The moment every priest fears.....

Fr John Corapi - an "other Christ"

They are easy targets for those with a grudge, the mentally unhinged or those who are just plain malevolent. All one has to do is launch an accusation: "He assaulted me in the Sacristy bishop" and the damage is done. The priest is suspended pending an inquiry, maybe, even the civil authorities are involved and a court case is the result.

Guilty until proven innocent!


But the damage does not stop there. The branding has only just begun, there will be whispers, mothers will hide their children when he is around and the invitations to Sunday lunch will dry up; whatever the outcome, guilty or innocent.


It must be tempting to those of the Judas mould to inform on a priest (even an innocent one) and then take the thirty pieces offered by the Diocese. Except that, it's much more than 30 pieces, it's more likely to be thousands of dollars or pounds that are on offer.


Now the great television evangelist, Fr John Corapi, SOLT, has been falsely accused (I believe). Anyone in Great Britain who has watched his EWTN Monday at 9pm programme could not fail to believe in this man - probably our greatest media orator since Archbishop Fulton Sheen.


Here is his account in his own words:

A Call for Prayer

On Ash Wednesday I learned that a former employee sent a three-page letter to several bishops accusing me of everything from drug addiction to multiple sexual exploits with her and several other adult women. There seems to no longer be the need for a complaint to be deemed “credible” in order for Church authorities to pull the trigger on the Church’s procedure, which was in recent years crafted to respond to cases of the sexual abuse of minors. I am not accused of that, but it seems, once again, that they now don’t have to deem the complaint to be credible or not, and it is being applied broadly to respond to all complaints. I have been placed on "administrative leave" as the result of this.

  I’ll certainly cooperate with the process, but personally believe that it is seriously flawed, and is tantamount to treating the priest as guilty “just in case”, then through the process determining if he is innocent. The resultant damage to the accused is immediate, irreparable, and serious, especially for someone like myself, since I am so well known. I am not alone in this assessment, as multiple canon lawyers and civil and criminal attorneys have stated publicly that the procedure does grave damage to the accused from the outset, regardless of rhetoric denying this, and has little regard for any form of meaningful due process.

  All of the allegations in the complaint are false, and I ask you to pray for all concerned


Ends/...........


Pray for Fr Corapi and email him a message of support. He is undergoing the same trials that Christ endured right now and this is an opportunity for us to repay him for his wise counsel via EWTN and his writings.
Here is his website http://www.fathercorapi.com/

Raymond Blanc uses internships for his business.....could this be adopted for seminarians?

Good service, acute attention to detail, high levels of competence; the result is perfect front of house service, quality food and expert waitering. I have posted on this before, quality training is a bit of a thing with me. You can walk into any cafe or restaurant and get pretty indifferent service, then you find one where you are welcomed, treated properly, spoken to as if you have brain cells in double figures and generally given a good all round experience.

That takes a lot of effort. Top class establishments such as Raymond Blanc's use "on the job training" - work experience, internships, call it what you will. It blends knowledge based learning with practical skills; it is, in short, vocational training.

In a recent comment on my post of  7th March Anthony S Layne picked me up on a point of slight concern (if I read him correctly). He was not overly comfortable with Priests being trained or developed using commercial methods, and I understand his concern.
But, as well as the academic programme necessary for the formation of a good priest, comes a spiritual one (of course) and a vocational one. Vocational in a double sense inasmuch as the man must have what we call a 'vocation' or a calling for the ministry and a practical programme based on what will confront him in the outside world. He must communicate well, be able to speak publicly effectively, know how to respond when visiting a hospice, be able to walk into a school and strike an instant rapport with the pupils - the list is endless.
So, Directors of seminaries send their trainee priests off into the community to work alongside parish priests and to learn the nuts and bolts of their vocation - all well and good.

But what preparation is given to assessing their placements? Is the PP they will be residing with a strong and competent role model? Does he lead an intensely spiritual inner life as well as a public one, does he gather prospective converts and lapsed Catholics about him like a iron filings to a magnet?

I will not mention our excellent blogger priests by name as I do not wish to embarrass them (and they will not thank me for my next point) but wouldn't it be an excellent move to place seminarians as interns with these beacons of the faith? Not one at a time, that already takes place, but three or four so that their mentor parish priest can use them individually or as a group to aid him in his work.
That's what happens (or should happen in commerce). You seek out the centres of excellence and place your interns with them - no point in placing them in the organisations that wallow in idle incompetence!

And, while I am on the soap box concerning the development of young potential priests I must say a few words in praise of the Latin Mass Society's initiative to train priests in the Extraordinary Form of celebrating Mass. This is the best possible use of funds in my opinion so, if you can support them with a bit of cash, it will reap huge dividends.
They may already do this but if they don't they may like to take it on board and that is, to extend the Mass training scheme to Seminarians.....their website may be found by clicking here. http://www.lms.org.uk/

My take on the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle used to be much quoted in marketing circles; it has probably been replaced by something rather nerdy by now. It owes its origins to German economist,  Joseph M Juran who named it after an Italian, one Vilfredo Pareto.
In 1906 Vilfredo noted that, 80% of the real estate in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. He went on to discover that 20% of the pea pods growing in his garden contained 80% of the crop.
Translated into commercial terms it materialises as 80% of sales coming from 20% of your customer base and all permutations thereof. It does actually often work, surprisingly accurately.

