The case of Father Corapi:

[hedgehog]

I never heard of the man before last March. Apparently he was very popular in the conservative wing of the Church, with a show on EWTN and frequent public appearances. In March, he was suspended apparently on the basis of an unspecified accusation from a woman. She may have been an employee of his and/or received some sort of counseling from him.

The story has been quite a shocker around the traditionalist blogs. It's tempting to gloat over this man's fall, but his story exposes a far deeper problem than what happens to one man.

Here we have a priest who is wildly popular in some circles, apparently supported by many in the hierarchy. As soon as there is the slightest whiff of scandal, he is tossed out on the garbage heap. Maybe the charges are true, maybe not. I really have no idea. The point is that he was charged in secret and judged in secret. According to him, he did not receive a fair hearing.

http://www.fathercorapi.com/default.aspx

This is the flip side of what happened to Bishop William Morris:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=275x7561

He was forced from office without a public hearing and with only vague rumors of the charges against him.

I have a general impression that in some places any priest who is accused of any sexual indiscretion is liable to be tossed out without a hearing. In my opinion, if there is an accusation of a criminal offense, the case needs to be turned over to civil authorities for resolution. In any case, both the accused and the entire Catholic community deserves to hear the evidence from all involved. As it is now, i think some bishops are tossing out innocent priests rather than give all accused a public hearing and risk having various crimes and sins exposed.

I am often frustrated because so few priests are willing to stand up to the hierarchy. What is hard for a lay person to realize is how powerless even a bishop can be when confronted with a faceless bureaucracy. We need a Church that owes less to Kafka and more to Jesus!

[Brigid]

1. I had heard of Father Corapi.

I hadn't heard about this, though. Now I know why he hasn't been on EWTN lately. I may be off-base here, but it seems as though he has merely been placed on administrative leave while the allegations are further investigated. Don't police departments do this routinely when an officer is accused of improper conduct? I don't really see the harm.

[Kingofalldems]

2. He resigned in case anyone didn't know

I've seen a few of his homilies. I didn't like him at all. Sometimes I think EWTN would welcome back the middle ages.

[hedgehog]

3. Apparently he's been canned -

http://ncronline.org/news/corapi-accused-sexual-wrongdoing-falsehoods

but the fact remains, there has been no public trial, just secret reports.

We haven't seen the man respond to the charges, just opposing PR battles. It happens a lot to liberals, doesn't mean it's any less wrong when it happens to a reactionary!