POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Fr John Corapi & the Judas Ratio

For years & years, I have loved Father John Corapi. He represents to me something sorely lacking (in my experience) in the Church. Namely, a priest with adequate testosterone. This is no small matter, as many of us middle-aged men find it easier to relate to a priest who we know actually knows something of the carnal struggles we face. That is, when we see ourselves in another, we find the argument & Teaching easier to consume.

Father John Corapi, for those who may not know him, was/is a very significant talent. He had/has all of the right skills and has had a terrific impact on the Spiritual Lives of many of us Catholic Pilgrims. He was/is an impressive orator, possesses an incredible mind and is an impressive theologian.

But perhaps the most impressive aspect of Father John Corapi was that he appeared a modern day St. Augustine of Hippo. One who knew sin and all of her empty promises. One who lived like a pagan and bathed in the false pleasures of our present temporal station until his Conversion. Nothing remarkable about his temptations: drugs and women. It's an old story indeed.

But Father John represented to many of us more than just a man we could relate to. Here was a man who had his moment in the garden. A man pursued by the "Hounds of Heaven". A man whose Monica was, as it were, the Virgin Herself.

What this means is that in Father John, we saw a man who appeared to have done what Christ implores all of us to do: namely, turn away from sin and embrace our Cross(es) and slog on the Pilgrim's Road for the Christ.

That is, in Father John we saw ourselves (only better). We saw someone living the faith. We saw someone unashamed to achieve to the Higher Self through a fiery devotion to Our Lord. We saw a man of love, peace, fortitude, courage, charity... a man of God. We saw our potential.

Today marks an incredibly sad day for the Church, in that...

"Father John Corapi’s religious order has found him guilty of substance abuse, sexual activity and violating his promise of poverty. A July 5 press release from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) said that while Fr. Corapi was involved in public ministry he had “sexual relations and years of cohabitation with a woman known to him, when the relationship began, as a prostitute.” MORE

I, along with perhaps millions of the Faithful are heartbroken.

In perusing the comments to this story on FB, we see mostly disbelief and resigned sadness. One could even say mourning for this man.

But we also see the typical bashing we have grown to expect. Of those voices, we see the juvenile tauntings  and cries of "hypocrite".

I have treated at length on this topic here before. Only last Ash Wednesday I posted this here on the topic of our claim as Hypocrite:

I will say it again for the benefit of all of my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are necessarily Hypocrites! We are to be Fools for Christ! The bar is necessarily high… and perfection will not be ours on this Pilgrim’s Road. We will necessarily fall short. End up in the woods. We will be lured away from the path. We will fall in the mud, beaten and bloodied. We will be left for dead. We will be surprised when a strange Samaritan (of all things) picks us up and delivers us from our doom.  We are in fact, all of us, in a distant country. We are, in fact, all of us, spending our inheritance on whores. During Lent, we are reminded to identify our faults, our imperfections, our rebellions, our sins, our darkened minds, our injured and hardened hearts… and to orient ourselves toward the Father’s Estate.

The story of Fr. John Corapi is nothing new. In fact, it is as old as the Faith. As old as the Church. We should not be stunned by stories such as these. From the beginning of Christ's Church here on Earth, Judas has been with us. St. Paul himself warns us against the spirit of Judas. St. Augustine, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Faustina, JPII - all of these and all men and women religious worth their salt have warned, have lamented, and continue to draw our attentions to corruption in the Church... and yes, even Fr. Corapi, has spoken at great length about the dangers of concupiscence. In fact, they each struggled, as we are called to do, to sublimate our lower passions.

As I have postulated for years here on POWIP, there is a Judas Ratio.

The Judas Ratio can be thought to be the 8% (1/12) of any demographic segment (whether professional or otherwise) that can be expected to be complete scoundrels.

The concept originated with my father, Dan Sr., who postulated the thought to explain the “radical priests” during the pedophilia outing that occurred some years back. He said something along these lines: “If the Master Himself had one among his group who would sell Him and his own soul for a bag of cash, isn’t it likely the rest of us will have to suffer the same?” That goes for the Church, our schools, our bureaucrats, our politicians, our businesses (managers and employees alike), our neighbors, our family members, et cetera.