Well, Vilfredo, take a break because I have a different principle to propound although sheer modesty and an innate sense of self consciousness forbids me from calling it the Collins Principle.
It is, I suppose, an offshoot from Pareto and it relates to both people and experiences. Take people first. My priniciple holds that one third of, say, school teachers are excellent, one third mediocre and one third downright fit for the dole queue. I have based this on my experiences in dealing with teachers over many years of bringing up four children and of even more years of working in the sector.
Rubbish! I hear all you teachers shout but, wait awhile and look at a different scenario.
Take GPs in their surgeries, it works for them. In fact, it works for just about every sector of employed personnel (policemen, nurses, hotel receptionists, dustmen, it is nothing if not even handed in its application.
Now for experiences; take your wife/husband out for a meal. Did you enjoy it? Was it awful? Was it just, you know, sort of alright-ish? Yes, it was 33.3% every time. Same for holidays, films at the cinema and so on.

What has this got to do with the Catholic Faith you are now muttering in a somewhat agitated state. At last, I arrive at the point. Priests. yes, priests. I have had a go at the Bishops and so I feel it is now only fair to direct my comments to Catholic priests.

If my principle of three thirds holds true, it does mean that excellence is only apparent in a fraction of the priestly population. Sadly, I believe that it is true. I know of many, many priests who let the side down by their lack of effort, by their dress code, by their sloppy regard for liturgical niceties and for Canon Law. Another third are, how shall I put it? Treading water? plateauing ? (as we used to say about a person who has advanced so far in their career but doesn't push to go further).
Thankfully, we have the elite third who mirror Christ in all that they do and who are worthy of our constant thanks - all being worthy of our prayers.
Of course, it would be wrong to begin to name them; they would not want that but we all know who they are and where they may be found, God bless them.

Pope Benedict and his radical way of reorganising parishes

The Holy Father reveals plans for providing priests with fraternal support and parishes with more priestly contact - but will the Bishops buy it?

The Holy Father/Peter Seewald interviews have focused on the condom issue (which has received more than enough coverage) but there are many deeper and more interesting perspectives revealed by our Holy Father.
Francis Phillips of the Catholic Herald makes some excellent points regarding Pope Benedict's views on priestly celibacy...

 Thinking this would be a great pity. The conversation ranged over a large number of topics, to which the Holy Father responded with great frankness and originality. I am thinking especially of his reply to a question raised by Seewald on the need for married priests. This is part of what the Pope said:

“I believe that celibacy becomes a very meaningful sign, and above all possible to live, when priests begin to form communities. It is important for priests not to live off on their own somewhere, in isolation, but to accompany one another in small communities, to support one another, and so to experience, and constantly realise afresh, their communion in service to Christ and in renunciation for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven."

The concept of a commune priest does not necessarily mean shared accommodation, the Pope, I believe, is not prescriptive in this respect, he wants parishes to look at themselves in a 'non parochial' way. This is of particular interest to me at present as our priest is moving elsewhere in the Diocese and we will miss him terribly but, above all else, we will miss the EF Mass.
A general pooling of resources of 6 to 8 priests could bring massive benefits, not just to the priests themselves but to the laity also.
Administration duties would be reduced, the priest shortage would disappear,  pastoral actvities could be tackled on a peripatetic basis, the onus of night calls could be put on a rota basis and the Extraordinary Form of Mass could be made available in a wide number of parishes.
That's it then. Summorum Pontificum sorted! Vocations will increase, we will have better priests!

The only question is.......will the Bishops buy it?

LMS or TPST?....LMS I think

They will be all a flutter in Macklin Street at this but, when it comes to the Extraordinary Form of Mass training programmes for priests, I support the LMS - faint, swoon.
The reason for posting this is that I have just received, through the post, a leaflet from the Traditional Priests' Support Trust, part of the purpose being to elicit funds for the aforesaid purpose of training.
Fine. Nothing wrong with that, maybe it is an offshoot of recalcitrant LMS bods who want to do it their way. I have no problem with that.
The but, (there is always a 'but') is that this group, the TPST, has all the hallmarks of being SSPX.


The LMS Priest training programme



Again, I have absolutely no problem with that, per se. My problem is that they should be clear and unequivocal as to whom they are. I have donated small sums in the past to this organisation without appreciating they were, apparently, SSPX.

I would not do so now. The climate has changed since Summorum Pontificum and the onus is on the SSPX to come back whilst there is still a chance.
Now, a plug for the good old Latin Mass Society; they have organised some excellent programmes for priests and have developed a 'critical mass' of candidates for the Traditional Mass - well done them, they need our support as being the largest and best equipped priest training intiative we have.
That's my view on the issue; you must support whichever of the two you wish.

If you're dying...do you call for the parish administrator?

Something a Deacon just cannot do

My guess is not and now here comes the unkind cut; all too often a sick call request to the Presbytery results in the appearance of a Deacon. I am sure Deacons are good and well intentioned people but, in extremis, I would want a priest to hear my confession and/or to administer the Sacrament of Extreme Unction euphemistically called, these days, The Sacrament of the Sick.
On two occasions in the past month urgent requests on behalf of potentially dying relatives and friends have resulted in a Deacon arriving to administer Holy Communion. I suppose I should be grateful that it was not an Extraordinary Minister.
Priests are, busy people (at least all the ones I know are) but the salvation of a soul is the very essence of their  vocation. It must be a tremendous feeling to have administered the last rites to someone who has not been near a confessional in 50 years - a soul snatched from the grasp of the devil! A real and wonderful success for their priestly aims. And just think how many souls a priest could save by this method over the years, hundreds, maybe thousands.
A Deacon turning up deprives that person of the Sacrament of Penance, it's as simple as that. In a management situation one would review the duties that occupy the priest and see if the roles could not be exchanged. The Deacon remains at the Presbytery drafting sermons or doing the Diocesan accounts while the priest goes out to do what he is there for.
It can't be as simple as that can it?

Why 'Linen on the Hedgerow'

During the Reformation (so called), itinerant priests used to visit the larger houses to celebrate Mass covertly.
Draping laundry on the hedgerow became a signal for other Recusants, that Holy Mass was to be celebrated at that house, that day.