When Fr. Williams acknowledged his paternity about a year ago it was announced that he was heading home to take care of a cancer.
Today it is announced that he has asked for his Dispensation from Celibacy and Priestly duties to take care of his child.
The blogger notes that he does not need a Dispensation from Celibacy to take care of his son; he could take a break from priestly ministry or simply become a lay person: the Church's terminology is horrible: to be reduced to the lay state/condition, "reduction in statum laicalem"
The blogger notes that according to Catholic Canon Law leaving the ministry and getting a Dispensation from the Vow of Celibacy are two separate steps -though they are often related.
[In Our Father Maciel who art in Bed, the author tell the story of how Cardinal Hickey of Washington DC helped him through that process. Hopefully the Legion will help Fr. Thomas through it now, going though the appropriate Vatican channels and having to admit that their flawless training system does not always work -that the Legion is human and fallible like all other religious orders, and not necessarily superior to them. Something that they have tried to cover up for decades by under-reporting defections.]
The blogger further notes that Pope Francis has been very clear that when a priest gets involved with a woman he must think seriously of what he is doing and that in some case it is better for him to get a Dispensation from Celibacy and to get Married, to take care of mother -hopefully the woman he loves- and their child.
It is the writer's opinion that up to now the Media -by not telling us more about this whole issue of Fr. Williams- is aiding and abetting the Legion in its constant policy of secrecy and obfuscation regarding what goes on in the Legion and how its members behave.
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