I think there is something to this Judas Ratio business. It may be that some of the 8% are never found out, while others are eventually dis-covered. But, nonetheless, I think it holds.

Let us Hypocrites acknowledge it and be on guard - vigilant. Will we deny Him like Peter? Yes. Will we condemn Him as Pilate? Yes. Will we betray Him with a Kiss? Yes. And in fact, we have done this and more to the Eternally crucified Christ.

This is why we Christians commemorate this Day and are called to contemplate not only The Death of Our Lord – in all of its very human ugliness – but also embrace our guilt in the astroturfing of the Christ. Who put Him to death? Why, we did. Each and every one of us. We betray Him, accuse Him, arrest Him, flog Him, spit upon Him, and yes, we nail Him to the Cross each and every day. We are Judas, Peter, Pilate, all of us. And if we are Blessed, we are the thief who asks the Godman to be remembered. We are the Roman Guard whose spirit is quaked and recognizes that Jesus was/is “truly the Son of God.” MORE

Let us pray that Father John petitions for Mercy and Forgiveness and Healing. Let us pray he does not, in fact, become a charismatic for the Forces of Evil... but instead embraces his Cross and makes his way to Calvary... in Faith, becoming a Saint as he is called to be (as we all are).

Let him comply, knuckle-down, and give up his rebellious spirit...

Petition St. Michael to come to his aid. Petition the Virgin to comfort him. Petition God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit to rush to his aid.

May he be healed. And should he be, perhaps I will celebrate him even more for overcoming his depravity appropriately... that is kneeling at the foot of the most holy and bloody Cross.

Father John Corapi is all of us... hypocrite, sinner, diseased... he is all of us and we are him.

I beg for your prayers! For Fr John, for me, for you, for all of us Judases, Pilates, Pharisees...

None of us is worthy. None of us.

Father John has made significant contributions to the Kingdom, the City of God. Now perhaps God has greater things in store for him. Perhaps like watching PJII persevere while his body betrayed him... perhaps we will witness a human get back on the Pilgrim's Road. Bloodied, beaten... but determined.

God help us all.

Enoch_Root

Person with kids,a beautiful wife, a job. Catholic of the Latin Rite.

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Temporal Justice – Bittersweet in Babylon.

As I have mentioned multiple times before, the death of my dear friend James at the hand of the negligent James Arthur Ray has been ... trying. I've traveled through all conceivable thoughts, feelings, emotions: disbelief, searing hatred, thirst for vengeance, sadness, depression, achingly longing for my dear friend's company, sense of deep loss, helplessness, fantasies of bloody revenge, pity, confusion, and any other hue you can imagine.

James Shore & Co-Traveler Cody Jones

Today marks the day that James Shore's widow and beloved mother of James's three surviving children takes the stand in Arizona. For the jury, this will be the first time they learn that James Shore has a widow... that he was the father of three young children. It will be the first time they see the actual aftermath of the crimes perpetrated by James A Ray.

As relates to the process, James A Ray, now a convicted felon with three counts of Negligent Homicide on this dossier, faces upwards of 11.5 years for his crimes. He could, theoretically, receive probation. Or, alternatively, the judge could allow him to serve his debt concurrently. This brings us to the crux of the matter.

It is very difficult for me not to want to see the murderer James Arthur Ray serve the maximum the law allows. It is very difficult for me not to wish him a very brutish cell mate with a penchant for pretty boys with manicured fingernails.

To be honest, I still contemplate the ways in which years from now I might find the aged perpetrator alone in an alley. Very difficult not to fantasize of cornering him, presenting a devious smile, recalling my dear and beloved friend James, and sticking him like a pig while growling, only to steal away unnoticed from the scene.

But justice is not, alas, mine to mete out. Thankfully so. I am not very merciful.

On the matter of Justice, I am conflicted.

As a Christian Man, I am to forgive. I am to love my enemies. This is no small challenge for me. As you can tell, my base self senses that there is a debt to be paid. There is an account to be reconciled. My base humanness tells me that no judge, no jury, no time in prison can balance the scale or exact reparation to those who loved James. That is, my lower self shakes when I contemplate inaction. To the degree I feel near compelled to settle the score to my satisfaction. I can tell you this: without my fear of the Lord, James Arthur Ray would already be dead. And this is no boast. I know myself. I am, without Christ, the Celt who gets naked and paints himself blue, hollers some strange battle-cry and without hesitation throws himself at the enemy. I am that man. I am that man without my fear of the Lord.

