The Corapi case: what we know, what we don't

Well, to paraphrase Garrison Keillor: it’s been a quiet weekend at The Deacon’s Bench.

Which is to say: um, no.  Not so much.

The blogosphere is still trembling from The Corapi Quake.  There’s been an unprecedented reaction to this story about the famous priest’s very public admission that he has been accused of impropriety and suspended, pending an investigation.

The phenomenal numbers of comments and “shares” on Facebook tell the story — and appear to be a record for The Bench.

But to click on the comments and read them is to wade into a veritable foodfight of people flinging truths, half-truths, fervent pieties, adoring prayers and angry accusations.  It’s a mess.  One reader is suggesting that blog commenters who have made “rash judgment” about the man are now in a state of mortal sin.  (For those wondering: that’s the case only if it is done with malicious intent, which isn’t always easy to discern.  And I’m not convinced that people who read blogs — or those who write them — are necessarily the best-equipped to judge the conditions of souls belonging to total strangers on the other side of a computer screen.)  Others are shocked, simply shocked, that anyone could even conceive of this man doing anything remotely sinful.  He’s been compared, more than once, and favorably, to Padre Pio.

Anyway: Elizabeth Scalia has done a very good job of sorting through what we do and do not know about the Corapi case, concluding with these wise and common-sense observations:

What we do not know: why God allows things to happen.

What we do know: all things ultimately work for the Glory of God, even if we do not always recognize how, while we’re in the midst of events.

To which I can only add: Amen.