Thursday, June 23, 2011

Father John Corapi: I Have Not Left The Church

Update - video:


In this article Fr. Corapi answers some of the criticisms, clarifies misunderstandings, and reiterates that he is not leaving the Church:

"I am sincerely thankful to all of you that have been kind and charitable, and also those that have perhaps been something less than that. Everyone has their opinions, and a perfect right to them. I respect that. Knowledge is a great thing, but as the old saying goes, “A little knowledge can be dangerous.” There is a dilemma that we face in the information age: On the one hand we want to use all of the marvelous technology we have. On the other hand, we don’t want to end up guilty of scarcely having a single unpublished thought. We have to say something, but we can’t say everything.

I think it’s a bit too easy to arrive at an erroneous conclusion when you base it on a fallacious presupposition. For instance, some very kind and fine people assume that I have “left the Church.” Please, understand this, I have not left the Church. I love the Catholic Church and would not “leave the Church.” I have resigned from public ministry, which is rather anticlimactic to be sure since I was out of it anyhow due to the suspension or “administrative leave,” which is tantamount to suspension. There are elements of this that you don’t know about, and that’s not your fault.

Once a man is ordained a priest he remains a priest for all eternity. Holy Orders is one of the three sacraments that imprints an indelible mark on the soul. What the Church can give or remove is “faculties”, which authorizes the person to publicly administer the sacraments. I always cringe when I hear “he’s not a priest anymore.” If he ever was, he still is. What they mean is that he is not functioning in the normal way most priests function, that is, publicly administering the sacraments. Most folks’ contact with priests is the parish priest. They come in contact with him primarily when he administers the sacraments..."


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