The Former Father John
Corapi
(www.RemnantNewspaper.com)
When I undertook the task of writing EWTN: A Network
Gone Wrong, I knew I was in for a lot of outraged
objections to the project. In the midst of the reigning
ecclesial chaos, EWTN’s appalling brew of Catholicism
and show business, the sacred and the profane, tradition
and novelty, Gregorian chant and rock music, sober piety
and charismatic hysteria, spiritual vignettes and
sexuality-themed talk shows with parental warnings, has
managed to establish itself as the gold standard of
Catholic orthodoxy. That EWTN is now widely regarded as
a bulwark of the Faith—indeed, the bulwark of the
Faith in a Church in crisis—is yet another sign of what
Lucia of Fatima repeatedly described as the diabolical
disorientation of our time. And woe to anyone who points
out the obvious: that a Pope like Saint Pius X would be
reduced to apoplexy by a typical day of EWTN
programming, which presents a post-conciliar “renewal”
Pius X could not have imagined in his worst nightmares.
In the current ecclesial climate, to criticize EWTN is
to suffer the consequences that attend any questioning
of what common opinion has made into a sacred cow, even
if one hastens to affirm (as I do) the sound elements in
EWTN’s programming. The critic exposes himself to the
easiest of demagogic cheap shots by those who are
invested in the ecclesial status quo. For example, a
certain “anarcho-capitalist traditionalist”—only in
America!—whose views I have contested has defended his
position by cloaking himself in EWTN’s mantle of
respectability while demonizing me for “attacking EWTN.”
Boo. Hiss.
The fall of Father John Corapi, however, prompts me to
revisit the Network Gone Wrong in order to note why it
has gone wrong. As I showed in my book, the essence of
the problem with EWTN is this: Catholicism cannot safely
be presented in the form of 24/7 cable television
programming by a network—all Catholic, all the time. Any
attempt to present our religion to the world in that way
will inevitably produce the demotic corruptions
necessary to stimulate the widespread popular interest
without which massively expensive non-stop TV
programming is impossible to sustain financially,
especially when it depends on donations.
Article Continues Below...
While EWTN holds itself out as the gold
standard of Catholic orthodoxy today, it
is actually a major promoter of
Modernist innovation in the Church.
Pope Pius
XII and every one of his predecessors
would view with horror and absolutely
condemn the collection of destructive
and liturgical novelties EWTN broadcasts
to the world as 'traditional
Catholicism'.
Quoting directly from EWTN's own
transcripts, web pages and broadcast
events, Mr. Ferrara shows that despite
the good elements that remain in some of
its programming, Eternal Word Television
Network (EWTN) is actually contributing
to the "silent apostasy" in the Roman
Catholic Church.
Available for immediate shipping from
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of just $15 (P&H included).
Fully documented, comprehensive index
and 276 pages of facts, this book
contends that since the departure of its
foundress, EWTN has been purveying to
millions of Catholics a strange brew of
the orthodox and the heterodox, the
sacred and the profane.
You make the call! Have a copy in
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My book notes that with the arrival of Doug Keck as
EWTN’s vice president for production in 1996, EWTN
repositioned itself to become a player in the basic
cable TV market, with all the compromises that campaign
for popular acceptance has entailed.
Keck, formerly employed by a cable conglomerate
whose programming includes the Playboy Channel, “has
been involved in the launch of more than 25
international, national and regional television
networks.” It is Keck,
notes EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, who is “responsible for
transforming the on-air look and content of the
network.” The book documents the ways in which that
transformation has led the network away from Mother
Angelica’s relatively traditionalist and militant
approach toward a pop Catholicism bidding for mass
appeal.
This is not to deny that the television medium is
suitable for the presentation of Catholic subjects by
way of discrete productions. Bishop Sheen is the
classic example of how the medium can serve the Church.
