Fr. Thomas Williams' Spiritual Progress Unmasked

The Legion of Christ prides itself on providing the “shock troops” for the Catholic Church – dispersing their stalwarts amongst the leading front line organizations in the “culture wars.” Disciplined, talented, well-read and media savvy, they are taking on the world in ordinarily secular bastions so that the faithful will find consolations not normally associated with “the narrow path” or being “signs of contradiction.”

Thus, Fox News enthusiasts are used to seeing Fr. Jonathan Morris, LC explaining the Church’s view towards the Middle East, the Eastern Orthodox, or embryonic stem-cell research interspersed with the Dow average and the latest Brangelina news. MSNBC devotees find Fr. Thomas D. Williams, LC doing likewise, allowing shades of eternity to color the daily dish from every corner of the globe.

Other Legionaries are sprinkled onto various boards, apostolates, and faculties – which heartens their supporters, who know that this congregation is cutting edge on the issues of the day and serious about transforming this wayward generation. Or are they?

Perusing the religious “best-sellers” just recently, I was rather stunned to find an upcoming title on the “Amazon Top 100,” my surprise focused on the fact that the book had not even been released. Thus, William’s Spiritual Progress: Becoming the Christian You Want to Be was rubbing elbows with classics such as C. S. Lewis’ Everlasting Man and the Rule of Saint Benedict. Wow, what fine company – a brand new work side-by-side with those available for decades, even centuries!

But it didn’t make sense. Certainly books can be pre-ordered, so I didn’t doubt the fact that enough copies had been purchased – but by whom? There was one editorial review by Publishers Weekly, which described it as a very elementary work palatable to a wide range of Christians (the Catholic references within being mere explanations, not theological defenses). The only catalogue endorsement was by Fr. Neuhaus of First Things, a heavy-hitting journal that wouldn’t normally be interested in such elementary fare, except for his long-standing defense of All Things Legion, and in his estimation, it is an “astonishing book.” Thus the initial review and the solitary endorsement are almost at odds with one another about the point of the book, with an esteemed mind like Fr. Neuhaus seemingly setting a lower bar than a secular source. (Oddly enough, future publicity plans for the book would look to the radio celebrity “Imus” for getting the word out, further undermining Fr. Neuhaus’ claim that this was a book for “serious Christians.”) Beyond that, there were no individual reviews, because of course individuals wouldn’t have a copy – evidently not even a rough draft. Why would thousands of readers have pre-ordered copies of a book that is as yet being promoted with such a mixed message?

The next step was to research the publisher – because perhaps there one could find the sales blitz that would explain the numbers. A little research showed that FaithWords was an imprint by “a Nashville-based Christian publishing division” which has recently changed hands and been renamed. Formerly a division of Time-Warner called Warner Faith, Warner had asked for exclusive publication rights to their name, so the new group (now owned by Hachette Livre) complied, saying “we are proud to establish a fresh identity.”

So what does Hachette Livre offer? They must be tremendous marketers to have put Spiritual Progress on the best-seller list so quickly, even before publication. Oddly enough, their catalogue description is half-hearted, even apologetic for offering a Catholic book. “While Williams is a Catholic priest and writes from his own experience…” is not exactly an enthusiastic endorsement, which is completely understandable from a Christian press. So they must be dyed-in the wool evangelicals with the usual Biblical reservations about the “whore of Babylon,” right?

Oddly enough, that is not the visible message offered by the books of FaithWords. Other titles include, Walking the Walk: Getting Fit with Faith, Bible to Go: Genesis to Revelation in One Hour, and Holy Yoga: Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul. These works might certainly be nourishing in their own way, but they are neither fundamentalist nor Catholic, and again, not exactly deep. Even the major names associated with the press, heavyweights Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer, are dynamic personalities in the Christian world, but hardly known for theological rigor or being steeped in tradition. Why did the Legion choose FaithWords, who puts Fr. Williams’ new title on the last page of its catalogue (just before the backlists) and caters primarily to breezy, feel-good Protestants? By their own account, this is Williams’ fourth book – why not go with one of the other previous publishers who are Catholic?

Whatever literary muscle Fr. Williams is now exerting, it won’t be marketed in the usual ways. Rather than a religious image on the cover – or even a serene, inspirational landscape, the cover is blessed with the fair-haired Fr. Williams himself. The credibility of the book being based on the “vast experience” of the author, one would at least expect a little gray hair around the temples – mais non! Perhaps swayed by the giddy press given to the handsome papal secretary (who has now even inspired an Italian fashion line) the Legion wants to remind the world that its fellows have fine faces, too. Oddly enough, while the Vatican seems to have pulled Msgr. Georg Ganswein out of the limelight as a distraction, the Legion has thrown its ruggedly handsome talking head onto the cover of a book as a selling point.

All of this is secondary, though, to the initial question: how did an unpublished book with no publicity make the best-seller list? If a previous book put out by the congregation, Christ is My Life, gives us any indication, the Legion itself has pre-ordered thousands to put this book on the charts. In fact, the publisher of that earlier title (Sophia Press) confirmed that 21,000 books sold in just nine days, with the bulk of the purchase made by the Legion. That book was the purported interview of the founder, Marciel Maciel, LC by “independent” journalist Jesús Colina, and yet turned out to be an inside job, comprised of stitched-up answers from a variety of sources hand-fed to a former Legionary turned Regnum Christi member. To be sure, the mass purchase boosted ratings, making it “one of the fastest selling books on the market,” and the book then simply served as a handy gift for benefactors. And given the duplicity surrounding the contents of Maciel’s interview, can we even trust that Fr. Williams wrote this book? Or was it a group project by industrious Legionaries? Those questions will have to remain unanswered, if they even matter at this point.

What we do know is that the “shock troops” hardly shock any more. Their self-promotion is routine, their highly-visible offering to the Church is usually window dressing. The real culture war – laying waste to families, schools, and parishes – is not truly engaged, but instead on each level, the Legion cuts, divides, and confuses. What “the world, the flesh, and the devil” have not conquered, the Legion has moved in to siphon off, leaving each – families, schools, and parishes – broken and less-able to muster the will to fight.

Spiritual Progress, as with most Legionary endeavors, is not what you think. “Progress” is defined by first establishing the destination. That is the unknown factor in this latest media junket, and the ride gets hairier at every turn.