On-Air Challenge: You’ll be given a series of categories. For each one, name something in the category beginning with each of the letters of the word “robin.” For example, given the category “two-syllable boys’ names,” the answers could be “Roger,” “Omar,” “Barry,” “Isaac” and “Neville.”

Last Week’s Challenge: Name the capital of a country that, when said out loud, sounds like a three-word phrase. This phrase might describe the reason why the police did not catch a barefoot thief. What is the capital, and what is the reason?

Answer: The capital is Port-au-Prince, and the reason is “poor toe prints.”

Winner: Jeanne Grace of Fairport, N.Y.

Next Week’s Challenge from listener Gary Witkin of Newark, Del.: Using only the six letters of the name “Bronte,” repeating them as often as necessary, spell a familiar six-word phrase. What is it?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week’s challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announces a lawsuit against Accretive Health in Jan., saying the company failed to protect the confidentiality of health care records for thousands of Minnesota residents. The charges have widened to include the company’s tactics in collecting debts.

So what do you do when you’re accused of hitting up sick patients in the hospital to pay their bills — sometimes even before they get treatment?

Well, if you’re Chicago-based Accretive Health, under fire by not only the Minnesota Attorney General but key members of Congress and possibly the Obama Administration, you fight fire with fire. You line up your own set of political defenders.

To back up a bit, this story began last year with a stolen laptop, which led to a January lawsuit filed by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson charging Accretive with privacy violations.

The resulting investigation led, in turn, to an April story in The New York Times, that chronicled how Accretive workers allegedly posed as employees in Minnesota hospitals, and included “embedding debt collectors as employees in emergency rooms and demanding that patients pay before receiving treatment.”

Accretive struck back, charging that that Attorney General Swanson’s report contained “inaccuracies, innuendo and unfounded speculation.” The company also enlisted a formidable political ally – Chicago Mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He personally asked Swanson to back off, noting in a letter that the company “does important work for hospitals and good things for our City, particularly for our neediest citizens.”

Swanson, however, declined Emanuel’s entreaty. “We will continue to interview witnesses and perform our law enforcement responsibilities over charitable hospitals in Minnesota,” she said in a statement.

So now Accretive is upping the ante. It has enlisted a veritable who’s who in health policy to come up with “national standards for how hospitals and other providers interact with patients regarding their financial obligations.” In other words, how aggressive can debt collectors be without running afoul of federal law, various or regulation or good public relations.

The group includes some well-connected heavy-hitters, including former Bush administration Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Medicare chief Mark McClellan, former Senate GOP leader Bill Frist,. There some prominent Democrats too, including former Clinton Administration HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle.

For all of Accretive’s alleged misdeeds, however, the collection of outstanding bills is a serious one for hospitals, particularly as they await the Supreme Court’s decision about the 2010 health law. Hospitals agreed to take significant reductions in Medicare payments with the expectation they would make that money back when currently uninsured patients whose care now goes unpaid would gain coverage.

Should the high court strike down the requirement for most people to obtain insurance, however, that could leave hospitals in a financially difficult spot.

Dr Ahmad Al Amoush, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Sharjah University, said this indicated that even balanced households needed attention.

The two-day conference aims to shed light on the challenges Emirati families are currently facing. The main contributing factors were attributed to globalisation and the opening up of households to numerous imported cultures from across the globe.

Dr Ahmad Wahdan, head of the Assisting Sciences Department and member of the Scientific Council of Policing Sciences at the Sharjah Academy, said the family offered "the first communication experience" a person has in life. He added that this experience would definitely affect a person’s entire life.

Article continues below

"Communication between parents and children in Emirati families is cumulatively less than an hour per day," he added.

Leading causes

In a study on the leading causes behind juvenile crime in the Arab word, Al Amoush listed the absence of a father and the absence parental supervision and leadership.

"Divorce in the Arab world has reached 60-65 per cent. Peer pressure, [the] lack of positive role models, children copying their friends, a multitude of TV series that portray values which do not match those of Arab societies and [an] opening [up] to new technologies are all contributing factors to the problem," he explained.

According to Al Amoush, 85 per cent of young people in Arab societies prefer to communicate through chat rooms and social networks rather than face to face.

Dr Jasem Al Marzouqi, director of the Research and Studies Department at the Family Development Foundation, attributed the imbalance of values in the UAE society to the sudden opening up to the outside world, the significant decline in the Emirati population and an increasing expatriate workforce.

