CORPUS Disbands After 50 Years of Failed “Ministry”

In the heady Post-Vatican II days, many norms that governed priestly behavior were lost in the whirlwind of a Church opening its windows to the modern world.

One inevitable casualty of this ill-fated liberalization was the tidal wave of priests who left the priesthood to get married. Some estimate tens of thousands left for this reason in the last half of the twentieth century.

The Rise and Fall of CORPUS

Some of these priests claimed they still wanted to exercise their ministry despite their marriages. In 1974, a few American couples met to discuss how this might be done.

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In 1974, they formed an association of “Catholic priests who chose love over law.” The support group that eventually had hundreds of members was called the Corps of Reserved Priests United for Service, CORPUS for short.

CORPUS pursued a “ministry” outside the Church. That task has now come to an abrupt end. After fifty years of liberal activism, CORPUS’s directors decided to disband. The National Catholic Reporter mentioned on July 6 that the movement is at a standstill due to aging membership, including priests and their wives, and a lack of recruits. The organization that once had a mailing list of over 11,000 was down to 300 in 2024. The handwriting was on the wall; it was time to quit.

The Cutting Edge of the Catholic Left

When CORPUS started, it was on the cutting edge of the Catholic left in America. Operating outside the Church and its structures, these married priests performed weddings, baptisms and funerals. They considered themselves witnesses for a new, inclusive church that would become the wave of the future.

The leftists who stayed inside the Church looked upon these wayward priests with sympathy. They were considered poor, marginalized priests waiting for the Church to change her outdated rules. The left hoped that the priests (and their wives) might one day be readmitted into the ministry in full communion with Rome.

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In their closing statement, the priests compared their position to that of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela or the individual facing the tanks at Tiananmen Square.

However, the dream of a married clergy proved to be a mirage.

Going Astray

Indeed, once people leave the Church, they soon go astray. It did not take long for the association to go from exercising their “ministry” functions to taking all the classical heterodox positions of the Catholic left. The membership became early supporters of allowing women priests, an end to priestly celibacy and other such issues. They often presided over the adulterous re-”marriage” of divorced Catholics who did not bother to pursue a declaration of nullity.

CORPUS often made public statements calling on the Church to change her position.

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It is telling that the final dispersal of the dying organization’s funds (some $150,000) included radical progressive groups (also aging) like FutureChurch, Dignity USA, and the Women’s Ordination Conference.

CORPUS Was Left Behind

Once outside the Church, groups like CORPUS gradually lose their relevance. After an initial enthusiasm, CORPUS has faded away. Members soon had to deal with the reality of children and grandchildren. The Catholic left found more radical and less clerical causes to champion. CORPUS was left behind.

Thus, the once popular group joins the well-known and moribund Catholic pacifist movement Pax Christi that recently disbanded. Additionally, progressive religious congregations and convents that adopted heterodox views are also closing due to a lack of vocations.

The ‘60s are over. Young people were not interested in the exhausted ideas that have caused so much destruction inside the Church.

What Attracts Youth

This exhaustion explains why groups like CORPUS no longer attract. Today, postmodern youth crave order, structure and ritual. They are not looking for worn-out ideologies or class struggle narratives that have nothing to do with their experience in life. In their quest for meaning, young Catholics are drawn to liturgy, tradition and beauty.

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Youth find value in the dedication, especially found in a celibate clergy, which makes the Catholic Church special. Groups that go astray are doomed to fade away like CORPUS.

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