We really need to pray for our priests.  Priests are human and make mistakes.  There are women out there who are seeking and going after priests.  I have known a few priests who have told me.  If they have this relationship (they think in secret) remember everything comes to light someday.  The night has a thousand eyes so what they think is done in secret is NOT!!!!  Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for them.

The article does not indicate whether he fathered the child before or after being ordained or entering the order.  ??????????

I have read one book by Fr. Williams “Building on Solid Ground” and it had a profound effect one and I am thankful for Fr. Williams. We truly are fragile creations and we all have much to be thankful for in regards to what Fr. Williams has contributed to the world of faith in Jesus Christ.

  What about the child waking up to no father all the days of his life.  I think Rome should release such priests from their vows if a marriage would be a happy possibility so that the child would have a father in addition to increased financial support in the house.  Where are the child’s rights to a father?  Arguably our first sensing of God the Father comes through our encounter with our human father.  This child is not going to hve that ladder to the spiritual.

  Biblically in the Old Testament, he and she would marry after this sin and unlike all other Jewish marriages, they would never be allowed divorce. Douay Rheims…Deut. 22:28 ” If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, who is not espoused, and taking her, lie with her, and the matter come to judgment: [29] He that lay with her shall give to the father of the maid fifty sides of silver, and shall have her to wife, because he hath humbled her: he may not put her away all the days of his life.”

Seduction not rape seems to be the case here because the girl “crying out” or not “crying out” is not mentioned as in verses just previous.

Indeed, we are all frail humans (which include our clergy)  in desperate need of God’s mercy.
Only compassion & understanding can can lead us to His mercy.

the list of fallen priests goes on…Father Corapi,Father Francis Mary Stone,Father Tom Eutherner, Father Cutie….Dear Mary and St. Joseph please watch over the souls of all the religious in Thy Sons Church

How would you like to read the news today that your dad was “deeply sorry for the grave transgression” that caused your birth? How would it feel for your dad to tell the world he wished you had never been born?

It causes me sorrow that this child’s father could behave so selfishly, and that the institution that employs him remains so utterly clueless what to do about it.

This priest talks of “fathering her child”. Rather it should be “fathering our child”. To phrase it the way he did in his apology is to distance himself totally from his offspring. Take a little more responsibility, Father!

I will pray for Fr. Williams and all priests and those involved but the biggest thing that irks me is how the LC superiors handled it.  They didn’t see the prudence of removing him from public ministry when they learned of the child??  And all this during the revision.  It does not licit trust in those in powers.

Charles Lee, while I agree with you that Fr. Williams has acted selfishly, I’m not sure we can read his statement as amounting to “I wish you had never been born.”  But you nonetheless raise an intriguing issue regarding cluelessness and a lack of responsibility in general:  what about all of the single mothers in society as a whole who never hear any sort of apology for the transgression that resulted in their child?  Namely the transgression of having sex outside of wedlock, because sex isn’t *supposed* to lead to the possibility of babies when we don’t want it to, now is it?  Now, how’s that for cluelessness and a lack of responsibility?  If you want to know what a loud and clear statement of “transgression leading to a child’s birth” translating as “I wish you had never been born” really looks like, try abortion.

A child being born in these circumstances as per what Fr. Williams has done is indeed regretful and sad for the reasons you correctly allude to:  selfishness, and namely a child growing up largely without his father.  And furthermore, the father in question is a priest whose first obligation is as a husband to the Church.  All priests do and should know that before and upon ordination.  So this can only amount to grave scandal regarding the faithful.  But now that the child has been born, then it is to be loved and cared for; it is not “less than” from being born in regrettable circumstances.  And our priests are indeed as frail as the rest of us and dependent upon God’s mercy, which means that they need us to humbly understand, support, and pray for their vocations.

Shut down and disband the Legion of Christ congregation. This is just another case in this group of lecturing everyone else on how to live while living high of the hog and have sexual relations with everyone. Of course all this under the watchful approving eyes of John Paul II, who was happy with the cash-flow coming into the Vatican from the LCs for his world travels. If nothing else this should stop all work on his sainthood cause. What shame and disgust JP II and the LCs have brought to the church. How many more of these personal “club groups” loved by JP II are full of rot?

