"Father" John Anthony Corapi

ACTUAL RECORDS

Keep up the excellent fight,

Rick

From: rick@grabianowski.com.  
Subject: FR. CORAPI

Subject: RE: Fr. John Corapi
 
    With great interest I read the email exchange below and herewith add a few comments.  I am not only a Catholic, but also part of our diocesan formation, and with the support of the Holy Spirit, hope to be ordained a deacon in three years.  I have also served and retired from the US Army, having been likewise assigned to Special Forces units, including the top secret Studies and Observations Group (SOG), Command and Control North (CCN), where I became a One Zero (1-0) of a reconnaissance team.  Hopefully the above will establish my bonifides.
    Among my many pleasures is the time I spend viewing EWTN, the Catholic TV station.  On several occasions I have personally witnessed Father Corapi stating his service in the Special Forces, as well as his black belt status.  To discover that this otherwise excellent presenter, is a fraud not only brings shame on him and the Catholic Church in general, but tarnishes everything that Mother Angelica has worked so many years for.  It also raises the question of validity of other experiences he shares with the viewers.  I might add that he has several times stated the Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, when just about every one in the Faith knows that she was exonerated by the Church, which acknowledged that this claim is false.  Perhaps this is part of a patern developed by Father Corapi.
    I do not know if this situation with Father Corapi has been brought to the attention of EWTN, however, I will gather all the correspondence to date, and forward the same to this organization.  I must do so because so many of my service brothers should know how embarrassed and ashamed I am that once again another priest has insulted Jesus' chosen church.
In God's service,
Rick Grabianowski


Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 4:02 PM
To: info@donbendell.com
Subject: Request Information

Don,

I was just forwarded copies of some correspondence and information you sent to Fr. John Corapi. ( http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies344.htm ). I just wanted to say thank you.  I and a friend actually worked with Fr. Corapi for a time – and gradually became aware that he was not what he represented.  Sadly, I believe this situation has been handled by leadership in his religious community and some Catholic bishops just like scandal with sexual predators in the priesthood.  They are doing nothing, burying their heads in the sand hoping someone else will deal with the problem.  Cowardly.  As you might imagine, there is a lot more that has yet to come to the light. 

I wish you the very best in your work.  May our Good Lord continue to bless you. 

By the way, I have a son who was recently ordained a priest – which is why things like this make me sick to my stomach.

Thanks again.    

name withheld

The tape is 9:59 seconds, his conversion story. At 7:51 he touches his lapel where he wears not a cross but a full-sized SF Badge, quickly pointing at the pin, and utters the words De Oppresso Liber,” our motto and adds “Free the oppressed.” The pin is there the whole ten minutes. It is not even a lapel pin. It is a full-sized official Special Forces crest. http://video.aol.com/video-detail/fr-corapis-conversion-story-condensed-version/2336176400

 

            On this video, at about 9 minutes he says he “entered the army with a commitment for the US Army Special Forces, the Green Berets.” He says he “attended all the training, a very specialized kind of training and finished it all,” then he says he was injured in a helicopter accident and ended up in Germany pushing a pencil. Of course his records show he was simply a clerk-typist, period and never did any specops training, which is a common claim of his apologists .  

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/john-corapi-lost-his-millions-as-a-real-estate-mogul-due-to-drug-addiction/179427089?icid=acvsv3

 

http://www.lasvegasmariancenter.com/Fr_Corapi.htm

http://www.tldm.org/newsletters/fr0103.htm

http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/divinemercy.html

http://www.frtommylane.com/homilies/year_a/17-2.htm

http://socratic.stblogs.com/2007/04/09/father-john-corapi/

http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/archives/1999Jul/139jul27,vol.10,no.139txt/jul27top.htm

MUST HEAR:  corapi_SF_self_intro.mp3                                                           corapi_SF_self_intro1.mp3

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11MAR06/1. Addressing a group of 1500 to 1800 participants, in a Catholic Lenten Retreat service in Lenexa, Kansas, Father John Corapi stated, "I was standing there, wearing my Green Beret..."/ 
2. Subject further spoke of making HALO jumps using an altimeter and popping his chute at 1000 feet.  He spoke of some of his military exploits/  
3. Subject mentioned hitchhiking with a black G.I. named Lawrence.  Subject stated they were just out of basic training near Anniston, AL.  Subject spoke of a car load of "southern boys" pulling up, not liking the idea of a white soldier and a black soldier hitch hiking together.  Subject stated, "Lawrence was big, and I was bad."// 