And, in fact, a number of EWTN programs are quite
excellent, such as those by Dale Ahlquist and Jamie
Bogle. The point, however, is that the business of
running a television network that seeks inclusion
in basic cable TV packages, as EWTN does, is at odds
with the purity of the Faith as a supramundane reality
leading man to his eternal destiny and away from the
things of this world.
The main reason this is so is that the viability of any
TV network depends on popular shows featuring
celebrities who attract fans and are able to maintain a
devoted “fan base.” These celebrity-driven shows are
what “anchor” a network in the viewing schedule. Corapi
was such a celebrity—one of the most successful, if not
the most successful, in EWTN’s history. Yet EWTN knew
full well of his past as a rich playboy, a drug addict,
and then a derelict wandering the streets. Amazingly
enough, EWTN made Corapi a celebrity even though it was
widely known that he had cohabited for years with a
former prostitute at his ranch in Montana after
becoming a priest, ostensibly in an effort to
rehabilitate her. In pre-conciliar times, Corapi would
not even have been considered as a candidate for the
priesthood, no matter how sincere his conversion and
repentance. Yet in front of EWTN’s cameras he became
Super Priest, and thousands if not millions hung on his
every televised word.
A discerning viewer, watching Corapi deliver his message
in an over-the-top basso profundo right out of
central casting, could see that he was playing a role
and that behind the role was a man who still had serious
problems. The whole truth about Corapi finally came out
in a report by a three-man investigative panel appointed
by his order, detailing continuing sexual improprieties,
drug abuse, and a lavish lifestyle contrary to his vow
of poverty (to which the order, it must be said, had
previously failed to object). In response, Corapi
issued
an evasive non-denial and purported to “resign” from
the priesthood rather than contest the charges against
him. “That era of my life is sadly ended,” he said,
speaking of his sacred priesthood as if it were a job
opportunity that had reached an unfortunate dead end.
Shortly thereafter Corapi appeared
in a video on his blogsite wearing a leather Harley
Davidson jacket, his head shaven and his gray beard dyed
black, to announce that he would pursue an Internet
career under the bizarre moniker “Black SheepDog.” In a
related audio message to his fans, he declared that he
would now ply his trade “not just in the Catholic church
but also in the entire world.... Under the name the
Black SheepDog I shall be with you through radio
broadcasts and writing.” In the words of
one disillusioned fan: “[V]ery disappointed in
corapi! [sic] [A]pparently he puts his money and fame
above his priestly duties. [H]ow he could just quit is
mind boggling. [Q]uite frankly, i [sic] don't care what
he has to say anymore.”
But I feel sorry for Corapi, a gifted man whose life has
been filled with suffering and who is clearly haunted by
demons he never really escaped. One could only feel
pity at the sight of that poor soul in his Harley
Davidson jacket—the real John Corapi finally out in the
open—trying to explain himself and his plans for his new
career as the Black SheepDog. Truly pathetic.
I feel nothing but contempt, however, for EWTN’s
calculated decision to make Corapi a star knowing full
well that he was damaged goods. Worse, having created
this fallen celebrity, EWTN then proceeded to cover his
fall as a news item on its pretend network news show,
The World Over, on which Arroyo plays the role of
anchorman. Sitting in EWTN’s cheesy imitation of a
network news set, Arroyo interviewed a reporter from
National Catholic Register about the Corapi affair as if
he were covering breaking news of the day like any
secular newsman, instead of a massive scandal for which
EWTN itself is directly responsible. The people who run
EWTN are so wrapped up in playing the game of “We’re a
TV network just like the real ones!” that they have lost
sight of their own complicity in making this troubled
priest an integral part of the spiritual lives of
millions of trusting Catholics.
But Corapi is only the latest in a long line of priests
EWTN has turned into celebrities only to watch them
crash and burn to the disillusionment of the faithful.
Let us recall this cavalcade of scandal:
In 1998, Father Ken Roberts, a hugely popular EWTN
celebrity and an avid promoter of the phony apparitions
at Medjugorje—misleading countless souls—was removed
from the network and all material related to him was
expunged from EWTN’s website after his suspension from
the priesthood on account of allegations involving the
sexual molestation of minors.
