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However, Father Gerard Sheehan, regional priest-servant of SOLT and Father Corapi’s religious superior in the U.S., confirmed June 19 that the order’s investigation faced complications created by a civil suit filed by Father Corapi against the former employee who had accused him of sexual misconduct.

“When she left the company, she signed a contract that she would not reveal anything that happened to her while she was at Santa Cruz Media. Father Corapi paid her for this. Father was suing her for a breach of contract,” said Father Sheehan, though he did not specify why Father Corapi had initiated the non-disclosure agreement.

The civil suit against the former employee created a problem for SOLT investigators.

“In canon law, there can’t be any pressure on witnesses; they have to be completely free to speak. The investigation was compromised because of the pressure on the witnesses. There were other witnesses that also had signed non-disclosure agreements,” said Father Sheehan.

“The canon lawyers were in a difficult situation, and Father does have his civil rights and he decided to follow his legal counsel, which he had a right to do,” he said. “We tried to continue the investigation without speaking to the principal witnesses.”

The investigation was halted after Father Corapi “sent us a letter resigning from active ministry and religious life. I have written him a letter asking him to confirm that decision. If so, we will help him with this process of leaving religious life,” said Father Sheehan.

Sounds interesting, but not that unusual. The accusation of "sexual misconduct" can include all sorts of things ~ at USPS Headquarters (a large operation with about 3,000 people on average) I recall a case where a male employee said "s" "h" "i" "t" within hearing of a female employee who probably would have been better off in a convent.

Another involved a fellow who'd supposedly managed to harrass over 10,000 women throughout the USPS. He had a very long track record ~ most of his "sins" were attempts to solicit dates.

No idea what Father Corapi was up to but when it comes to "sexual misconduct" cases in the corporate world it's always the seriousness of the charge rather than the nature of the acts.

Odds are, though, if the Catholic Church is as "sensitive" as USPS it's probably not something most of us would recognize as having anything to do with "sex".

Hope he has several good lawyers though.