 

Additionally, a "Fr. Corapi, Chaplin" is still listed on the following fraud-enabling site as a Navy recipient of the Medal of Honor.  No such person was ever awarded the MOH.    http://www.americanheroes.cc/herolist.cfm

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These Last Days News
http://www.tldm.org/newsletters/fr0103.htm
P.O. Box 40 ~ Lowell, MI 49331-0040
Internet: http://www.tldm.org
E-mail: tldm@tldm.org
Voice: 1-616-698-6448 or
1-800-444-6279 Fax: 616-698-2260

Personal Testimony video of Fr. John Corapi . . .
A late vocation, Fr. Corapi's life experiences prior to ordination are simply astounding and truly show the great work of God through our Blessed Mother. 
    Filled with the desire to "be somebody", he embraced the promises of the world. From athletics to a Green Beret, to Certified Public Accountant, to a multi-millionaire, to a drug addict who lost everything.  From a street person he spent a year in a Veterans Mental Hospital and then returned back home with his mother.  Touched by Our Lady he repented and entered the seminary, earned 4 university degrees and a doctorate in Theology.  He was ordained by Pope John Paul II and said his first Mass on the tomb of St. Peter.  He is now an apostolic preacher who by his mere preaching causes hardened sinners to repent.  Protestant ministers come to hear him and some have joined the Catholic Church.  I personally heard him give a mission at a Church and he is the greatest preacher I have ever heard.
    He said he has heard thousands of confessions up to 18 hours a day in the past ten years and none of them have been as bad as his.
    He said we should imitate Christ Who with His preaching infuriated the enemies of God to the point where they killed Him.  Father Corapi said he has had his life threatened, been spit in the face and shot at but he’s not going to change.  If a preacher has no enemies he isn’t doing the job.
    We have available his personal conversion testimony on a videotape for $20.00.  Item #V90  Everyone who sees it raves about this video and buys it to show their family and friends.  Email tldm@tldm.org or write These Last Days, P.O. Box 40, Lowell, MI 49331-0040.  MasterCard, VISA, and American Express accepted.  Shipping and handling $4.50.
http://www.lasvegasmariancenter.com/Fr_Corapi.htm

Most anyone visiting this web site is somewhat familiar with John Corapi's story, so briefly,
---Father John Corapi is a priest and a religious, a perpetually professed member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity;
---Born in Hudson, New York, in 1948;
---Green Beret Special Forces during the Viet Nam war;
---Millionaire in Las Vegas……..multi-millionaire in Hollywood………..friend of the stars, mansion on the beach, yacht, Ferrari…..

You get the idea. All the world's success before he was even in his mid-30s. And then, God love him (literally), the bottom dropped out. Addiction

And yet more......

http://www.fathercorapi.com/
In August 2007, the bio was suddenly changed to read:

About Fr. Corapi || Curriculum Vitae

Father John Corapi. S.O.L.T.

Father John Corapi is what has commonly been called a late vocation. In other words, he came to the priesthood other than a young man. He was 44 years old when he was ordained. His experiences prior to ordination have been termed simply astounding, but that is probably somewhat of an overstatement. They might be called extreme, however. From small town boy to the Vietnam era US Army, from millionaire businessman in Las Vegas and Hollywood to drug addicted and homeless, to religious life and ordination to the priesthood by Pope John Paul II, to a life as a preacher of the Gospel who has reached millions with the simple message that God's Name is Mercy!

Father Corapi's academic credentials are quite extensive. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in the seventies. Then as an older man returned to the university classrooms in preparation for his life as a priest and preacher. He received all of his academic credentials for the Church with honors: a Masters degree in Sacred Scripture from Holy Apostles Seminary and Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctorate degrees in dogmatic theology from the University of Navarre in Spain.