In 2002, Father John Bertolucci, another EWTN superstar
and proponent of the pan-Christian “Catholic Charismatic
Renewal”—a clear threat to the integrity of the
Faith—was expunged from the network without comment
after he was identified by the infamous Bishop Hubbard
as one of twenty child-molester priests in the Diocese
of Albany.
In 2005, EWTN celebrity
Msgr. Eugene Clark fell when videotape taken at a motel
belied his denial of a longstanding affair with a
secretary 33 years his junior, and he was forced to
resign as rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
In 2007,
Father Francis Mary Stone, the immensely popular host of
EWTN’s crass and often morally offensive,
rock-and-roll-themed youth show, “Life on the Rock”
(discussed extensively in my book), left the network in
disgrace and then the priesthood after announcing his
love affair with a widow. When
last seen on the Internet, he was peddling
a nutrition drink called Zrii under the name Dave Stone,
shamelessly using the slogan “living life on the rock.”
In 2009, the aptly named
Father Alberto Cutié, EWTN’s telegenic Hispanic
heartthrob who “reach[ed]
millions of households throughout the United States,
Canada,
Spain and Latin
America on EWTN
Espańol,” left EWTN and then the Catholic Church after
photos of him groping a married, bikini-clad woman on a
beach surfaced in a Spanish-language tabloid. He
married the woman and became an Episcopalian priest.
In 2010, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, former head of Human Life
International and a fixture in EWTN’s video and audio
programming, left the network and resigned from HLI
after he admitted to “violating
the boundaries of chastity with an adult female who was
under my spiritual care”—meaning his “exorcism
ministry.” Euteneuer
maintained that the “vast majority” of his decisions and
conduct had been “morally sound and consistent with all
standards of pastoral care of persons.” The parents of
the young woman Euteneuer
admitted to violating, however, say they are aware of
two other victims.
Granted, these other scandals did not involve the big
red flags Corapi was waving for years before his fall.
Nevertheless, there is a pattern here: A string of
priests who became EWTN celebrities have broken their
vows. Celebrity, or the desire for same, is a moral
peril for anyone, and priests are no exception. Yet EWTN
needs celebrity priests in order to insure the survival
of its cash-hungry network operation. When the Faith
becomes show business, the scandals of show business
follow. The private sins of priests—and there but for
the grace of God go all of us—become public affairs to
the shock and dismay of the faithful who were their
devoted cable TV fans.
With good reason has the Church always counseled that
the faithful not become too attached to particular
priests, lest they lapse into a Protestant-style
congregationalism dependent on the charism of one
fallible man. But EWTN, run largely by ex-Protestants,
depends precisely on a kind of televised mass
congregationalism driven by magnetic personalities. When
those personalities reveal, again and again, that they
are all too human, we encounter the grave consequences
of EWTN’s attempt to turn the Faith into an endless TV
show. That is one reason I wrote the book. And that is
why the book is subtitled A Network Gone Wrong.
My suggestion to EWTN: Abandon your attempt to be a
Catholic version of a secular cable TV network. Avoid
the cult of personality and all its pitfalls. Forget the
lame pop content. Instead, isolate the many sound
elements in your programming and present only those on a
more limited schedule, to a more limited audience if
need be. Let the truths of the Faith speak plainly and
simply for themselves; let its unadorned beauty be your
main attraction. And if viewership declines, then too
bad for the viewers who tune out. It would be better
for you to downsize your operation for the sake of
religious integrity than to continue repeating the past
pattern of celebrity scandals and vulgarization of
content. The Faith is not a TV show and never can be;
but TV can be a powerful medium for advancing the
Faith. Learn that distinction and respect it, and EWTN—no
matter how large or small it becomes—will more truly
serve the cause of the Gospel.
Order EWTN: A Network Gone Wrong right now for just $15
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