Catholic priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member decades ago

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Aug 22, 2017, 12:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Washington Post

My actions were despicable: Catholic priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member decades ago

By Dana Hedgpeth August 22 at 8:47 AM

A Catholic priest in Arlington, Va., is temporarily stepping down after revealing he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and burned crosses more than 40 years ago before becoming a clergy member.

The Rev. William Aitcheson wrote an editorial that was published Monday in the Arlington Catholic Herald (1) describing himself as an impressionable young man when he became a member of the hate group. He wrote that images from the deadly white supremacist and white nationalist rally in Charlottesville brought back memories of a bleak period in my life that I would have preferred to forget.

My actions were despicable, wrote Aitcheson, 62. When I think back on burning crosses, a threatening letter, and so on, I feel as though I am speaking of somebody else. Its hard to believe that was me.
....

According to a March 1977 story in The Washington Post, Aitcheson, then a 23-year-old University of Maryland student, was identified as an exalted cyclops of a KKK lodge. He was charged with six cross-burnings in Prince Georges County, Md., and other counts, including making bomb threats and manufacturing pipe bombs.
....

Dana Hedgpeth is a Post reporter, working the early morning, reporting on traffic, crime and other local issues. Follow @postmetrogirl

(1) http://catholicherald.com/News/Local_News/Moving_from_hate_to_love_with_God_s_grace/

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/22/my-actions-were-despicable-catholic-priest-steps-down-after-revealing-he-was-a-ku-klux-klan-member-decades-ago/

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* * * * *

Full disclosure: I left a lot to be desired in the 70s too.

[Javaman]

1. fucking despicable. nt

[Iggo]

2. Stepped down from what?

[TexasProgresive]

4. Active ministry

[Tiggeroshii]

6. He is no longer a priest

The events in Charlottesville got him to speak out about his past so that he can convince others to follow a similar path as him, and repent.

[Iggo]

10. Yikes!

Well okay then.

[TexasProgresive]

11. He is still a priest- he asked to be released from active ministry.

[Tiggeroshii]

12. Oops, missed that detail

I just hope he keeps soaking out and can manage to further good in his effort.

[FakeNoose]

16. Can't read the article because it's behind a pay-wall :-(

The Washington Post won't let people in without paying to read "their" news.

However my guess is that this priest is giving up his parish assignment now that somebody has outed him as a former KKK member. The Catholic Church believes "once a priest, always a priest" so he's not leaving the priesthood it would seem.

Maybe he's taking a reassignment somewhere else, or maybe he doesn't know yet. It sounds like this guy is fully repentant and embarrassed about it, so it's not like he's been a secret racist his whole life.

[Not Ruth]

3. White Christian terrorist

[Sunlei]

5. I forgive him if he steps up & speaks about everything he did, every single thing.-Including any

crimes he knew of. Speak about the people he was members with, who are they? Who were they.

bomb threats and pipe bombs? He shouldn't QUIT and walk away now! Someone must have done a background check on him.

[Tiggeroshii]

8. He did and he served his time

And apparently followed a completely different path for the last 40 years in that time quietly repenting for what he has done.


But about that background check, seriously. . was up with that?

[Sunlei]

14. quietly repenting isn't good enough.His 'group' hurt people,I want him to expose ALL his kkk members

He knows who his members were!

[Tiggeroshii]

15. I think the article describes how everybody in his group was arreeted

In the te rorist plot they had going... But if there were more I suppose it would be good to force them to come out as well...

[delisen]

29. That is what Roy Cohen would want also...and those judges in Salem.

[LeftInTX]

25. I know...the background check..???

[Ilsa]

9. His responsibility now is to set things right, like you said.

Quitting his ministry and slinking away helps no one.

[TexasProgresive]

13. How is publicly telling his story "slinking away"?

[Ilsa]

20. I was agreeing with the previous post that unless he

identifies criminals acts and actors, if crimes were committed, then what is the point? To make him feel better? 

Taking responsibility means addressing all situations in which he hurt people.

[TexasProgresive]

21. Perhaps he did- his criminal record is public.

So that would be the answer.

