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	Cleric Leaves Priesthood Saying He Can't Get 'Fair Hearing' on Charges Georgia Bulletin June 20, 2011 http://www.georgiabulletin.org/world/2011/06/20/NEWS-4/ WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Father John Corapi, a priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, declared June 17 he was leaving the priesthood, contending he could not get a "fair hearing" on misconduct allegations that were lodged against him in March and which included what the priest said were sexual abuse charges. The announcement, which took the forms of a YouTube video and a blog posting on one of his websites, www.theblacksheepdog.us, was made two days before his 20th anniversary of priestly ordination. "For 20 years I did my best to guard and feed the sheep. Now, based on a totally unsubstantiated, undocumented allegation from a demonstrably troubled person I was thrown out like yesterday's garbage," Father Corapi said. "I accept that. Perhaps I deserve that." A spokesman for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity told Catholic News Service June 20 that Father Corapi had not formally notified the order, founded in 1958, of his intent to leave. "Not directly," said Father Gerard Sheehan, the order's regional priest-servant and Father Corapi's superior. "We heard it just like everyone else did, from YouTube. We're as surprised as everyone else is." Father Corapi had been suspended from priestly ministry by his religious order shortly after the allegations first surfaced. Eternal Word Television Network also took his television program off the air in March, saying it would not knowingly put a priest on the air whose priestly faculties had been suspended. Although a spokesman for the order had said in March the suspension "in no way implies Father Corapi is guilty of the allegation," Father Corapi had complained from the outset, as he reiterated June 17, that the process means "you are for all practical purposes assumed guilty until you can prove you are innocent."
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