Week of April 14, 2004

Father John Corapi delivers high-energy conference at St. Thomas More

Claudia Cangilla McAdam

Friday night, April 2, saw the heavens open, finally, and drench the earth with much-needed moisture. As the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled, the words of Father John Corapi, S.O.L.T., matched them in intensity, and his message was as life-giving as the rain as he addressed more than 1,200 individuals at St. Thomas More Church in Centennial.

In the first of four conference talks given that Friday and Saturday, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity priest wasted no time in delivering the thesis of his presentation.

"I've got to tell you about a war that is raging right now," he said. "It's not in Afghanistan or Iraq. It's not a battle against flesh and blood. The battle is against principalities and powers, against fallen angels, those spiritual hosts of wickedness."

"At the end of the road when the dust settles and the end of life comes, you and I will be either a winner or a loser. Heaven or hell — it's `in-your-face' truth."

Fallen angels and the devil are real, he stressed, not remnants of outdated theology, and Catholics need to recognize what he called the devil's "end game."

Satan's scheme is an assault that comes through the attack on what Father Corapi termed the transcendentals — unity, truth, good (the moral life) and beauty. It is an attack on life itself, he said. The ultimate goal is an attack on the Eucharist — the source, center and summit of the Church's life.

"And how do you get rid of the Eucharist?" he asked. "You get rid of priests. Strike the shepherd and scatter the sheep."

Father Corapi outlined how scandals coming from within the Church (sexual abuse by priests) and scandals coming from outside the Church (via attacks by the media) are combining to do the devil's work.

"Divide and conquer is part of the end game," he said, and it can be traced back to that division within human beings themselves — sin.

The disintegration of the family, the dismissal of truth, the dissolution of morals, and the corruption of beauty are the results of what Pope Pius XII described in 1948: "The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin."

Father Corapi's life experiences ideally position him to speak on this topic since he has experienced extremes ranging from wealth to homelessness. He was a millionaire real estate broker in California who lost his fortune to a drug habit before turning his life over to Christ. Ordained to the priesthood at age 44, his life's journey coupled with advanced degrees in theology and Scripture enable him to speak the truths of the faith with authority and clarity.

How can Catholics combat the devil?

"Learn your faith," he said. "You can't give what you don't have."

He said all Catholics should have a Bible and a copy of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church." Furthermore, Father Corapi urged daily prayer for the priests serving God's people.

"Morale in the priesthood is at an all-time low," he said.

"The catch phrase `Be all you can be' is actually God's commercial for Catholics," he said. "If you want to advance in your faith, you have to shed blood, sweat and tears. No sitting on the fence. We have to be for Him or against Him, and my prayer is to be for Him. At the end of the road, we come face to face with the Lord, and we want to hear, `Well done, my good and faithful servant. Now enter into the joy of your Master's house.'"

Father Corapi taped a series of presentations on the "End Game" in January, and they will be aired on radio and the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) later this year. In the meantime, the series can be ordered as a DVD, video, CD, or audiocassettes from his Web site www.fathercorapi.com.