Summary of the current status of the Father John Corapi case

The Timeline

1. Tamra Sexton was fired in September 2009, for cause. This is known because of the court filing in Montana by Corapi, made public on the blog of Jimmy Akin, reporter for the National Catholic Register, earlier this summer.
2. Her husband, Matt Sprinkle, had his contract with Santa Cruz Media terminated in the middle of 2010, which is also in the court filing.
3. Corapi also initiated foreclosure proceedings on a home and property occupied by Tamra and Matt in 2010, near Corapi’s own home in Kalispell, Montana.  There is a pregnant pause between mid 2010 and early 2011, then:
4. Accusations were made by Tamra Sexton Sprinkle on or about Ash Wednesday, 2011.
5. SOLT made the allegations public, along with declaring that Corapi was being put on administrative leave.
6. Corapi issued a statement stating he doesn’t like the canonical proceedings, but will cooperate.
7. SOLT assembled a three person “fact finding” team to investigate Tamra’s allegations.
8. Bishop Rene Gracida, retired bishop of Corpus Christi, and Father Flannagan, founder of Corapi’s society SOLT, contacted Corapi to inform him that the current process of suspension was usually not just in the Church now, and that he would be better served by pursuing a civil case.
9. Corapi and Santa Cruz Media files the civil suit.
10. Fr. Sheehan of SOLT states publicly that the canonical process has stopped because of the civil lawsuit. We will find out that in private, however, the investigation went on.
11. Corapi resigned from public ministry, stopped referring to himself as “Father,” adopted the name he gave himself for his autobiography – the Black Sheepdog – and also resigned from SOLT on or about June 17, 2011.
12. Fr. Sheehan of SOLT shortly thereafter acknowledged Corapi’s resignation and SOLT will work with him in his time of transition.
13. Not a mere three weeks later, on July 5, 2011, SOLT issued a letter, unsigned by Father Sheehan and apparently written by someone else, since it refers to Fr. Sheehan in the third person. It stated that all of the allegations made by Tamra Sexton are true. SOLT warns the faithful not to associate with Corapi. It then, strangely, orders Corapi to stop foreclosure proceedings against Tamra Sexton, drop his lawsuit against her, and lastly orders him to return to community in Corpus Christi.
14. Corapi did not comply.

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