ROME
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) — The head of the Legionaries of Christ admitted he knew about the sexual improprieties of a U.S. priest based in Rome and did too little to restrict his high-profile ministry.

But more important than his failure to limit the priest’s ministry, he said, is the need to reassure members “that things are handled differently now.”

Legionary Father Alvaro Corcuera, who succeeded the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado as director general of the order, said he had known in 2005 that Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams had fathered a child, but acknowledged he “was not diligent in setting proper restrictions and enforcing them.”