One year???

Very depressing. Every time you try to engage the larger culture over the issue of the Church’s sexual mores you get your nose rubbed in yet another story like this. And the stories keep coming. Something’s out of place.

“A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child.” No, Father, you are the father of YOUR child.  Are you paying child support?  Are you present to help guide your child? Does your child visit with your mother and father who love the child as grandparents should?  Does this child know your other family members?  If you answer “no” to any of these questions you have not stepped up and taken responsibility for your child. If not, do so immediately.

And this is why priests should be allowed to marry.  Celibacy for the priesthood is a man made rule.

I’m curious as to why Father remained silent until now. These matters are so touchy. He wanted to protect the mother and the child. Isn’t that why he distanced himself from them. I’m sure he has been financially supporting them simply because he is a responsible person who understands something of the difficulty in raising a child. All in all, it’s not our business what he did. Water under the bridge. He sounds sincerely sorry for his transgression. Let grace take care of him, the mother, and the child. BTW, who among us hasn’t something in his past, he’s sorry for and has sought forgiveness from Our Lord?

  I for one am in total agreement with Bruce on this particular issue and he totally hit the nail on the head. This is the one Congregation of Priests that had the total support and approval of the late “Great” John Paul II and if the Founder of the Order was not bad enough with his double life what about this case with Fr. Morris? I also strongly agree that the sainthood process for the Pope should not have even as gone as far as it did and this proves it. I am glad to see one other person in the world agree with me that he committed sins of omission in regards to this kind of scandal. Pius XII or John Paul I should have been beatified instead but that’s just my view. Any well meaning effort to reform this Movement is not working, members are leaving and I think they need to be disbanded.

Hiddenmole,
    The priest was protecting them from what?  The woman’s whole social world and neighborhood knew she was without a husband when she delivered.
    Try thinking of the child waking up to no father every day of his life.  These priests should be released from their religious vows under the stipulation that they marry the lady…if that seems like a reasonable and happy environment for the child.  The child’s welfare seems absolutely last in these reports.  I had both parents together til they were both 90.
I can’t imagine decades of no father.  The sexual sin is a really small aspect of this.  It’s over in the confessional.  The child’s longing for their real dad is not over after the confessional.  The child wondering if his dad cares about his report card or if a girl…does he like my new dress… is the killer…the absolute killer.  God can replace him in the priesthood in a NY minute.  Policy should change in this area also.

When I wanted to convert to the Roman Catholic church, to be in the same church with my husband, I had to battle my mother about it.  It seems like almost monthly, there are cases like this that come up, making it difficult.

I too, bristled, when the priest called his own child, “her child”.  It’s denial.  Every time I think of the Legionaries, I picture Fr. MM, kissing JPII’s ring.

I can just picture another talk with my mother.  If it’s not male children, it’s women.  Let priests marry, and maybe we can have some more real men among the clergy.  1 year?  I think not.

:-(
May God forgive and heal him and those he has hurt.

As a former Regnum Christi member I am so tired of scandal after scandal. Perhaps next we will hear about how long the superiors knew about this, and helped to cover it up. There is clearly an institutional problem here, not a surprise when we look at the founder. I pray for Fr Williams, and for his recovery from cancer too. I also pray for all the Church, for these scandals affect not just LC/RC but the entire Mystical Body of Christ. Let’s bring it all out into the open, and let it come to an end.

In my opinion it is now time for Pope Benedict to close down the Legionaries of Christ. It should have been done a long ago by Pope John Paul II but that was never going to happen. The founder of the Legionaries was a sexual predator and has caused great scandal. A religious order or society has no credibility if its founder has been proved to have fathered children and sexually abused seminarians. This man had sworn before God to lead a chaste and holy life. We would have had no Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Salesians, etc if their founders had been proved to be sexual predators and fathering children. Here in Ireland the Catholic Church is being destroyed by paedophile priests who were protected by their superiors or bishops.

Thinking about his transgression every day for a year? Seems a bit much. Would be better off to “reflect” for a month or so and then do something positive. Seems like a waste of a lot of good time.

Satan has entered the church as told in the third seceret of Fatima.