"Forty-five per cent of the UAE population is [made up of] youngsters, who will be the future generation. Therefore it is important to instil in them good behaviour and positive values to avoid future problems and divorce, which, according to a study by the Family Development Foundation in 2009, cost the UAE Dh800 million," Al Marzouqi said.

Al Marzouqi pointed to an alarming problem where parents are passing over the responsibility of raising their children to their housemaids.

He added that a drastic increase in the numbers of housemaids, who are reported to number 5 per cent of the UAE’s population, reflected an ever-increasing dependence by most families on maids and neglect for their children.

According to a 2007 study conducted by the Ministry of Interior and involving 3,000 families in Abu Dhabi, 19 per cent had four housemaids, 14 per cent had three, 15 per cent had two and 35 per cent had one. In Al Ain alone, 25 per cent of the families had four housemaids.

Al Marzouqi stressed on the importance of fostering awareness among families, instilling positive values, monitoring programmes that address youth and nurturing good behaviour amongst them.

Fact Box

The following emerged from another study led by Dr Ahmad Al Amoush, from Sharjah University, involving 190 children in the UAE:

Miss Dunleavy said she was scared when she realised how quickly the labour was progressing, as her daughter had developed Group B streptococcus (GBS) and midwives had told her she would need intravenous antibiotics in the hours before she gave birth.

GBS is the most common cause of life-threatening infections in newborn babies in the UK.

Miss Dunleavy said: "I just started panicking and screaming. Then I realised that I didn't have a choice anyway and there was nothing I could do to stop her coming out."

Bo-Pierre was later given the all-clear after a course of antibiotics.

Miss Dunleavy said: "I was in disbelief the majority of Thursday and a bit of Friday and a bit of Saturday. She's not even meant to be here yet, she was due on the 17th."

Mr Courtney, 21, said he was "absolutely terrified" during the birth.

He said: "I was on the phone to the midwife and all of a sudden Natalie said to me that her waters had broken.

"I ran back into the bathroom panicking like mad. The woman on the phone was trying to calm me down."

After checking that the umbilical cord was not wrapped around the baby's neck, Mr Courtney helped deliver his daughter, rubbed her back to get her to breathe and covered her in towels to keep her warm.

He said: "I didn't believe it was me that did it, I think my body went into auto pilot."

Mr Courtney said of his daughter: "She's absolutely brilliant. She's perfect. She's a gift."

- Hansdeep Singh

“You go to the airport, you know that you’re going to be pulled aside,” he says. “You know that your turban is going to be asked to be touched upon and then the ways the x-rays are going to be flowing in to see if you’re a safe traveler or not.”

For turban-wearing Sikhs, there are at least three levels of screening at security checkpoints. There’s the metal detector, the hand wand and the “explosive trace detection” pat-down. That’s where an officer or the passenger touches the turban, then gets their hands swabbed for traces of explosives.

If the TSA has further questions, the passenger may be asked to remove his or her turban for further inspection — the greatest insult, says Hansdeep Singh of the International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination.

“There’s literally no way, no policy or screening method for us to go through that doesn’t literally strip us of our dignity, each time,” Hansdeep says.

“Oftentimes, when you’re not making that initial complaint at the airport, you lose the motivation to file that complaint after time goes by,” he says.

TSA: It’s Not About The Turbans

It’s not only Sikhs who face extra scrutiny. Across cultures, there are travelers who wear headwraps or bulky clothing. They say they get similar treatment.

At Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., TSA spokesperson Kawika Riley says there’s no profiling going on, just screening for safety.

“If a passenger is wearing any type of bulky headwear, then they should know they may be subject to additional screening,” he says. “We do not profile based on race; we do not profile based on ethnicity; we do not profile based on religion.”

Riley says the TSA must try to detect ever more sophisticated weapons — plastic explosives for instance — that can’t be seen on x-rays. But he says the agency doesn’t want to mistreat flyers.

“We’re constantly working to improve our detection technology, our officer’s training and TSA’s capacity to make the travel experience not just more secure — although that’s our focus — but also more convenient for passengers,” Riley says.

While a lot of the evidence of profiling is anecdotal, the problem is that the TSA does not make a lot of its data public, says Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer at BT Managed Security Solutions. His company has advised the TSA in the past.

“We get less security when we profile,” Schneier says, because it sends a signal to the bad guys about how not to look. “If we are profiling, we shouldn’t do it. It’s just doing security smarter.”

To repair its relationship with passengers, Schneier says the TSA needs to be more transparent.

Meanwhile, FlyRights will be available for download on the iPhone and Android phones starting Monday.

