Edit GMT 0.105 June 22, A lot of interest in Father Corapi's military records, again since Mark Shea, a non-soldier if I've ever seen one, has decided to continue his dark Crusade. First, bear in mind that military records are notoriously inaccurate and that a lot can happen, especially given the irregular nature of Special Forces units in general. Father Corapi may have also served on a B-Team [which doesn't require the intensive training of A-Team members] and worked in an SF Training unit which was actually at Fort Knox during the time he was assigned there as an Infantryman. It may be possible to belong to a B-Team without having jump wings and it's also understood that you can move up to advanced parachute training, and the, like later on.
I'll also point out that I"m confident that most of the people commenting are rear-echelon types who have no special knowledge on the Special Forces or the historical time period being discussed, the height of the Vietnam War just before Tet, when the demand for men and material was high.
As noted before and elsewhere, Father Corapi is challenging the authority of the Bishops to pass rules and ordinances like this, making a priest guilty till proven innocent. CNS points out that no part of Canon Law was cited.
This copy of Father's military file has been floating around at least for four years, and others have wanted to "debunk" Father Corapi as well. Well, it's stuck over on Free Republic and it's a bit hard to read some of the later entries, and it can look bad if you don't know how to read the document and the acronyms. You have to realize that there are no things that jump out at you saying, "this is a super secret, special forces trooper." After looking at Wikipedia, it says that Father John was sworn in on April 16th 1967. After finishing up his Basic at what looks like it may be Fort Gordon, he was enrolled at Fort McClellan on 23 June of 1967, where he was first in Charley Company, Second Platoon, 3rd Battalion of the 175th Advanced Infantry Training Brigade. It's entirely consistent with his story that while he was training as a basic Infantryman, he was already committed to be Special Forces, and looking forward to going with relish. He then attends a course where he appears to have gone to Ft. Knox for a time. That's mostly Armor there, so who knows what he was doing there but it lists his MOS as 11B10 Infantry, and states that he is a attached as "student". It's not too far from Fort Campbell where there is a Special Forces Unit and Air Assault.
Basically, you can come from any MOS and be Green Beret. Father Corapi's military record is ENTIRELY consistent with his descriptions in his rousing speeches.
In fact, this file has been floating around for a while and was dealt with very well by another poster at the Catholic Answers Forum, here, it's very exhaustive and does a good job of defending Father Corapi. It would make sense that Father Corapi was hurt and after becoming an Infantryman, was sent to a more appropriate job as a clerk typist in Germany working for a General, when it was very dangerous with all the Bader Meinhof types roaming around.
20 comments:
Fr. Corapi was put on leave by his own order, not a bishop. The fact that he mislead you to think it was a bishop ought to give you more pause.
So? Father Leonard Feeney was silenced by his own order.
Corapi has not stated that a Bishop suspended his faculties. However, he is on record, beginning in 2002, criticizing the Dallas Charter approved by the Bishops. It appears that "Anonymous" is the one who has been "mislead"(sic).
By the way, Bishop William M. Mulvey of Corpus Christi is overseeing the investigation. SOLT is headquartered in Corpus Christi and is therefore subject to the Bishop of said Diocese.
"Father Sheehan told Catholic News Service that Bishop William M. Mulvey of Corpus Christi has instructed the religious community to ask two priests who are not clergy of the diocese and who are not members of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity to investigate the allegation. The two priests have not yet been named." http://www.catholicreview.org/subpages/storyworldnew-new.aspx?action=9693
Thanks for that instructive and helpful post.
WOW....CHECK THIS OUT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJcHoJxEcN0&feature=related
Father Corapi's service record does not include the Viet Nam service medal, and shows he was only mediocre with a rifle and had no record of experience with other weapons. This is not consistent with Special Forces service in Viet Nam.
Anonymous 1159, did you read the article?
Sorry, but you are wrong. It is not consistent at all with Corapi's stories. No evidence of being in training for special forces, no evidence of an injury from helicopter flight. Get back to reality.
Have you ever served in the military, more importantly, are you a Christian?
Goodness gracious!
Considering that Father Corapi isn't any longer in any active capacity, why do we insist on beating this dead horse?
If someone has substantive evidence that he definitely lied about something, I'd suggest taking it to the appropriate authorities--whatever those authorities may be--and let them adjudicate the matter.
