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Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on May 23, 2012
Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that a now-disgraced, high profile Michigan Catholic priest refused to honor restrictions on his ministry that his supervisor instituted after the priest admitted secretly fathering a child.
He’s Fr. Thomas D. Williams of the controversy-ridden Legion of Christ. He’s a high profile, media-savvy Michigan native who now lives in a Detroit suburb with family, since he stepped down several days ago, after news outlets disclosed his past.
Fr. Williams belongs to a controversial Connecticut-based religious order and spoke last month at a retreat for women in Rhode Island even though his supervisors knew that he had broken his vows of celibacy and secretly fathered a child years earlier.
Yesterday, the AP reported that in 2005, Fr. Williams’ boss, Fr. Alvaro Corcuera asked Williams “to start withdrawing from public ministry” and five years later “placed restrictions on his ministry.” Then, two months ago, Corcuera gave Fr. Williams “explicit indication to fully withdraw from all public ministry.”
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