(See below August 2007 letter from Don Bendell)

http://www.catholicity.com/cds/corapi.html

http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/divinemercy.html
The Reproach of Egypt
(Homily for Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C)

    Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you. Joshua 5:9

   During our Lenten retreat Fr. John Corapi told about times he was spat upon. About thirty-five years ago he returned from Vietnam wearing his Green Beret uniform. An anti-war protestor saw him and spit on him. More recently, at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal, Fr. Corapi was in an airport. Recognizing him as a priest, someone came up and spit at him...

www.geocities.com/Heartland/2964/homily4lent-c.html

He has, in fact, been listed on the SOLT web site, although I did not find a direct link from the homepage, and his biography there calls him a "Green Beret soldier."

Diocese of Grand Fork, Montana, U.S.A.

...Prior to ordination, Fr. John Corapi, Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), was a high school football star, blackbelt in Karate, Green Beret soldier, CPA, Las Vegas casino auditor, multimillionaire real estate businessman with a yacht, Ferrari, and home on the ocean. He eventually became a cocaine addict...destitute, homeless, and wandering the streets in Los Angeles....

www.solt3.org/americanmissions.htm

He was ordained in 1991.

www.fathercorapi.com/cv.aspx

He was injured playing high school football:

...Born "poor" in upstate New York, young John Corapi started his search for success down the avenues of sports and the military. Both proved dead-ends: his aspiration to star in football ended with an injury and "then I was back to being nobody again"; his hopes to star as a *Green Beret in Vietnam* dissolved after he fell out of a "stupid helicopter," which tied him to an administrative desk in Germany for three years...

www.sffaith.com/ed/articles/1998/1298gn.htm

The recent book, _Coronary_ by Stephen Klaidman, talks a lot about Fr. Corapi and his own version of his life story:

...In the fall of 1965, he went to the State University of New York in Albany, but got off to a poor start academically. Corapi quit school, returned to Hudson, and hung out for a while with an
ex-soldier who had served in the Eighty-second Airborne Division. They went skydiving together, which inspired Corapi, who was drifting with no idea of what to do next, to enlist in the army in
the early spring of 1967. He signed a commitment to serve in the Special Forces, but in a helicopter accident in the Canal Zone he reinjured a shoulder that he'd  originally hurt playing football and
ended up in Heidelberg as an administrative assistant. He was released a month or two early from the army in 1970 and began attending Pace University in Pleasantville, New York... 

+++

He graduated from Pace in 1973, not in 1967.

Corapi is rumored to hold a third degree black belt in Shotokan (karate).
To: <jacorapi@aol.com>, <info@fathercorapi.com>, <webmaster@fathercorapi.com>
Cc: <webmaster@catholicity.com>, <rgant@stx.rr.com>, <nabquestion@usccb.org>,
        <webmaster@ihradio.org>
Subject: EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

Dear Father John Corapi, S.O.L.T. .....  (or should I call you Roger W. Garvey or Rodger W. Garvey, your other aliases);

 

Here is just one internet example from hundreds of your biography:

  “Father John was born on May 20, 1947 in Hudson, New York and early in life exhibited a prowess for the good life, excelling as a gridiron star in high school, attaining a blackbelt in Karate and getting his degree in Business Administration from Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. He had it all. The Vietnam conflict was looming and so he joined the military becoming a member of the prestigious Green Berets. After discharge from the service he went to work as a CPA which eventually took him to " Sin City " - Las Vegas where he became a casino auditor and fell in with the jet set. This translated into an opportunity to plunge into real estate which made him a millionaire with all the wealth of the rich and famous as he accrued it all - from a yacht to a Ferrari to a scenic home overlooking the Pacific. As so often happens to those who seek the world, the flesh and the devil - they find it and Father John found his hellhole in Los Angeles where he became addicted to cocaine, losing everything and wandering aimlessly as a homeless person in downtown LA.”

 

            In the New Testament, we are warned that God is especially tough on anybody who teaches, so with that in mind, my question is simple: What is the bursting radius of a lightning bolt? The reason I mention this is because I am a REAL former Green Beret (US Army Special Forces) Vietnam veteran and have two sons who are REAL Green Beret sergeants, and I speak for thousands of REAL Green Berets, who cannot stand phony, wannabe, lying, fakes claiming they are “former Green Berets and Vietnam veterans,” especially in the name of God. I mention this since your army records, which I have, state that you were a  “leg” clerk-typist” guarding your typewriter and desk at wild places like Ft Knox, KY and Ft Dix, NJ and a brief stint  to Europe (as a private). Incidentally, I just two days ago celebrated my 41st Anniversary in the martial  arts and have been featured in BLACK BELT magazine, so I also wondered what style did you receive your Black Belt in and what rank are you?