I'm truthfully VERY weary of reading insinuations, innuendos, and general critique of John Corapi's life or comments. Most of them have comparatively little basis in verifiable fact, but tend strongly toward circumstantial evidence, which usually tells very little about important specifics.
For what it's worth, whether John Corapi ever technically served in any Special Forces unit or received formal training to enter one strikes me as being pretty irrelevant. One doesn't need formal training in specialized tactics nor join a particular unit to have an interest in the subject matter or to learn something about it.
Keep in mind too, particular training or accidents with helicopters wouldn't inherently indicate the particular type of training that someone might be receiving, nor the definite purpose for receiving the same training.
There're many things that Special Ops forces do that have lots of overlap with "regular" military.
The particulars of Special Operations training or unit membership may not ever enter the records due either to security concerns or sheer irrelevance.
Some SOF Units incorporate various elements with different levels of training to include Rangers, ground support, airmen and even irregular Infantry formations like the very good native Nung.
Just a guess is that he was preparing to go with SOG B-52, hence the possibility of Jungle School down in Panama.
This was started again by someone called Bendall. He claimed he had Corapi`s militry record, but he did not. It is something called a DD214 which is a ture army record. His p;iece of paper had a lot of black markings so that nobody could read what was there. He then went on a highly imaginative question session which his document shed little light on and he quoted Father as saying many things which did not conform to truth. It is all very expected and very boring. No doubt we will `discover` further `revelations` on many other matters. Quite boring really. John Kearney
I just want to point out how complicated this can be, and easily misunderstood. I served in a US ARMY Special Forces unit back in the early '90's. It was a reserve unit that did everything the active units did, just less frequently. At the time, my unit was "over-strength", so they couldn't pay me. I had to go there and drill "for points only"- retirement points. (Actually COST me to serve! And at a time I was broke.) Unfortunately, after being there and doing some very good work for about a year, the unit was deactivated by Bill Clinton (real smart).I had been to jump school already and was preparing myself for the SOF Q course - and had been, physically and mentally, - FOR YEARS. (You don't just walk up and go to the Q course, you have to go through a "lotta stuff" first.) Once the unit was deactivated, there was no going to the Q course. Now there is a LOT more to the story, but here's my point. When this subject comes up, people generally don't have the patience to hear that whole explanation, and I have had some people misunderstand my service as a result. And it is difficult because I did do all kinds of exciting and important things there, and I was treated like everyone else who had finished the course. (Many in the unit had not been through). The problem is that when I tell someone that I served in a Special Forces unit, some may think that I earned the beret although I never claim that. What makes matters even worse is that the admin guy who was responsible for filing my paperwork didn't file it before leaving the unit. And I was late with all kinds of forms - he left before I could submit them. "Don't worry, get 'em to me whenever and I will just back date 'em" Whoops. Didn't happen. So...my official Army records DO NOT tell the whole story (in fact, I still have many of my original, un-submitted forms - some of them signed my my commander so there is proof, but it just was never officially submitted). If someone were to look at my records, they might think I was full of it. Which I am not. So it is always very hard for me to tell my story when asked about my service. Often I don't want to say anything at all. I know what is true, I know what I did. I was ready to die for my country, and there was not a more hard-core (enthusiastic) soldier in that unit than me. But officially - it never happened. There is so much more to the story, but, I just want to say that, as a former service member myself, I really don't have any problem with Fr. Corapi's account of his service. There is SO MUCH that goes on when you are in that life. As far as I can tell, he has been honest and kept it simple, but others may have misinterpreted stuff and run with it.
I pray for him, because I think what he is doing now is wrong. The reports of fast motorcycles and cars and such and the dark beard always raised flags in my mind and I would pray for him to not stray into his own cult of personality. I worry that folks may follow him into some new kind of cult. It's a bit scary, very worrisome and mostly quite sad. We should all pray that this man amends his life and turns from all sin. Meanwhile, I just don't see the issue when it comes to his military record. There are plenty of other things to worry about.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope it was useful.
Rock on Dave, I think Father Corapi is doing the right thing.
Liberal Bishops are the problem here, and Father Corapi is being smeared by a pack of venomous Prelates and their blogging toadies.