[obamanut2012]

17. he is doing the opposite of "slinking away"

[Ilsa]

19. I was agreeing with the previous post that unless he

identifies criminals acts and actors, if crimes were committed, then what is the point? To make him feel better?

Taking responsibility means addressing all situations in which he hurt people.

[LeftInTX]

26. He's still a priest.

His current position is assistant parish priest at St. Leo's, which is a routine position, not a special ministry. He will no longer be in that specific position. "Ministry", assignment and position are often used interchangeable. There are plenty of other assignments within the church. Relieving him of his current position allows him to set things right.

[delisen]

28. Jesus actually said go and sin no more.

The state exacted its penalty a long time ago.

This person is in the process of figuring out his path and I think it is best left unto him.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. These are often disillusioned people who want to be "part of something"...

...to "belong" and be identified as "belonging" by wearing a "uniform", completing their vision of being a big shot. Same sort of thing going on with other types of gangs. And in this case, Prince George's County has significant number of black middle and upper middle class communities to prey upon.

But with traditional gangs, the goal is $$$. Yet here, the freaks are looking to enhance their distorted views of the world. And he got a new "uniform" by becoming a priest (where far too many terrorize youngsters). Others like him become cops and terrorize communities of color, where their badge allows them to do it.

[TexasProgresive]

18. His words below

snip of his editorial in The Arlington Catholic Herald
Moving from hate to love with God’s grace
By Fr. William Aitcheson

...40 years have passed, I must say this: I’m sorry. To anyone who has been subjected to racism or bigotry, I am sorry. I have no excuse, but I hope you will forgive me.

The images from Charlottesville brought back memories of a bleak period in my life that I would have preferred to forget. The reality is, we cannot forget, we should not forget. Our actions have consequences and while I firmly believe God forgave me — as he forgives anyone who repents and asks for forgiveness — forgetting what I did would be a mistake. Those mistakes have emboldened me in my journey to follow the God who yearns to give us his grace and redemption.

The images from Charlottesville are embarrassing. They embarrass us as a country, but for those who have repented from a damaging and destructive past, the images should bring us to our knees in prayer. Racists have polluted minds, twisted by an ideology that reinforces the false belief that they are superior to others.

Christ teaches something different. He teaches us that we are all his creations and wonderfully made — no matter our skin color or ethnicity. Realizing this truth is incredibly liberating. When I left my former life, I did a lot of soul-searching. God humbled me, because I needed to be humbled. But abandoning thoughts of racism and superiority gave me the liberation I needed.

We must condemn, at every opportunity, the hatred and vile beliefs of the KKK and other white supremacist organizations. What they believe directly contradicts what we believe as Americans and what we, as Catholics, hold dear.

http://catholicherald.com/News/Local_News/Moving_from_hate_to_love_with_God_s_grace/

This comment was posted to the WAPO article from someone who sounds like a parishioner.

jackmurphy143
10:29 AM CDT
This priest did some bad things as a 22 year old. Then regretted it. He is also a man that suffers from several serious health issues and perhaps it was time for him to retire.

He was a good homilist and had excellent music pitch. Have a good rest Father and pray for the rest of us while you are at it.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

23. I just now added the link.

That requires a little finagling in LBN OPs. Thanks.

[packman]

22. Decades Ago - Now a changed Person

Redemption and forgiveness. He would do a great service by speaking out to the youth of this nation and relating why he joined, the hate he saw, the evilness of the KKK. To leave nothing behind except for his mistake is a true waste. He needs to turn a light on and let others see his journey.

BTW - Lived in Prince George's County for most of my 28 years in the D.C. area and it was a severely divided community. A lot of tension between the middle-class working whites moving into what was then a poorer county that was historically overwhelmingly black. The Klan found it fertile ground for recruitment.

[duhneece]

27. I know I can say, "I did then what I knew to do...when I knew better, I did better"

Can we do mean, unkind even criminal acts and become a better person by the time we're in our 60's? I sure hope so.
Since he 'came out', and did his time at the time, I have no unkind words to say about him. I admire him now.

[demosincebirth]

24. "He who is without sin cast the the first stone."