The original people of north America, who made up several distinct groups of native Americans, went into decline with the arrival of settlers and now constitute a minority of the population.

The early settlers came predominantly from the British Isles. Large numbers of black Africans were taken as slaves to work the plantations of the Americas, while millions of Europeans in search of political freedom and economic opportunity constituted a third stage of immigration.

Today, Asians from the Pacific rim and Hispanics from the southern Americas are among those seeking what their predecessors wanted – the promise of prosperity and freedom which remains one of the defining hallmarks of "the American dream".

Despite relative prosperity in recent years, the gap between rich and poor remains a major challenge. More than 30 million Americans live below the official poverty line, with a disproportionate percentage of these being African-Americans and Hispanics.

Furthermore, the global financial crisis of 2008 has left the US facing its most challenging set of economic circumstances since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 had a momentous impact as the country continued to re-define its role as the world's only superpower.

In October 2001 the US led a military campaign in Afghanistan which unseated the Taleban regime. However, the man thought to have inspired the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden escaped the operation and eluded the US until 2011, when killed in a US special forces operation in Pakistan.

In March 2003 Washington initiated military action in Iraq which led to the toppling of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

US foreign policy has often mixed the idealism of its "mission" to spread democracy with the pursuit of national self-interest.

Given America's leading role on the international stage, its foreign policy aims and actions are likely to remain the subject of heated debate and criticism, as well as praise.

As part of our Destination USA project pitting rival cities against each other, New York beat Los Angeles in our completely unscientific poll, gaining 52% of the approximately 7,000 votes cast, compared with L.A.’s 48%.

But Angelenos walloped New York in enthusiastic support for their city, sharing our Los Angeles lover’s column on L.A.’s virtues more than 30,000 times on Facebook, compared with 1,400 endorsements for our transplanted New Yorker’s love letter to NYC.

And that robust participation from the City of Angels translated into more than 500 reader comments on the Los Angeles story, compared with 150 on the New York installment of the smackdown.

We asked iReporters and commenters to share the very best things about their respective cities and why they like them better than any other. Some felt the need to add a little trash talk. You decide if they’re right.

Talking a little smack

New York inspires people to accomplish great things they could not imagine anywhere else, according to iReporter Mandana Armand of Gramercy Park, in Manhattan. “That greatness is just around the corner, always in New York. You never know what kind of fortuitous kindling this city will throw at you.”

New York is the center of the modern world, claims iReporter Craig Clemens, a former Los Angeles resident. “Finance, real estate, publishing — it’s almost too much for an Angeleno to take in. I should know because I used to be one.”

Not so, claims L.A. defender cornholio5. “L.A. intimidates people because they’re afraid to admit it’s better than where they’re from. In L.A., we order bagels from people that don’t yell at us. We don’t care if your pizza is better. We like ours, but we like yours, too. We legally smoke weed, we surf, we go to work in flip-flops and we drive Priuses. We work hard, we’re laid back, we eat avocados and we do yoga. We respect N.Y., and don’t even expect it back. That’s how we roll.”

Residents of Los Angeles rave about the good weather, and more. “Los Angeles has the better weather, the better technology, the car capital of the world, better jobs, better food and better people,” writes another commenter. “New York City: You pay outrageous rent, and who wants to pay $1,000/month just to park your car?”

Let’s go out and play in New York

We admit it, both cities have great places to play, whether you’re splurging or traveling on a budget. New York offers full price theater tickets to “The Book of Mormon” and discount theater tickets at the TKTS booth. Make reservations to Per Se or Eleven Madison Park for fine dining or grab an affordable (and incredible) burger and cheese fries at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park or “chicken fried chicken” at Cowgirl in the West Village.

iReporter Beth Barret, who grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and lives in Riverdale in the Bronx, offers you her walking tour route, free of charge. “One of my favorite things to do with friends who visit me is to start walking from the bottom of Manhattan,” she writes. “We start at the Statue of Liberty, walk north through Battery Park, Wall Street, the South Street Seaport, Chinatown, Little Italy, Tribeca, Soho, Greenwich Village & Chelsea. And that is only day one!”

“Every nook and cranny of the city exudes its own pleasures, flavors and personality,” claims Barret. “I honestly don’t think you can ever see it all. From the Edgar Allen Poe cottage in the Bronx to the site of the … World’s Fair in Queens, there is always something to see that will wow you!”

