John Corapi was, up until recently, perhaps the closest thing to an evangelical style TV preacher in American Catholicism. He was part of a Catholic order (Society of Our Lady of the Trinity) but lived in a large expensive home rather than live with his brothers. He traveled the country speaking at different conferences and retreats that were regularly shown on EWTN. His website included CDs, DVDs, books, and recordings of his Sunday homilies that were all available for a price. He had quite a following with his engaging personal story, dynamic speaking voice, and willingness to make outlandish and sometimes controversial statements while wearing the collar.
This, of course all came crashing down in a very public manner with allegations of sexual misconduct and with a former employee as well as drug addiction and John Corapi’s decision to leave the priesthood, although he intends to continue with his speaking engagements. The allegations have led to many of these speaking engagements to be cancelled and EWTN has ceased airing his program. While this might be seen as an overreaction to allegations that are as of now unproven, Corapi’s conduct in light of these allegations has not helped matters. It was his decision to leave the priesthood rather than face disciplinary action by the church. It was also his decision to publicly denounce such disciplinary actions by the church as “violations of his human and legal rights.”
All of this reeks of an “I’m the victim here” attitude persisted by John Corapi. Now, I’m not going to presume guilt or innocence on the part of the allegations against Corapi, but his actions in light of these allegations are reprehensible. While he argues that he cannot get a fair trial and that the Church he claims to love and defend has in effect thrown him under the bus, what he seems to ignore that it was the Church that first pulled him out of the doldrums of drug addiction (namely his mother sending him a prayer card) and it was the Church that ordained him and thus gave him the ability to make a fortune as religious speaker who had the authority of the collar. The perfect example of this “I’m the victim” attitude is the title of John Corapi is the title of his new website and his upcoming autobiography: The Black Sheepdog. This self-given title is meant to combine Black Sheep and Sheep dog and undoubtedly shows that Corapi wishes to convey an image of himself as one who is rejected but still stubbornly watches the flock. Corapi’s blog is an exercise of self-promotion and he has even taken up addressing himself as “The Black Sheepdog” in the third person, all the while maintaining his innocence and making the allegations against him out to be a kind of witch hunt.
There are some glaring issues of Corapi’s new self-styled image of a Black Sheepdog. First: Sheepdogs are protectors by nature, and a protector must be one whose first interest is whomever or whatever he/she/they is/are protecting and not in perpetuating one’s own image as a protector. Corapi, who styled this image himself of a Black Sheepdog and his actions in light of the allegations against him show that he is more interested in being perceived as a protector to those who would attack the Church then actually protecting such threats. With this in mind, one has to wonder who Corapi truly is interesting in protecting and what the “Church” is that he wishes to protect. The natural answer, and one that John Corapi probably wishes to convey is that this up until recently priest from the S.O.L.T. order wishes to protect the Catholic Church, but at the same time he is critical of the actions in which the Church has taken against him. In some of these criticisms Corapi has said things that could just as easily be coming out of the mouth of a Conservative Evangelical preacher who sees Catholics as “unsaved” and the Church as the “whore of Babylon.” Once again such statements are made in light of the allegations against him, as Corapi claims he is a victim of a Church “running scared” in light of the sexual abuse scandals and attacking the character of his accuser as a “troubled woman.” If John Corapi is interested in protecting anything, it is his image as a protector.
Second: A Sheepdog needs a flock. Quite frankly, John Corapi doesn’t have one. This is due not to his leaving of the public ministry (although that plays part in it) but instead because of his interest in promoting the person of John Corapi rather than make any kind of positive contribution to the Church. John Corapi is indeed a sheepdog without a flock and it is of his own choosing.
I began this piece by calling John Corapi a type of TV preacher in American Catholicism, and it would seem to be no accident that the incident that led to his resigning from public ministry is similar to that that have led to the downfall of many TV preachers. It perhaps can be said that these people of strong personality who use religion as a means of self-promotion are doomed to have such a fall, as their personalities will lead many of them to see themselves as invincible. What makes these people different from other celebrities who use other fields for their own personal gain is that it can cause the laypeople in which John Corapi and others claim to wish to protect are put into further danger than before. Not to mention that many of these actions go against the very nature of the Church and principles in which Corapi and others claim they wish to promote. John Corapi, a man who lives in a mansion and has taken to criticizing the church any chance he gets, would be hard pressed to prove how he is keeping the vows of poverty, obedience, and, if the allegations against him are true, chastity. Most importantly, Corapi’s self-promotion is detrimental to the Church in which he claims to wish to support. It shows that his main interest is in using the Catholic Church as a tool to give him a stage for his own gain. Instead of being a protector, outcast or not, John Corapi is merely one who is attempting to use the church by concurrently criticizing the Church while claiming to support it. This attitude, along with his own dynamic personality, has led to Corapi making a fortune but is also detrimental to the Church he wishes to support. So while Corapi claims to be a Sheepdog protecting the flock, it can be said that Corapi’s actions are more like that of a show dog drawing attention to himself.
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