I found this at Renew America. It is the text of the homily for Father Chester Poppa, OFM Cap.
In reading this, one thing jumped out at me. This man’s complete dedication to his priesthood and the sacraments. Father Corapi has now infamously said that giving up the priesthood is really no biggie since the sacraments were only 10% of what he did. So when Corapi hit some speed bumps in his life, the priesthood and the sacraments got thrown from the car.
Not so Father Poppa. Read this.
Homily for the Funeral of Chester Poppa, OFM Cap.
June 20, 2011
St. David Parish, Broadus, Montana
Wisdom 3: 1-6, 9; Psalm 23; Romans 6:3-9; John 12:23-26When a person is in end-stage renal failure and has lost 85 to 90 percent of his kidney function, he has three choices: get a kidney transplant, undergo kidney dialysis for the rest of his life, or die. Several years ago our brother Chester faced those choices. As we all know, he chose dialysis — three days a week.
Undergoing dialysis can be a strain under any circumstances, but doing so in your late 70s and early 80s and three times a week … that’s a lot to deal with. When Randolph Graczyk and I visited Chet at his apartment in Billings last month, he admitted that the process was taking its toll on him. It often left him without much energy to do much else.
Yet for several years, Chester was not only faithful to his course of treatment, he was equally faithful to his ministry here at St. David’s. Each week, after undergoing dialysis on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he would make the three-hour drive from Billings to Broadus for the weekend Masses. It was his way of remaining faithful to a community he would serve as pastor for 35 years. It’s amazing and humbling for me to consider that he began his ministry in Broadus when I was only an eighth grader at Ss. Peter & Paul School in Milwaukee and just beginning to learn about this order of priests and brothers called the Capuchins.
Six hours of driving each week while receiving dialysis three times a week to bring the sacraments to the people of Broadus. That is a man who understood the value of his priesthood and the sacraments.
May Father Poppa rest in eternal peace.
June 22, 2011 at 4:53 pm
I think your time might be better spent praying for Fr Corapi.
Using one priest's virtue to highlight anothers weakness is uncharitable!
May Fr Poppa rest in peace.
May Fr Corapi find peace.
June 22, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Thank you for posting this inspiring reminder of how dutiful we all should be to God in whatever vocation He has given us.
June 22, 2011 at 5:06 pm
I've never felt the urge to point out a fellow Catholic's uncharitableness, but here ya go.
What if millions looked into your life and commented on all the ways you fail as a husband and father. What have YOU let slide when you thought other things were more important?
Let he who is without sin…
June 22, 2011 at 5:22 pm
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June 22, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Father Corapi is a public minister of the Church who is very publicly leaving the Church, all the while sending out public messages concerning his activities. Should CMR not respond publicly to what the man is saying so publicly? If Corapi had handled things more quietly, only asking for prayers, then a more quiet response to him would be in order.
June 22, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Caroline and Katherine hit the nail on the head. Patrick's snarky self-righteousness isn't reserved just for Fr. Corapi, but he seems to have hit the jackpot with him (see the stupid chihuahua video he posted). He likes to think he's funny when in fact he's not. Sarcasm and snarkiness only feed the power of the enemy. People aren't our enemies, no matter how disgusting some of their views/actions may be. You can debate the views without insulting the person, but that takes maturity, which Patrick still seems to lack.
June 22, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I'm a sinner and I also have freedom of speech.
Many of us are unhappy with former father Corapi for his abandonment of the priesthood. He talked the good talk encouraging the flock to battle on but he QUIT!As a priest he could perform the miracle of making Christ present on the altar, additionally, as a priest he could forgive sins. No ordinary person can do this–only a consecrated priest- yet with these beautiful privledges it seems to most that he tossed them to the wind in exchange for his freedom (avoidence of criticism) and riches. Darn right us sinners can make comments about it. Mrs. Scott
June 22, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Hi everyone,
Don't know where to submit this, and twitter is blocked at work, but saw this story about a facebook game where you play as a priest: http://gamepolitics.com/2011/06/22/introducing-vatican-wars-facebook-game-catholics
This post seemed the most relevant to submit for more investigation. Please forgive me if this is outside of standard protocol.
June 22, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Thank you Father Shelton— and may Father Chester Poppa's memory be eternal!
June 22, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Patrick, I don't usually have this sort of response, but that is incredibly crass.
You just took the death of a good priest and shoe-horned it into an attention grabbing story.
Father Poppa deserved far better than to be turned into a handy little hammer; rather than honoring such grand dedication and sacrifice, you made it into a talking point.
That is very much unlike you, and very saddening.
June 22, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Foxfier,
I don't think that is what I did. I put up the post to honor Fr. Poppa. However, I felt it stood in stark contrast to Corapi's attitude toward his priesthood and so I mentioned it.
I did not use Fr. Poppa as a hammer, but as the ideal. I think it is relevant.
June 22, 2011 at 7:16 pm
You didn't "mention" Corapi, you put him as the headline and made Father Poppa a secondary concern.
