SNAP Responds to Story of Legionary of Christ Priest Thomas Williams

Barbara Blaine of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests has released a press statement about the story of Legionary of Christ priest Thomas Williams about which I blogged yesterday.  As she notes, Phillip Pullella of Reuters is now reporting that top Vatican officials and top Legionary of Christ officials have known about Thomas Williams's reported transgressions for quite some time now, but have kept silent about them.  

An excerpt from SNAP's powerful and right-on-target statement about this situation: 

And it's important to remember that the Legion 

--has a long, sordid history of secrecy about clergy sex crimes and misdeeds, and 

-- claims a recent "investigation" found that seven Legion priests are accused of molesting kids. 

 (We strongly suspect that’s a lie. We believe it’s very likely that most of these allegations were reported directly to Legion officials, not discovered through some “investigation.” And we suspect that, like with Fr. Williams, top Legion staffers have known for months or years about many of these accusations but have kept them hidden.) 

Finally, Fr. Williams’ own comments on this scandal bear mentioning. 

He apologizes for the news getting out - “I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation” – but not for the harm he’s caused to his child (who’s growing up with apparently no emotional support – or at least honesty – from his or her father and no financial support from his or her father or the wealthy Catholic institution that pay him). 

And Fr. Williams still refuses to accept responsibility for the child, writing about “respect for the privacy of the woman and her child.” 

In short, the Legion is – and has long been - perhaps the most secretive and corrupt Catholic religious order in the world. It’s officials should publicly discipline Fr. Williams. And those who have seen, suspected and suffered clergy sexual misconduct by current and former Legion employees should step forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect others and start healing. 

"And Fr. Williams still refuses to accept responsibility for the child, writing about 'respect for the privacy of the woman and her child.'"  That's a particularly chilling sentence to me, given that Fr. Williams teaches Catholic moral theology.  

In what kind of moral universe does it make sense to attack contraceptive use, which is all about responsible stewardship of one's reproductive life, and then when one fathers a child to whose mother one is not married or committed, to claim that one has no responsibility for the child one has fathered?

There's something obscene about the claim of people who behave this way to represent religious and moral authority.  And about their attempt to block access to contraceptives for lay Catholics (and even non-Catholics) who want to exercise responsibility and stewardship in their reproductive lives.

And this is why, I would maintain, increasing numbers of Catholics who are fed up with the whole lot of pretending (and lying, and secret-keeping, and silence-employing) expected of us Catholics today as a condition for being a "good" Catholic are distancing themselves from the church.

And from its toxic and unholy trinity of lies, secrets, and silence.

The graphic for this posting, featuring Adrienne Rich's book On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, is from  Kristina Krause's marvelous Moon and Sixpence photo-journal blog.