By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
After calling the city of Cincinnati’s Creation Museum “an armory of righteous revisionism,” a restaurant reviewer at Vanity Fair magazine took aim at Fr. John Corapi, referring to him as “Fr. Crappy” and calling the people who booked his upcoming conference “Neanderthals lacking technology.”
The offensive diatribes, written by A. A. Gill, a contributing editor at the magazine, ran in two recent issues of Vanity Fair. The first concerned the Creation Museum which is twenty minutes outside Cincinnati and just across the Kentucky border. After touring the museum, he wrote an enormously offensive piece dedicated to mocking Christian belief in the Book of Genesis. Added to this piece were numerous insults about Cincinnati, saying “Cincinnatians have meager pickings to boast about” and accusing them of being “Neanderthals, lacking technology.”
When Cincinnatians wrote to complain about his comments, A. A. Gill took aim on the city once again, this time deriding the town for hosting an upcoming conference with Fr. John Corapi to be held July 17 at the city’s Cintas Center.
“This type of conference is one of the plethora of examples proving how ‘these people’ manage to lack the ability in progressing with the ideas and findings of the times,” Gill said. “The people behind this event are perfect examples of the neanderthal mindset their city’s decision makers have repeatedly shown, neglecting to acknowledge advancements in modern science.”
He went on to complain: “All this theoretical religious rubbish, it baffles me the amount of money and time invested in a conference with a priest ranting about an age old message that carries no basis or fact. Have these people opened a book in the past decade!? Who cares what message this man pretends to have, while he makes money off of it? The Church has made more money off of humanity than any organization in the world with ‘theories’ like the Creation Museum and Father Corapi.”
Gill then added: “Surely there is nothing ‘Fr. Crappy’ [referencing Fr. John Corapi] could possibly say that would affect me or the rest of humanity who, like me, have more than half a brain. . . . Wait, I have a suggestion for ‘Fr. Crappy’ and Cincinnati from what I’ve seen of it. Invest in a conference on how to use electronic devices or how to acquire some style that’s NOT inspired by the Amish of the early 1900’s.”
According to a blog by Danielle Bean, editorial director of Faith and Family Magazine, the Catholic businessman responsible for booking the Fr. Corapi event, Joe Condit of CMG Booking, decided to respond like a true Christian to Gill’s unprovoked personal attacks.
“I would love to take this opportunity to pose a proposition to Mr. Gill,” Mr. Condit said. “I would like to invite him as my personal guest to the Father Corapi event in Cincinnati. I would be more than happy to cover all his expenses. Consider this a second chance for the city of Cincinnati to make a different impression, and better yet, see for himself if Father Corapi’s message doesn’t affect him in some way.”
As Bean notes, there is no word yet on whether Gill will accept Condit’s invitation.
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