[Doug the Dem]

30. Isn't the Klan anti-Catholic?

(Just wondering how he got in.)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

31. How I discovered my childhood priest was in the Ku Klux Klan

Hat tip, ARLnow.com: Morning Notes August 28, 2017 at 9:00 am

How I discovered my childhood priest was in the Ku Klux Klan

By Maria Santos Bier August 25

Maria Santos Bier is a writer in Washington.

The Rev. William M. Aitcheson was my childhood priest and my history teacher. A fervent advocate of the Confederacy, he used to joke about “Saint Robert E. Lee” in his homilies at church. When I was in middle school in the early 2000s, he taught a Civil War history class for the home-school group at my church in the small Shenandoah County town of Woodstock, Va.

He was also a former Ku Klux Klan member, who in 1982 was fined $26,000 for burning crosses in the yard of an African American family and on the grounds of two Jewish establishments — a fine he had never paid. Before that, he was charged with six cross-burnings in Maryland and with sending a threatening letter to Coretta Scott King. He had also been charged with making pipe bombs and was found with various weapons and bombmaking materials in his bedroom and basement. But I didn’t uncover those latter facts until this month, when I stumbled onto a discovery that would eventually prompt Aitcheson to step down temporarily from his public ministry. He wrote in an op-ed that his service to God had changed and redeemed him. But I knew he wasn’t being entirely honest.

I remember him as an imposing figure who took his history lessons to us home-schoolers very seriously. He had a reputation for being a bit gruff, but he was never unkind to me, and I recall him fondly. He knew so much about history, and I trusted him when he taught us that the Civil War was fought for states’ rights, not slavery; that the South’s cause was noble and just.
....

After the now-infamous white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, ostensibly over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, I spent quite some time thinking about what it meant to grow up in a region where tearing down monuments felt like tearing down a whole culture’s founding mythology. Neither of my parents is originally from the area, but even as transplants, we learned to share a sense of local pride in the architecture, the stories, the music. Even if I disagree, I understand why some people want to keep the monuments; this is their architecture, their stories, their home. I thought about Aitcheson and wondered what had ever happened to him. On Friday, Aug. 18, I Googled his name. The first result was about his many years of service as a priest — he was now at St. Leo the Great in Fairfax City, Va. The second was a 1977 Washington Post article about William M. Aitcheson, a 23-year-old University of Maryland student and “exalted cyclops” of his local Klan group, the Robert E. Lee klavern.
....

Twitter: @mtksantos

Maria Santos Bier is a writer in Washington. Follow @mtksantos

[mahatmakanejeeves]

32. Priest who left KKK is testing parishioners' ideas about redemption

Hat tip, ARLnow.com: Morning Notes August 28, 2017 at 9:00 am

Priest who left KKK is testing parishioners’ ideas about redemption

By Michelle Boorstein, Dana Hedgpeth and Ellie Silverman August 27 at 9:40 PM

Doug Duncan experienced a shock when he first ran into his old classmate Bill Aitcheson at a reunion of their Catholic high school in the District years ago.

Aitcheson had been an exceptionally angry young man in high school in the early 1970s — downright hateful, recalled Duncan, a former Montgomery county executive. “He was a very bad guy — a skinhead, a racist. You stayed away from him.”

And yet he had returned to the button-down campus of St. John’s College High School as a priest — the very last person his classmates imagined would have become one. The fair-skinned, bespectacled Aitcheson’s demeanor had changed dramatically, too, as he related affably with his classmates, Duncan recalled. At another reunion, Aitcheson even celebrated Mass for his classmates in the chapel.

“He had a conversion, that’s the only way I can say it,” Duncan said. “Something happened to him and he just gave up everything he was before.”
....

Magda Jean-Louis and Tom Jackman contributed to this report.

Michelle Boorstein is the Post’s religion reporter, where she reports on the busy marketplace of American religion. Follow @mboorstein

Dana Hedgpeth is a Post reporter, working the early morning, reporting on traffic, crime and other local issues. Follow @postmetrogirl

Ellie Silverman is a summer intern for The Washington Post, covering cops and courts, and a recent graduate from the University of Maryland, College Park. Follow @esilverman11