Who is Fr. Corapi?

John Corapi was born in Hudson, New York. An outstanding football player in high school, he joined the US Army claiming he wanted to become a Green Beret, but an injury to his shoulder put an end to that dream. He served as clerk for the US army in Heidelberg, Germany during the Vietnam War era. After the army, he completed a degree in Business and eventually moved to Los Angeles, becoming a real estate agent.

According to Fr. Corapi’s own account, it was there that he began to use cocaine and attend parties where illegal drug use and sexual activity often took place. He counted drug dealers and lower echelon gangsters as his friends. At the height of his success as a real estate agent, Fr. Corapi lived in a house in Malibu, drove a Ferrari, and owned a personal yacht. After being introduced to cocaine, Fr. Corapi's success dwindled, sometimes spending $10,000 per week on drugs for friends who later left him. He would later refer to his drug use of this time as an encounter with a demon that eventually led to a mental breakdown and homelessness after his stay at a VA psychiatric hospital.

He would remain so for almost three years, wandering the streets as a vagrant. His mother sent him a prayer card with the Hail Mary prayer and asked him to pray it once a day. He eventually changed his life, escaping homelessness, illicit sex and drugs, which he attributes to his mother's prayers and the Blessed Virgin’s intercession. At this point, his mother sent him a one-way airline ticket back to New York. He would then live with his mother for some time. After confessing his sins to an elderly local priest during a Sacrament of Penance, he announced to the incredulous priest, "Father, I think I am being called to the priesthood." To which the stammering priest replied, “All things are possible with the Lord.” He entered studies to be a Roman Catholic priest and was ordained on May 26th, 1991.

Fr. Corpi is the author of a series of sermons, available on audiotape, called "The Darkness Will Not Prevail". In them, Fr. Corapi details his life story. The major theme throughout most of his preaching career has been the moral battle between good and evil that affects humanity. He draws an analogy between his own experience using the example of the Armed Forces, and the Spiritual Forces, (the Angels), who help believing Christians fight against Satan. He is also the author of a video series on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

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