Legionary Priest Interviewed by OSV on the Scandal Crisis
February 5, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
(courtesy of New Advent)
John Norton, for OSV:
I asked
Legion of Christ Father Thomas Williams, an American who has held various leadership positions in Rome for his order, including as dean of theology for its pontifical university, to comment on the future direction of the Legion in the wake of its recent admission of unspecified failings on the part of its founder, Father Marcial Maciel.Father Williams is familiar to many American television viewers as an analyst for CBS and formerly for NBC. He’s also authored a number of theology books.
Here are his responses via email this morning:
Our Sunday Visitor: It cannot have been easy for the Legion to acknowledge flaws in the founder. What precipitated it now?
Father Thomas Williams, L.C.: Shortly after the Vatican’s communique of May 19, 2006 [requiring Father Maciel to retire to a private life of penitence and prayer] Father Alvaro Corcuera [Father Maciel’s successor as head of the order] began an internal investigation of the charges lodged against Father Maciel. In this investigation, he discovered that Father Maciel had fathered a child, who is now in her early 20s.
OSV: In the public statements so far from the U.S. and Rome spokesmen for the Legion, there has been acknowledgement of the discovery of “surprising and difficult to understand” facts about Father Maciel’s life that were “inappropriate” for a Catholic priest. Leaks from LC/RC sources indicate that those “facts” include at least the fathering of a child. But swirling around are also the original accusations of sexual abuse of seminarians, and revived rumors of drugs and inappropriate use of congregation funds. If the “facts” discovered by the LC leadership were limited only to the mistress, one would think the Legion would make that clear. (The “rights of privacy” argument advanced by Father Scarafoni yesterday frankly rings a little hollow; it is not like the Legion needs to provide names, addresses and phone numbers of those involved.) So is it fair to read the statements as an acknowledgement that some or all of the other allegations are true, or at least suspected?
Father Williams: During the investigation it became clear that some of the charges were patently false (contradiction of dates and places, etc.) while others seemed plausible and even likely. Obviously it is never possible to know for sure what happened in the past. I do not know which of the accusations were more likely true, but what seems evident is that some of them must indeed be true. . . . (read article)
[N.B. from me: Father Thomas Williams, LC, has been a dear friend of mine for many years. I admire him greatly and have always known him to be model priest and a straight-shooter when asked difficult questions. As a spokesman for the Legion, I hope he will not be constrained by folks above him in the ecclesiastical food chain from being completely forthright and courageously honest in explaining what’s going on.]
