss one word - not one inflection.  I listened intently as he spoke of the beauty of the Catholic Church and of his conversion of heart and entrance into the priesthood.  It was such a great thing to watch and hear that when it was over, I was left with that same feeling one gets after having a fabulous dessert...thank you, but can I have more?  I wanted to stand up on my sofa, big belly and all, and yell "Heck yea, that guy's on our team!"

I followed Father John Corapi off and on throughout these past few years...watching and listening.  God surely blessed him with the gift of public speaking.  If you watch him, he will rarely look at notes or even stumble over a word.  I don't think I've even heard him say "um" or "uh", which is hard to do when publicly speaking.  The conviction with which he spoke and the decided spirit was something to behold.  He did not mince words - I believed in his message about spiritual warfare.  I believe spiritual warfare is all around us as we whiz through our lives like spinning tops, bobbling to one side then the next as things slow down, only to be set spinning once again by one of life's peaks or valleys.  Father Corapi fought the good fight against evil; against Satan.  I have seen firsthand the games Satan and his minions enjoy playing at the expense of our souls.  It is serious business.

So, here we are now at the onset of Father's Day weekend and a day away from Trinity Sunday.  Coincidentally, Father Corapi was ordained a priest on Trinity Sunday, and he announced today, after twenty years as a priest, that he would be leaving the priesthood due to unproven claims (as of yet) that he was inappropriate in some manner with a woman with whom he worked.  He vehemently proclaims his innocence.  He says the Bishop would put him in a state of indefinite suspension, and I think the idea of that is intolerable to him.  I have read the early blogs that are being written in response to his statement.  Many are ready to leave him in the dust as he walks away from his priesthood.  I understand that sentiment.  He is supposed to submit to the Church and to his Bishop.   I too wish his statement had been more from a point of humility.  He sounded more like a man of this earth, than a man of the cloth.

This is a man, however, who had at one time been very wealthy - successful, if you will, by our modern standards.  He is a go-getter.  He's probably not one to stand idle.   His latest book, an autobiography, "The Black Sheep Dog", was due to be released soon, so apparently he will be parlaying his ministry from a priestly one to one as a public speaker as the Black Sheep Dog.  He says he wants to reach the world.  Will he be successful?  He was a successful businessman at one point in his life.  Will his followers follow him into this venture or will they eventually fall away from him?  Scarier still, will his followers fall away from the Church in anger?  I, for one, will continue to watch and listen, but I stand firm in my faith and in my Church and its decisions.

What has happened to John Corapi?  Only he and God know with certitude.  Shouldn't he stay and fight for his priesthood with the same fervent desire that he has to speak publicly?  We don't know all that goes on or is said behind closed doors, but I find his decision troubling.  His fight with Satan has ultimately culminated into an attack on his character and either his submission to the Church, thus silencing him at least for some indefinite amount of time, or his walking away from his vocation, the vocation that gave him life and purpose.  Satan has surely won either way.  There will be followers of his who will, in their minds, lump this into the sex-abuse scandal and walk away from the Catholic Church altogether.  Truly faithful Catholics know it is only the excuse they've been looking for, as the Church is so much more than the people in power...but it is sad all the same.

Christianity was founded on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.  His life was one of humility, His death was one of swift persecution, and His resurrection was God's saving grace.  I pray that John Corapi, "The Black Sheep Dog", will continue to live as Christ in humility, though he has been persecuted, and that God continues to send forth grace upon him and his followers.  As for the Church and its faithful believers, we will not allow Satan to stand in our way and "the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it."



Matthew 16: 16-23
"Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."  Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.  And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.  From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."  He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

Pentecost Sunday, Sitting Shiva, and Saying Goodbye

On Sunday, I prepared myself to say goodbye to our beloved priest who was being transferred to a different parish.  I had known this day was coming for several weeks and thought I had shed all the tears I possibly could.  But Sunday morning came and I began to cry again.  I pulled myself together before mass, gathered up the family, and off we went.  As I was driving, I began to think of the disciples who wept when they had to say goodbye to Jesus.  He was their friend and teacher.  He was their beloved priest, if you will.  Their goodbye was final in their mind.  What grief must they have felt?  What pain must Mary have felt?  Jesus wasn't moving down the road to a different parish as my priest was.  I got sad all over again thinking of the disciples, which oddly made me feel better about my situation.  It kind of put it all into perspective.

Sitting in church before mass started, I started to well up again and found it very difficult to sit there knowing it would be the last time I would watch our priest process in and the last time I would share the Eucharist with him in our Church.  I began to think of Jesus again and remembered our priest would not be far away.  Jesus' friends and followers must have felt such desperation as his sentence was handed down.  Not only had they loved Him and believed in Him, but they would be willing to die for Him.  The love our parish had for our beloved priest was but a small window into the love those early disciples felt for Jesus.  I felt it.

