And so, when, for grave reasons, the Church authorities reduce a priest to the lay state, not even this reduction can “reduce” the priest to a non-priestly state: “once a priest, always a priest.” And this is why, such a “reduced” priest would still be absolving validly (and licitly) a dying person on the side of the road and change his destiny for all eternity.
What is strange about the action of Fr. Corapi is that he took the initiative of “resigning from public ministry” indefinitely it seems, probably due to his frustration with authorities. In other words, he did not want to wait for his superiors to make final decision on him as their subject stained with suspicion and therefore quarantined until his file is clear. This process is the prescribed Church’s disciplinary policy per the 1961 private directive for bishops dealing with such cases authored by the late Cardinal Ottaviani. All this sounds obviously very prudent.
Fr. Corapi’s argument is that of St. Paul’s ministry which was firstly of preaching and not of giving sacraments, and that he had received a similar vocation as told by his legitimate superior, Fr. J. Flanagan, four years before he was ordained a priest. However, this is neither a correct exegesis of St. Paul’s apostolic life, nor good dogmatic theology of the power of ordination given to offer sacrifice, bless and forgive sins. Nor is it sound pastoral theology since it was the bishop in charge who gave him his very specific mission, regardless of what his early superior might have thought. Does the priesthood belong to him as an individual or is it the gift of God which is to be used at the discretion of the lawful authorities?