Head to One World Trade Center, says Charlottesville, Virginia, resident and iReporter Joanne Ciccone, who visits New York regularly to see her son. “One World Trade Center is at the heart of what this country is about. Like the Phoenix rising from its ashes, NYC is building up from the horrors of 9/11. This rebuilding of structure and attitude makes NYC the greatest city on Earth. It will not be destroyed in building or beliefs.”

Let’s play in L.A.

Los Angeles offers everything from swimming and surfing at the beach to skiing in the mountains and camping in the desert. A short drive (traffic permitting) will get you to some of the most beautiful outdoor spots in the world.

“The feeling is laid back while you cruise down Sunset Blvd. and dig on the celebrities,” writes iReporter Allen Mealey. “Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, from the Hollywood film industry to all of the great concerts and clubs, we beat Manhattan hands down! And those Hollywood nights, those Hollywood hills.” (With thanks to Bob Seger.)

DigitalGypsy, who lives in Culver City but also loves Venice, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Silverlake, never wears anything heavier than a hoodie because the weather is so fabulous. “It’s definitely the spot to be in for surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding. Life is a little more laid back and you get to enjoy the beauty of nature that surrounds you.”

Standouts to commenter Jon: Griffith Observatory, summer movies at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, monthly downtown Art Walk, the Venice Art Walk, The Perch (or any of the downtown rooftop bars), driving around actual film studios, ChaCha Lounge (hipster bar in Silver Lake), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOCA (contemporary museum), Villain’s Tavern and “hiking up to the Hollywood sign or any of the hundreds of amazing hiking trails all throughout the hills and mountains of the city.”

Let’s eat some good food

There’s no shortage of advice online or in print on the best cuisine in Los Angeles or New York. Both towns have food critics who have their preferences for high-end, low-end and everything in between — although only Los Angeles can claim the first winner of a Pulitzer Prize for food criticism in Jonathan Gold, now at the “Los Angeles Times. “

If you’re craving a particular cuisine or need to eat in a particular part of town, plenty of foodie websites can help you out. If you’re talking to residents, make sure they really like food — because there’s plenty of bad food to be had in both cities.

Manhattan resident Mandana Armand loves the 21 Club for the feel of old New York, drinks at the Gansevoort Hotel and the chocolate waterfall brunch at the Waldorf Astoria. For vegetarians and vegans, Armand recommends Pure Food and Wine restaurant. “It’s a raw food restaurant that delivers the most exquisite flavors imaginable. You will not believe it is raw food.”

Former Los Angeles resident and iReporter Anne McCarney has many favorite restaurants and bars to recommend: “Homegirl Cafe (near downtown), OB’s Pub & Grill (Manhattan Beach), Mama D’s Italian (Hermosa or Manhattan Beach), Cafe Boogaloo (Hermosa Beach), Shark’s Cove (Manhattan Beach), Empress Pavilion (Chinatown), Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, In-N-Out, Lotus frozen yogurt (Hermosa Beach), Sweet Lady Jane’s bakery (Melrose).”

And yes, Mexican food can be found almost anywhere in Los Angeles. However, commenter VikoG suggests visitors move beyond the assumption of Mexican food as beans, rice, tacos, burritos and enchiladas. “Angelenos know better (and) we take advantage of all the delicious non-Americanized cuisine, especially mariscos, Poblano cusine, Oaxacan cusine and so many more,” he writes.

Pitting one city against the other is pointless, say some, like comparing an SUV to a sports car. “If you want a house with a big yard, pool and palm trees, NYC is not the place for you,” writes commenter Chris Allen, who was raised in Los Angeles and visits New York. “If you want to live in a high-rise building in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood where you can take the subway to work, your lifestyle options in L.A. will be rather limited. Both are cool places.”

Todra Payne is married to New York City, but it’s not exclusive. “NYC is home for me, but L.A. is my secret lover,” she writes. “Can’t beat the way you can walk Manhattan and meet people along the way, meander in and out of shops, restaurants, etc. You just can’t do that in L.A. But the sunshine, beaches and palm trees and the laid back vibe in L.A. are golden. If there was a way to combine the two, it would be paradise.”

Both cities, it seems, are willing to share the people they love with the city on the opposite coast.

Next on our smackdown list: Charlotte, North Carolina, home to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, versus Tampa, Florida, home to the 2012 Republican National Convention. How will you vote? Share your photos and suggestions on iReport.com.

