I caught about 5 minutes early this morning of Fr. Corapi on Relevant Radio. I usually do not listen to Relevant Radio except to hear what many of my fellow parishioners are listening to and thus be able to speak to them in their terms. My interpretation was that Fr. Corapi was talking about how the priest is the central person in the identity of the Church, after Christ. The future of the Church is some ways is dependent of a vital holy priesthood according to Fr. Corapi. He also spoke of those in the religious life, but he didn’t mention the diaconate, at least not in the short section to which I listened.
The deacon’s configuration to Jesus the Servant, and his identity as such in the Church is something few people seem to understand and appreciate. We have a long way to go in developing in the minds and hearts of the people who deacons are and what deacons are all about. I do not disagree necessarily with Fr. Corapi’s comments, but would add that in the American Church at least, the presence of the deacon in our faith communities will only increase as the years progress, and a well developed understanding of diaconal identity and spirituality is imperative, for both deacons and the presbytery, not to mention the laity. How best to do that is a question. The future of the Church depends on this too.
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