This is a curious irony: this man, James Arthur Ray, owes his very life to the Lord Jesus Christ because of the Lord's stranglehold on my heart and passions. Yet, this very same man, James Arthur Ray led many away from the Master and into great error. You may think I boast, but I tell you I do not. As James is my witness, I do not boast, so dark is my soul without Him.

Are not those very Romans, who were spared by the barbarians through their respect for Christ, become enemies to the name of Christ? The reliquaries of the martyrs and the churches of the apostles bear witness to this; for in the sack of the city they were open sanctuary for all who fled to them, whether Christian or Pagan. To their very threshold the blood-thirsty enemy raged; there his murderous fury owned a limit. Thither did such of the enemy as had any pity convey those to whom they had given quarter, lest any less mercifully disposed might fall upon them. And, indeed, when even those murderers who everywhere else showed themselves pitiless came to those spots where that was forbidden which the license of war permitted in every other place, their furious rage for slaughter was bridled, and their eagerness to take prisoners was quenched. Thus escaped multitudes who now reproach the Christian religion, and impute to Christ the ills that have befallen their city; but the preservation of their own life—a boon which they owe to the respect entertained for Christ by the barbarians—they attribute not to our Christ, but to their own good luck. They ought rather, had they any right perceptions, to attribute the severities and hardships inflicted by their enemies, to that divine providence which is wont to reform the depraved manners of men by chastisement, and which exercises with similar afflictions the righteous and praiseworthy,—either translating them, when they have passed through the trial, to a better world, or detaining them still on earth for ulterior purposes. And they ought to attribute it to the spirit of these Christian times, that, contrary to the custom of war, these bloodthirsty barbarians spared them, and spared them for Christ’s sake, whether this mercy was actually shown in promiscuous places, or in those places specially dedicated to Christ’s name, and of which the very largest were selected as sanctuaries, that full scope might thus be given to the expansive compassion which desired that a large multitude might find shelter there. Therefore ought they to give God thanks, and with sincere confession flee for refuge to His name, that so they may escape the punishment of eternal fire—they who with lying lips took upon them this name, that they might escape the punishment of present destruction.

For of those whom you see insolently and shamelessly insulting the servants of Christ, there are numbers who would not have escaped that destruction and slaughter had they not pretended that they themselves were Christ’s servants. Yet now, in ungrateful pride and most impious madness, and at the risk of being punished in everlasting darkness, they perversely oppose that name under which they fraudulently protected themselves for the sake of enjoying the light of this brief life. (St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God)

As a Christian Man, I am called to pray for James Arthur Ray's conversion. To pray that his soul attain to the promises of Christ. I am not quite there as of yet. Not near. I cannot tell you how troubled I am about it. I did not want this conflict. Nor did I want to contemplate these things. Instead I want to go to a local Greek eatery with James (which he loved to do) and watch him order his gyro-styled omelets. But I cannot do this silly thing any more. Instead I am called to forgive! And not only forgive, but pray for James Ray's hideous soul? God, that is impossible! What you ask is impossible for me! I do not want James Ray to know you, Lord. He doesn't deserve to host you Lord! These are the thoughts that occur to me. And I don't like them. They point to how damaged I am in spirit.

Alas, the disposition of James Arthur Ray's soul... is my concern. As is yours dear reader. He is my neighbor, though I despise him! And only through our neighbors do we demonstrate the depth of our love of the Lord. It is truly impossible! I didn't ask for this. None of us did. But it is here.

Bittersweet describes this debacle perfectly. No verdict will bring our beloved brother James back to life in this dimension. No amount of time served in prison will bring him back.

On the score of temporal debt owed... to James's surviving family... to his friends who tear up at the longing for his company... to those who never met him... to the world: 3 years, 7 years, 11.5 years - does it matter? In the end, does it matter? I think so. Humanity is due some repayment for the loss of such a beautiful person. How much? I do not know. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Mark 12:17). Perhaps that is the point. In Babylon, there is nothing but "confusion".