How dare you claim to be a Green Beret and Vietnam veteran, when you did NOT even attend Jump School , let alone ever take ANY Special Forces training whatsoever? You did Basic, AIT, and then became a “Chairborne Ranger” the balance of your army stint and never went near Vietnam . My sons, many SF friends, and I worked our individual asses off to earn our Green Berets. That is why it is now a crime to claim to be Special Forces when you were not, under the Stolen Valor Law. By the way, many of those former Green Berets and the FBI have been BCCed on this as well as some in the news media, so they can investigate you.

            According to the numbers provided in many of your bios and interviews all over the web, you look like you have made millions of dollars selling personal appearances, tapes, DVD’s and books like a modern day Catholic wannabe Billy Graham, except Billy simply evangelized without all the marketing or commercial website.  You did so by stealing the valor of others to make your story more colorful, and you can pay heavy fines and prison time for that. In fact, in your bio (again just one example of many) above it states: You received a business degree at Pace University in Pleasantville , NY and your black belt,  and then the war was looming so you joined the Army and SF. The problem is, your military records indicated you entered the service on April 19, 1967 in Hudson , NY and ETSed (exited) on January 19, 1970, and you had no bachelors degree then. In fact, like me, you were barely out of high school, since you and I both were born in 1947.

             In your curriculum vitae, you claim to be a deacon and also a priest ordained by the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, of Robstown, TX. S.O.L.T. nowhere on their website under priests, hermits, ministries, or anywhere are you mentioned, although they have a list displayed of all their priests in America and overseas with bios. I will let the Catholic Church address that issue with you. Less than 3 out of every 100 who try actually earn a Green Beret, and it means a lot to each of us, and we will not stand for anybody to pose as one of us, especially for personal and financial gain.

            I am not Catholic, but I am a Christian, and I will make one major guess: In the verbiage of Special Forces, besides the media, and the FBI, and others, I personally believe that God is really going to kick your unholy ass.

            Let’s review: You and I were born in 1947, which generally means high school graduation in 1965 or 1966. You claim you were a football star and claim before the “looming war,” you achieved a baccalaureate degree as well as a black belt (which generally takes four years at legit karate schools), yet you entered the army on April, 1967, without having a degree. How did you manage that? How did you manage to be a football star with all the practices, and also get a black belt at the same time? You had to be at least a buck sergeant in those days, as well as airborne to even qualify to try to earn a Green Beret. You also had to enlist for extra time if you went SF, and you only had a total of 2 and a half years in the army, with an MOS, or job titles as stenographer, clerk/typist, and personnel specialist. You never attended any infantry or combat arms training whatsoever. You never earned jump wings. You never spent one day at Fort Bragg , North Carolina , which is where you had to go to earn a Green Beret. For awards you received an army commendation medal, national defense medal (which are given for breathing), and a marksman badge from basic training, so you could net even shoot straight (a prediction of your future memoirs apparently), and that is it. The only overseas duty you ever saw was behind a typewriter in Europe . So tell me, Father Corapi, how did you become Rambo for all these years and all those millions?

            From your website: “The essence of Father's message is the essential message of Jesus Christ. It is Good News: a message of TRUTH and goodness, love and mercy.”  Guess what just bit you in the ass? TRUTH . In several of your missives, it states that after speaking to large groups you spend hours in the Confessional. Good idea. I would start pouring my heart out.

            Do you remember about Jesus turning over the tables of the money-changers in the Temple ? I would not want to be you in the months ahead. In fact, I would rather have a millstone tied around my neck and be tossed into the center of the lake.  By the way, you owe a public apology to all the men, past and present, of the US Army Special Forces. There have been other fakes who did not heed my words when I told them that, but always ended up apologizing. Maybe the Catholic church will let you get away with claiming to be a member of exalted societies or elite organizations, but trust me, that ain’t happening with the US Army Special Forces.

            Finally, as a Christian, I am sickened by the phonies, hypocrites, fakes, and money-grubbers who use the name of God and my personal Savior Jesus Christ to further their personal agendas, line their pockets, aggrandize their egos, and try to exalt themselves. It is very unwise, actually very stupid, to piss off guys with backgrounds like mine, but I honestly do not believe in this case, however, I need to do a thing but simply just sit back and watch. Read Romans 19: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” You will be hearing from others, soon, trust me.