]]> http://asianculturalfestival.org/city-smackdown-the-winner-is/feed 0 http://asianculturalfestival.org/in-detroit-in-charge-of-a-union-of-one http://asianculturalfestival.org/in-detroit-in-charge-of-a-union-of-one#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 20:09:45 +0000 DewRoc http://asianculturalfestival.org/in-detroit-in-charge-of-a-union-of-one

By MATTHEW DOLAN

DETROIT—To dig out of a fiscal mess, the city of Detroit has reached tentative labor deals with the leadership of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the United Auto Workers and International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Then it had to win over Herbert Jenkins.

Mr. Jenkins is president of the Assistant Supervisors of Street Maintenance and Construction Association, the union representing the leaders of Detroit’s pothole-repair crews.

He also is the only member of that collective-bargaining unit.

Since 2008, Herbert Jenkins has been a member of the union representing the leaders of Detroit’s pothole-repair crews. But thanks to recent downsizing, not only is he now the union’s president — he’s its only member. WSJ’s Matthew Dolan reports.

As recently as last fall, the union was double the size. Then the other guy retired. That left the presidency, uncontested, to Mr. Jenkins, a married father of six who has worked for Detroit for more than two decades.

No ballots were cast, no convention convened. The 49-year-old Mr. Jenkins assumed command by writing a letter to the city, affirming that, as the last man standing, he was the union’s new boss. The city recognized him as such.

He concedes that it doesn’t make much sense. It is “probably bad for the city,” he says from his office at the Department of Public Works’ maintenance yard on Michigan Avenue. “Each union should consist of at least more than one.”

Such incongruities keep turning up in Detroit’s disordered government, which, like the city itself, is shrinking fast. The city of 713,000 now employs 11,000 workers, down from more than 13,000 when Mayor Dave Bing took office in 2009. Another 1,000 workers are scheduled to lose their jobs this year due to budget cuts.

Yet this labor force retains a complex organizational structure, a vestige of a time when it served a population of nearly two million. Workers are represented by 21 unions and 48 bargaining units, several of which now have fewer than 10 members. The five police officers in the city’s health department have their own labor council. An independent union for city field engineers has two members.

Then there is Mr. Jenkins, who constitutes the only one-man union recognized by the city. His union could have more members. But because of a citywide freeze on hiring and wages, no one in the Street Maintenance division has been granted the rank of assistant supervisor in years, says Mr. Jenkins, even though several people are doing the job.

The union muddle frustrates city leaders who are trying to negotiate their way out of a $200 million fiscal hole and stave off a takeover by a state-appointed financial manager. Mayor Bing is seeking $102 million in cost savings, including labor concessions, to prevent the city from running out of cash by this spring.

“This is inefficient and not productive,” says Kirk Lewis, a top aide to the mayor. He says the city has tried to get unions to develop coalitions for bargaining, but more needs to be done to encourage smaller unions to merge.

Other shrinking industrial cities face similar challenges. In Cleveland, the city’s 31 separate collective-bargaining agreements include pacts with individual unions representing four plumbing inspectors, three box-office cashiers and two seasonal ticket sellers. In Chicago, a glazer, a heat-frost insulator and a journeyman plasterer are all one-person unions.

It is tough on Mr. Jenkins, too. “It’s strange, because you don’t have anybody to help you out with any questions or any negotiation,” he says. “I have to do a lot of thinking on my own.”

Mr. Jenkins started with the city more than 20 years ago as a Teamster-represented garbage-truck driver. He heaved the trash cans himself. “You had to pick up 27,500 pounds of garbage by yourself in one day,” he says. One perk: If he finished his round early, he would still get paid for a full shift.

The seasonal job ended in a layoff. Mr. Jenkins found his way back into city government months later as a laborer with the Department of Public Works. He toiled on jackhammer duty for five years. Since 2008, he has been managing the crews who resurface miles of Motor City roads, fill potholes and clear snow and ice.

When Mr. Bing took office in 2009, the Assistant Supervisors of Street Maintenance and Construction Association had four members. The union president would call a meeting by phoning up the other three.

“We just met at the yard,” says Mr. Jenkins. There was no set time, no reading of minutes, no formal agenda. “We would just discuss whatever the president heard when he went downtown to meet with the city.”

The downsizing started that year, when that president retired. The next year, one of the rank and file died, leaving just Mr. Jenkins and Jerry Graham, who had taken over as president.

The two men would meet once in a while to discuss a contract when it came up, but otherwise didn’t talk much, Mr. Jenkins says. So it was a surprise last fall when Mr. Graham announced his retirement, elevating Mr. Jenkins to the presidency.