Perhaps the only clarity to be found, my brothers and sisters, is when we ascend the Cross ever higher, up and away from the dirt beneath our feet. Perhaps we really ought "allow the dead to bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:22).

God, you are great. Help me to love my neighbor whom I abhor. I trust in you.

My friends: I am a poor soul. Pray for me. I want no part of this world. Yet I toil here. I claim to be a pilgrim soul... a citizen of the City of God... but my passions banish me to the City of Men. Pray for me. Pray for James. Pray for Alyssa and the children. And, yes... pray for the conversion of the soul of James Arthur Ray.

God help me. God have mercy on us.

Shore Children Education Fund

Please make checks payable to:  Shore Children Education Fund

Shore Children Education Fund
c/o Schmidt & Bartelt Funeral Home
10121 W. North Ave.
Wauwatosa, WI 53266

------ more God-bothery Stuff Below: why we suffer --------

Wh[y], then, have the Christians suffered in that calamitous period, which would not profit every one who duly and faithfully considered the following circumstances? ...

... If any one forbears to reprove and find fault with those who are doing wrong, because he seeks a more seasonable opportunity, or because he fears they may be made worse by his rebuke, or that other weak persons may be disheartened from endeavoring to lead a good and pious life, and may be driven from the faith; this man’s omission seems to be occasioned not by covetousness, but by a charitable consideration. But what is blame-worthy is, that they who themselves revolt from the conduct of the wicked, and live in quite another fashion, yet spare those faults in other men which they ought to reprehend and wean them from; and spare them because they fear to give offence, lest they should injure their interests in those things which good men may innocently and legitimately use,—though they use them more greedily than becomes persons who are strangers in this world, and profess the hope of a heavenly country. For not only the weaker brethren who enjoy married life, and have children (or desire to have them), and own houses and establishments, whom the apostle addresses in the churches, warning and instructing them how they should live, both the wives with their husbands, and the husbands with their wives, the children with their parents, and parents with their children, and servants with their masters, and masters with their servants,—not only do these weaker brethren gladly obtain and grudgingly lose many earthly and temporal things on account of which they dare not offend men whose polluted and wicked life greatly displeases them; but those also who live at a higher level, who are not entangled in the meshes of married life, but use meagre food and raiment, do often take thought of their own safety and good name, and abstain from finding fault with the wicked, because they fear their wiles and violence. And although they do not fear them to such an extent as to be drawn to the commission of like iniquities, nay, not by any threats or violence soever; yet those very deeds which they refuse to share in the commission of they often decline to find fault with, when possibly they might by finding fault prevent their commission. They abstain from interference, because they fear that, if it fail of good effect, their own safety or reputation may be damaged or destroyed; not because they see that their preservation and good name are needful, that they may be able to influence those who need their instruction, but rather because they weakly relish the flattery and respect of men, and fear the judgments of the people, and the pain or death of the body; that is to say, their non-intervention is the result of selfishness, and not of love.

Accordingly this seems to me to be one principal reason why the good are chastised along with the wicked, when God is pleased to visit with temporal punishments the profligate manners of a community. They are punished together, not because they have spent an equally corrupt life, but because the good as well as the wicked, though not equally with them, love this present life; while they ought to hold it cheap, that the wicked, being admonished and reformed by their example, might lay hold of life eternal. And if they will not be the companions of the good in seeking life everlasting, they should be loved as enemies, and be dealt with patiently. For so long as they live, it remains uncertain whether they may not come to a better mind. These selfish persons have more cause to fear than those to whom it was said through the prophet, “He is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”  For watchmen or overseers of the people are appointed in churches, that they may unsparingly rebuke sin. Nor is that man guiltless of the sin we speak of, who, though he be not a watchman, yet sees in the conduct of those with whom the relationships of this life bring him into contact, many things that should be blamed, and yet overlooks them, fearing to give offence, and lose such worldly blessings as may legitimately be desired, but which he too eagerly grasps. Then, lastly, there is another reason why the good are afflicted with temporal calamities—the reason which Job’s case exemplifies: that the human spirit may be proved, and that it may be manifested with what fortitude of pious trust, and with how unmercenary a love, it cleaves to God.  (City of God, Book 1, Chapter 9)

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Enoch_Root

Person with kids,a beautiful wife, a job. Catholic of the Latin Rite.

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