Keeping Christ at the Center

The AT&T Center in San Antonio was filled with 10,250 people on Saturday. Father John Corapi, with his shaved head and black eyebrows and goatee, got down to the business at hand. His booming voice resounded through the convention center.

“Let me just take the gloves off. I’m too old and too tired and I don’t care anymore about playing silly games. We’re witnessing before our very eyes, the destruction of Western civilization — by our own hand.”

Fr. Corapi covered multiple no-nonsense topics included gay marriage, abortion, politics and the perils of socialism. The 63-year-old priest also addressed the spread of watered-down Catholicism. No topic was off limits. He delivered his four talks without apology and his fervor for conservative social values resonated with the audience. People from as far as California and Canada were there to hear him speak.

A member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, Fr. Corapi lives in Montana, the base of his ministry which has touched people all over the world. He is in the difficult process of writing his autobiography, painfully reliving his sinful days as a playboy and real estate tycoon in Hollywood, the loss of his fortune to a cocaine addiction, and homelessness on the streets of LA. It will include, of course, his dramatic conversion that led him to the priesthood in 1991.

Saturday's event was a fundraiser for Alexander House, a San Antonio-based ministry that promotes traditional marriage. Corapi's four lectures at the AT&T Center spoke of the need for deep renewal in this country. He encouraged the audience to take steps to change the Culture of Death predicting the loss of many souls if we choose to ignore it. “What are you willing to do to save a soul?” he  asked. “Sacrificial love is what separates the men from the boys. You love to the degree you’re willing to sacrifice.”  His call was for us to fight the good fight and to "offer it up" in order to impact the culture - to make a difference.

Fr. Corapi wanted all to see that our country has left its moral foundation. His talks were also a call to keep Christ at the center of our lives. What a breath of fresh air in this polluted, pornographic culture!