When Mr. Jenkins came home with the news, his wife thought it was a joke, like something out of a Hair Club for Men ad.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m a member of my unit and I’m the president,’” Mr. Jenkins recalls. “And she said, ‘There’s only one of you?’ And then she started laughing.”

Earlier this winter, a coalition of 25 bargaining units represented by the federation of municipal workers reached a tentative accord on concessions with Mayor Bing, followed by the city’s police and firefighters in February. Union members must still ratify the agreements.

In a private meeting last month, Mr. Jenkins says Detroit’s human-resources director showed him a copy of the contract that the other unions tentatively agreed to. It calls for a 10% wage cut by ending furlough days and an increase in health-care costs borne by employees. Mr. Jenkins decided to accept the deal, calling it fair despite the givebacks. As one of the last unions to sign and the only one with one member, he figured he had time to think it over.

“The other unions still have to get the agreement ratified,” he says. “But that’s not a problem for me.”

Write to Matthew Dolan at matthew.dolan@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared March 5, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: A Labor Force Faces The Ultimate in Downsizing.

CHESAPEAKE,VA (Catholic Online) – The Legionaries of Christ has been undergoing a major time of penance, purification and restructuring under the corrective hand of the Church. The intervention and oversight was occasioned by the scandal arising out of the immoral double life and criminal activity of its disgraced and deceased founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado. The intervention has been serious and properly severe.

Sadly, on Wednesday, May 15, 2012, one of the legion’s most prominent and popular clerics, Fr Thomas Williams, LC, ThD, a moral theologian, announced his own moral failure. Fr Williams is widely known for his writing, speaking and commentary during numerous television appearances. (NBC,CBS and Sky News)

He has been a source for the major networks on the Vatican, as well as a “go to guy” for comments on the sexual abuse scandals over the last several years.  Among his fourteen published books on Christian living and spirituality were Becoming the Christian You Want to Be and A Christian Guide to Conscience. His popular web site has now “gone dark”. 

The Legionary Priest admitted on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, that he had fathered a child in the past. He also announced that he is taking a one year leave of absence under the direction of his religious superiors. Fr Williams released the following statement:

“A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. I am deeply sorry for this grave transgression and have tried to make amends. My superiors and I have decided it would be best for me to take a year without active public ministry to reflect on the wrong I have done and my commitments as a priest. I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation, and I ask for your prayers as I seek guidance on how to make up for my errors.”

Regnum Christi is the lay movement associated with the Legionaries of Christ. It has been depleted in the wake of the fallout occasioned by the evil acts of the founder. Their website contained the following letter concerning Fr Williams. It was written by Fr. Luis Garza, a member of the US leadership.

*****
Legionaries of Christ
Regnum Christi

May 15, 2012
To all Legionaries and Regnum Christi consecrated members,

It is with sadness that I send you this note, especially at a time when we are experiencing renewed enthusiasm for our mission within the Church. The last thing I would wish is to add a fresh wound when older wounds may not have healed fully.

Nevertheless, it is my duty to inform you that Father Thomas Williams, LC, after consultation with his superiors, will undergo a period of reflection, prayer and atonement without public ministry, and has just issued the following statement:

“A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. I am deeply sorry for this grave transgression and have tried to make amends. My superiors and I have decided it would be best for me to take a year without active public ministry to reflect on the wrong I have done and my commitments as a priest. I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation, and I ask for your prayers as I seek guidance on how to make up for my errors.”

I know that this will be shocking news to you.  In the wake of all that we have been through as a Movement in the past several years, it won’t surprise me if you are disappointed, angry or feel your trust shaken once again.

Father Williams has enriched the faith of so many through his teaching, public speaking and writing, and has been a spiritual guide for many in the Movement.  That is what makes this failing such a painful reminder that we are all frail humans, in desperate need of God’s mercy.

I hope that you will join me in praying for all those who have been affected by his actions, and for Father Williams during his time of prayer, penance and renewal of his priestly ministry. 

Any further information is at the discretion of those involved. We will support them in any decision they make.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Luis Garza, LC

*****

We ask the global readers of Catholic Online to pray for the child, his or her mother – and, yes, to pray for this priest who has acknowledged and confessed his sin against consecrated celibacy and his priestly service to Christ’s Church. John Allen, a reliable Catholic source, reports that Fr Williams is undergoing medical treatment for a form of cancer and is living with his parents.

We also ask for prayer for all who are still associated with the Legion of Christ. Finally, we ask for prayers for the Church and those in leadership who seek to pastor this difficult situation.