CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A southwest suburban pastor said it’s a big task, but that he’s responding to each and every person who contacted him over recent comments he made from the pulpit following the Capitol insurrection two weeks ago.
Fr. Bill Corcoran delivered the same message during masses at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Orland Hills Jan. 9 and 10. He said he pointed the finger of blame at himself and others for not speaking out until now against President Trump’s behavior over the past five years. A few dozen people, overall, walked out of the masses at that point.
"The big thing that troubled me was people didn’t feel welcome, that this somehow, you know, they had to leave," he said.
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But Corcoran said that while adults may disagree on something, there's no need for them to feel they are not welcome or do not belong.
Fr. Corcoran said the vast majority of phone calls, emails, and texts he’s received were supportive of him.
"I returned about 50 phone calls already. I’ve got about 600 emails. I’ve returned about a quarter of them, 150."
He also said he’s “liked” hundreds of Facebook comments to indicate he’s read them.
He said it was the violence of the Capitol insurrection that "finally drew a line for me and I felt you have to speak out, I had to speak out, at least."
"My point of the homily was to point a finger at me. I was partially responsible (for insurrection). I had been lax for years in not speaking out on things," things like President Trump abusing women and mocking a disabled person.
The priest said he has spent time over the past week and a half "contacting as many people as I could that I knew who walked out, that had sent me emails, that sent me phone calls. I spent a lot of time hearing their pain, how they had been hurt."
Fr. Corcoran is also hearing the pain of the vast majority of people who support what he said, but who wondered why local priests haven’t spoken out sooner.
He said he intends to get back to everyone in and out of his parish who contacted him. That includes a person from California, a retired New York firefighter who lives in New Jersey, and a priest he didn't know who called him from Ireland.