Big difference than if you'd, say, titled it "Death of a Devoted Priest," done the story, and mentioned at the bottom what a big contrast it was to Corapi's 10% quote.
June 22, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Foxfier,
Not to quibble, but I use the word mention in a general sense. This is one quick post out of thousands I have done. To me, that is a 'mention."
I post the things that pop into my head as I think them. This is what popped into my head as I read this story so shortly after hearing Corapi's audio. I made the association in my head and so I shared it. This is what blogs are for.
I don't understand why it is deemed inappropriate to write a quick post on what I was thinking.
June 22, 2011 at 7:42 pm
You didn't have a second thought of "Hm. Maybe sidelining a guy that should be held up as a great example, sort of shoving the praiseworthy corpse aside at his own funeral, is in bad taste"?
I'm having a similar response to one your brother Matthew posted about on a similar occasion.
June 22, 2011 at 7:48 pm
"Hm. Maybe sidelining a guy that should be held up as a great example, sort of shoving the praiseworthy corpse aside at his own funeral, is in bad taste"?
Except that is not what I did, is it? I wrote a short blog post on my blog. I did not shove the priest aside at his own funeral and I did not sideline him. Quite the contrary in fact, vivid hyperbole not withstanding.
I think you are as off base on this one as apparently you think that I am. I suppose we will have to agree to disagree on this.
June 22, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Patrick, I like both your post.
I also like Father Shelton's post about Fr Corapi. also
In contrast to Carolines opinion, I find your posting to be very charitable. keep in mind that Charity is that habit or power which disposes us to love God above all creatures for Himself, and to love ourselves and our neighbours for the sake of God. Charity includes love of God as well as love of man. How is it not charitable to shead light on the wrong path?
Here Is Father Sheltons Post,:
"Please Praise Me!
Neither my parishioners nor the chancery appreciate me as much as they should. This is despite the fact that I am an exceptional priest, excelling at everything from ministry to the sick to my powerfully moving sermons. Let's be honest, if things were as they should be I would be a monsignor or even a bishop by now. At the very least I should be a top advisor to the bishop, the toast of priests' gatherings and the recipient of numerous civic awards.
The problem here is that all priests think we are exceptionally good at what we do, and that we really deserve more congregational, peer and episcopal recognition than we receive. We don't retire at the end of a hard day of pastoral work praying: "thank you, God, for giving me this day to do a below average job for You".
The truth is that half of us are in the bottom half, and only ten percent are in the top ten percent. The math is obvious, but we cultivate an attitude of self-praise that blocks it out.
Poor Father Corapi. And I won't say more about him than that. Poor Father Corapi.
Poor Father Shelton. I would be happy to say much about that. The problem, however, is that I am not a priest of the Holy Sheltonian Church, but of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ. My purpose in life is to preach the truth of Christ and to administer the signs of Christ. I am not called to preach or administer Father Shelton.
Therefore, no priest should take any dangerous pleasure in the praise of parishioners or civic groups or chanceries. All praise belongs to Jesus Christ. Any praise we take for ourselves while performing His work is a violation of the Seventh Commandment (you shall not steal). Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ!
So, we priests need to get over ourselves, preach Christ crucified, and be thankful that we get to share in Christ's sufferings whenever someone nails us to a cross. If we abandon our cross the moment a parishioner, fellow priest or bishop unjustly gives it to us, then we are simply useless to Christ. If Christ accepted an unjust death for our sins, then we must be willing to accept unjust suffering for Him.
Praise Jesus!"
June 22, 2011 at 10:27 pm
May I gently suggest that everybody just lay off Father Corapi? I strongly disagree that Father Corapi's recent announcements require a response from anyone. If you like him, pray for him; if you don't like him, pray for him. All this anger and backbiting are not helping anyone, and are probably hurting some people.
Is there nothing else going on in the world to write about?
June 22, 2011 at 11:10 pm
@Midday
"If you like him, pray for him; if you don't like him, pray for him. All this anger and backbiting are not helping anyone, and are probably hurting some people."
Perhaps we should make this same application towards the Bishops whom Fr. Corapi and his supporters speak against most harshly.
June 22, 2011 at 11:30 pm
Quoting:
"If you like him, pray for him; if you don't like him, pray for him. All this anger and backbiting are not helping anyone, and are probably hurting some people."
Perhaps we should make this same application towards the Bishops whom Fr. Corapi and his supporters speak against most harshly.
Indeed, and for everyone for that matter. It wouldn't harm a single one of us to stop gossiping about and exploiting this situation and just turn it over to the Lord in prayer.
June 22, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Mal Humor…….
This calls for a joke!
Two men considering a religious vocation were having a conversation. "What is similar about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders? " the one asked.
The second replied, "Well, they were both founded by Spaniards — St. Dominic for the Dominicans, and St. Ignatius of Loyola for the Jesuits. They were also both founded to combat heresy — the Dominicans to fight the Albigensians, and the Jesuits to fight the Protestants."
"What is different about the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?"
"Met any Albigensians lately?"