Thanks, Tancred. Surely I agree that his is a target within the church for his orthodoxy, but, I'm not so sure he is doing the right thing: Based on yesterday's Gospel, "You shall know them by their fruits..." I am thinking he is doing the wrong thing. I don't like the whole idea that he says he is going to release 2 hours audio tapes of his accuser so that we can judge for ourselves if she was stable. It just seems WRONG. Even if she was an unstable alcoholic that doesn't mean that he didn't have some kind of sexual relationship with her. Thing is: we will NEVER know now, and smearing her is not the Christ-like thing to do. What kind of fruits are we seeing? Division, Confusion, Anger, Sadness, Distress! WHOSE fruits are they? It seems to me they are not the fruits of a good tree. This breaks my heart because this man has spoken the Truth and been an inspiration to me personally. And we needed to hear what he had to say. But no man is beyond temptation is he?
I ask myself, should Corapi be fighting back by smearing this woman in releasing these tapes? Well, he sure has a right to. I sure would. But I am not a priest. I am just some guy. Moreover - what did St. John of the Cross do? What did St. Gerard do? What did JESUS Himself do? I love this man, Fr. Corapi, but I don't think he is doing the right thing. If he wants to become an instant saint, it wouldn't be by preaching, it will be in suffering.
I do not judge him or his soul. But I am looking at his actions, and they are "off". I want him BACK - even if that means I never hear a word out of his mouth a again. I want the VICTORY OF HIS IMMORTAL SOUL! A single soul's triumph over evil, has got to be more pleasing to God than a successful oration business.
Why would I feel so much better if his new moniker was not a wolf-ish "Black Sheepdog". Again yesterday's Gospel (sorry not to have Chapter and vs, but it was from Mathew), "Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing..." Just struck a chord with me yesterday.
Anyway, God bless you! I just found this blog from Pewsitter and I love it. Thanks for what you do!
He's just fighting with his hands, feet and teeth, that's all.
This Kangaroo Court needs to be exposed, and Father Corapi's the man to do it.
Thanks again, Dave.
The people defending Father's military record were not getting any assistance from him in doing so. This led to them making errors such as in response to Lie#5: "Truth: Father has taken the three evangelical counsels of perfection: chastity, poverty (or perfect charity), and obedience (see e.g. The Code of Canon Law, canons 599-601)."
Thank you David for some real world sanity. The bench warmer hotshot types have no clue as to the reality of training, various kinds of special ops missions (which include special forces type training). Being a military family member whose veteran served 24 years, the reality, including the brevity of records and lack of real circumstantial background contained in records I'm sick of what appears to be churchy jealous types of other "men". I've also seen those perfect record Cols/Gens who appear now as supporters of the progressive wimps in gov. over the protection of the troops who have been entitled by the troops with labels such as "Wesley the weasel"!
Our culture is full of the neutered sheepdogs who no longer lead the sheep forward while protecting them. Real men are lacking in families - their roles are denigrated in the culture as a whole by women who prefer them that way and are allowed to get away with it by abusing their own feminine (not feminist) natures. So continue to cry from the peanut gallery in your phony display based on envy.
BTW, SOLT (their American headquarters)serves with "permission" of the local bishop. Thus they are apt to do his bidding. Apparently he advised SOLT to carry on the investigation of Fr. C. I believe then that the bishop has no formal jurisdiction over Fr. It would appear that no formal order for administrative leave was given to Fr. C by the bishop - therefore nothing in hand before his sanctioning to later appeal which is against Canon Law. The whole "process" began sloppily without any real experts in the investigative stage which itself couldn't get started and didn't lend itself apparently to the accused's own evidence and witnesses. Fr. C must have seen the writing on the wall as far as equal justice for the accused was concerned - after several months of experiencing just how things began and were proceeding - and acted in order for an accused to be free to face his accuser - to the future benefit of all such accused, with similar bishops and their "process".
I'd like to see any of the whiners have the same intestinal fortitude (accompanied by spiritual fortitude) to accomplish the same - pretty much using their own reason attached to their faith as JPII taught and emphasized.
Tancred I loved Fr. Corapi as much as many of you here, but he is doing a great wrong and in danger of leading many astray... is he starting his own protestant reformation? If not then what is he doing... there is a very good blog about this from Fr. Joe's blogsite I think we all need to read and reflect...
Black Sheep Dog or BLACK WOLF?
http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/father-corapi-priest-or-black-sheep-dog/
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