Saturday, February 7, 2009

The World Over (LC style)

Yesterday's EWTN program The World Over featured Fr. Thomas Williams and Fr. Jonathan Morris expressing consternation, bewilderment and apologizing to victims. On an ABC 20/20 broadcast a few years ago, Fr. Williams swore up and down that Maciel was totally innocent, since he had lived with him for 10 years. From the interview with Brian Ross:

Father Tom Williams, [ ] said he would serve as Macial's spokesman. He called the allegations "patently false."
"I know Father Maciel very well," Williams told ABCNEWS. "I've lived with him for 10 years." Williams has never asked him about the allegations, but when the Courant ran the story in 1997, Legion spokesman released a statement denying the allegations. Williams said the men making the accusations against Macial can't be believed because they didn't raise the sexual abuse charges in the 1950s when Vatican investigators were looking into other matters relating to Maciel. According to Williams, the Vatican investigated Marciel on counts of mismanagement of funds, drug and substance abuse and drug trafficking. The Vatican pronounced Maciel innocent of those charges and reinstated him as superior general to the Legion.

In addition, Williams noted, a ninth accuser retracted similar allegations, claiming he was pressured to lie by the other eight accusers.

The World Over program, hosted by Raymond Arroyo, will be repeated Sunday at 4 pm, and Monday at 10 am and 11 pm.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found the testimony of Fr.s William and Morris to be gut-wrenching and cathartic. Years of Legionary training could not conceal their shock and pain.

Fr. Maciel's dead. The anger and hostility some of the posters here have shown may be therepuetic, in the short term. However, judgement and malevolence will result in nothing more than "collateral damage", and long term delusion on the part of the haters, if left unchecked.

Fr. William's parting shot was a genuine request for prayer, and I for one intend to oblige him.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your comment. I have been following this news since it first broke out earlier this week. I saw a lot of angry postings in a lot of blogs. I am not judging them nor those who ask for prayers and forgiveness for Fr. Maciel and LC/RC. I will pray for the grace of forgiveness to be granted for all those who are affected by this scandal. I pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to forgive, no matter how hurtful the offense has been.

Anonymous said...

I do believe that they have both been hurt and duped. However, the priest on the left (Fr. Williams?) said the one thing that I was hoping to hear: to paraphrase, he said something to the effect that a supression and reforming just might be an option; he implied that he knew it was a possibility. To my mind, that's the only way the order can survive in any real sense. The other priest sounded more like the party line; yes, he was in pain, but he wants a forgive-and-move-forward path.

I did think that Raymond was good; he was reading all of our furious emails so he gets a sense of the outrage; he did point out the spiritual charism of the order being too tied in with the founder and so how could LC continue? At least it was said, out loud.