After mass, I went to visit my neighbor and friend who was sitting shiva for her father who had passed away just a few days prior.  She knew his death was imminent as he was elderly and had been battling cancer, but he took a quick turn for the worse and his death was sudden.  I had been feeling her pain all week and was looking forward to attending shiva with her and her family.  Because we were in mass in the morning, I had missed the funeral and interment, but was able to go to her home for shiva.  I arrived in time for the prayer service they would be having in their home.  It was so beautiful as I stood in a house filled with family and friends steeped in Jewish faith and tradition.  It was that faith and tradition that I got swept up in.  How similar we are to one another; Judaism and Christianity.  We sang in Hebrew, repeated prayers, and prayed over the family.  Towards the end of the prayer service, there was a beautiful paragraph about saying goodbye, and I wrote down one of the sentences: "All that we prize is but lent to us, and the time comes when we must surrender it."

That sentence hit me like a brick.  I had been grieving for weeks over having to say goodbye to a friend, but here was my friend who had to say goodbye to her father forever.  She was grieving.  She was consoled by her faith and the prayers extended over her and her family.  I had been consoled earlier in the day at Church by my faith and the prayers said by our faith community.  It was Pentecost Sunday.  The Holy Spirit was alive and well - passing over all of us in our time of need.  I thought of Jesus and his grieving followers and friends, I thought of my Jewish friend and her grieving family, and I thought of my Church and its grieving community.  I was connected that day to Jesus and our Jewish roots.  Surely, Jesus would have sat shiva for Joseph?  We were all connected and our faith was what held us up.  I knew that the time had come to surrender.  Surrender I did.

"All that we prize is but lent to us, and the time comes when we must surrender it."

The Spirit is Leading Us Part II

In April 2009, we had our third son, John Paul.  Even though I was a little nervous about being branded the "Pope worshippers", we did name him after Blessed John Paul II.  As a protestant I had greatly admired JPII.  There was a definite curiosity there.  After I became Catholic (5 years after I was married), I knew I would someday work in the pro-life ministry of the Church.  JPII was big on the pro-life issue.  He has many great quotes on the topic.  As I was pregnant with my third child, I knew my time to join the movement was imminent.  Why not name our son after the only Pope I ever knew, and one who was so outspoken on the right to life issue?  We named him John Paul and of course our priest immediately said to me, "You know, people will call him JP."  I said, "Not if I can help it!"

Six weeks after his birth, in June 2009, my husband went to a men's retreat at Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH.  He met Danny Abramowitz, former professional football player and coach, and one of the "team" on EWTN's "Crossing the Goal" tv program.  They hit it off and spoke of one day starting a Catholic Men's Conference in our Archdiocese - we have never had one before.  To make a long story short, plans were laid out, meetings were arranged with one of our bishops, many meetings were made with the men's ministry of our parish, and two years later (March 2011) the First Annual Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Men's Conference went off without a hitch.  There were approximately 500 men in attendance - from numerous counties here in Florida.  The "Crossing the Goal" team were the speakers and Archbishop Wenski presided over the concluding mass.  It was apparently a beautiful day!

After the retreat in 2009, my husband made it his mission to bring Dr. Scott Hahn to our small parish.  Dr. Hahn arrived in March 2010 to a packed church.  Many people heard he was coming and came over from other parishes - as well as dioceses.  It was a great day for our parish.  Many eyes were opened that day to the beauty within the Catholic Church...told only the way Dr. Hahn can.  And you know, since I too can read Greek and Latin, he and I see eye to eye on all the biblical translations (no, just kidding...who reads Greek and Latin?).  But like Dr. Hahn, I am a convert as well, and I love his and his wife's story of conversion.  Dr. Hahn's presence helped to ignite the flame in starting the men's conference. 

In June 2010, my husband once again went to the men's retreat in Steubenville.  He was nervous about leaving me with three boys - one of them being a one year old.  I told him to go and not worry about it.  For some reason, I honestly cannot explain why, I decided to take a pregnancy test.  After having John Paul, we had decided to practice natural family planning.  It was new to us and we thought we would have time to read up on it and figure it all out.  It was okay though if something unplanned happened...we were open to life.  After having our first son, we had a miscarriage, and then apparently became infertile.  After nine and a half years, I gave birth to our second son.  I suffered another miscarriage in hopes that our second son could have a sibling closer in age, and then I became pregnant with John Paul.  You have to understand that I tormented myself all those years over yearning for a daughter and then feeling guilty about feeling that way.  I even used to think God was punishing me (I know God is not a punishing God) during my infertile period because I wanted things my way.  In June 2010, my husband was on retreat, I took the pregnancy test, and it was positive.  Was this my daughter?  I actually didn't want to know.  I had left this all in God's hands, and He was sending us another child.  I felt blessed beyond words.