De Oppresso Liber,

 

Don  Bendell                                                

blog: http://donbendellsblog.wordpress.com/  Websites:  http://www.donbendell.com  http://www.bendellkarate.com  

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From: "Don Bendell" <don@donbendell.com>
To: <events@fathercorapi.com>
Cc: "James Gorski" <josepheaglefeather@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: YOUR FALSE CLAIMS
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:43:00 -0600

Dear Father Corapi;

            We see that you have finally corrected the lies in your bio and now correctly-list yourself as a “Vietnam-era” veteran and also took out the BS about being a Green Beret. You even removed the line about being a Black Belt. There, Father, now doesn’t that feel better? It is called telling the truth, displaying integrity, and simple honesty, which would not have occurred if you did not realize you had been caught.  I cannot believe you have the gall to claim to be a servant of God and are now simply covering your tracks. You have entered the confessional and admitted a sin, because it was brought to light, and you realized your fraud could land you in prison under the Stolen Valor Act. That is not the same as praying a number of Hail Mary’s and paying penance. Now, you owe a public apology to all the men past and present of the US Army Special Forces for making money for years falsely posing as one of us, let alone posing as Vietnam veteran, when you were, in-fact, a clerk-typist in Europe, period. We can do this one of two ways and the choice is yours: the hard way or the easy way. We can expose your lies and deceit internationally and very publicly, or you can act like a real man of God and practice what you preach. Either way, you are going to apologize to all of us. As far as using falsehoods to sell the materials of spreading the Good News, well that you will have to settle directly with God.  My concern is you and every other phony wannabe combat trained-killer stealing the valor of our nation’s real heroes, the true men of honor and pulling the wool over the eyes of staunch supporters of yours, like James Gorski of Missouri who has written me several times. A “real” man of God walks the walk. ANYBODY can talk the talk.

            You send the apology to me directly and I will see that it gets spread to all real (Special Forces) Green Berets within our own network of communication. We are a small tight-knit community, and even without seeing someone’s DD-214,  we know who was or was not part of our brotherhood, but we have your records also. Try to claim it when you did not earn it is one of the best ways I know for anybody to have a very large can of Whup-Ass opened on them, figuratively speaking, of course. If you choose not to apologize, then we will make that demand a whole lot more public.

            If you wonder if we know what you are really all about, you entered the army in Hudson , NY on April 19, 1967, took Basic at Ft Jackson, SC, then AIT at Ft McClellan, AL and then more AIT at Ft Knox, KY. Then you served in Germany as a Clerk-Typist until January, 1969 and became a Stenographer until September 11, 1969 when your MOS was changed to Admin Specialist until you left the Army as a SP5 on January 19, 1970, ETSing at Ft Dix, NJ, where ironically I used to be an MP and guard in Maximum Security at the Fort Dix, Stockade before I went to Infantry OCS. For awards and decorations, you received the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and the Marksman Badge in Basic and AIT. In other words, you were awarded for “Breathing.” That is it. You did not even attend Jump School , let alone even one day of training to earn a Green Beret or any type of combat arms training. You should have simply been proud of your service to our nation, as ALL jobs in the US military are honorable, decent, necessary, and important, but you wanted to not only “be all that you can be,” but all that others had been when you did not earn the right or even come close to.

            According to the Son of Man, God will be even tougher in judgment on those who teach, so what do you suppose He will have to say when you built your teaching empire on fraud and deceit, stealing the valor of men who fought and died for God and country? As I said several times previously, I would not be shocked to hear that you learned the bursting radius of a lightning bolt, but again, all that is between you and Our Lord God Almighty.

            It is also up to you to apologize or not to those who have believed in you such as Mr. Gorski. That is between you and them. I do not care. You do not apologize to my SF brothers in arms, I care. As I said, we can do this the hard way or the easy way, and the choice is yours. A man should do what a man chooses to do, but understand that avoiding the issue will not make us go away.

De Oppresso Liber!

Blessings,

 

Don Bendell                                                

blog: http://donbendellsblog.wordpress.com/  Websites:  http://www.donbendell.com  http://www.bendellkarate.com

ACTUAL RECORDS