Alabama priest who fled to Italy with teen he later married is expected to be defrocked
Alabama priest who fled to Italy with teen he later married is expected to be defrocked
An archbishop said the Vatican will likely pursue the man’s official dismissal from the priesthood.
State records show that a suspended Alabama priest recently married the 18-year-old woman he fled to Italy with this summer, and an archbishop said Wednesday that he expects the Vatican to pursue the man’s official dismissal from the priesthood.
A marriage certificate filed Monday in Mobile County shows that Alex Crow, a 30-year-old Catholic priest in south Alabama, married the 18-year-old. Crow left the country in late July with the teen who is a recent graduate of McGill-Toolen High School. Crow was not an employee at the school but sometimes visited theology classes there, news outlets reported. The marriage certificate indicates the woman turned 18 in June.
Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi announced in July that he had suspended Crow and forbidden him from acting, dressing, or presenting himself as a priest. Rodi later said he saw no way for Crow to return to the priesthood.
ha, yeah, no grooming going on under the guise of theology education here folks... no sir. move along
And yet I think it's more the 'marriage' part the Church cares more about. They DGAF about priests raping altar boys but as soon as one gets married that's when the real punishments kick in.
Shows you where their priorities are.
So let me get this straight. Get caught fucking a ten year old boy = church covers it up and you keep your priesthood. Marry an adult woman = lose your priesthood? What?
Yes,
Though I will point out that adult woman was likely being groomed while she was a child.
Yeah probably. But my point is the church doesn’t generally care about that part.
She turned 18 in June, and they left to Italy together in July.
You think he met her the same month she turned 18 and then they fell madly in love and fled the country a month later?
Or is it more likely he had been manipulating and grooming a child at the school he used to visit as a priest?
Yes but I don’t think that’s why the church is removing his priesthood. I don’t think they’re allowed to get married.
They didn't get caught.. they confessed and you can't act on a confession..
Though the rule is being changed to fix this loophole
The mistake was getting married.
Wait... so priests can get married and they only stop being priests if you take it up directly with the Vatican?
It's not like the Catholic church exactly condones pedophilia and rampant sexual abuse, but look how extensively it permeates the institution.
When wondering "Would the Catholic church really do X?" I find the best practice is to instead ask myself: "Does the pope shit in the woods?"
It's a bureaucracy
It's not like the catholic church is full of the virtue they espouse
So the church is mad that he's still with her after she turned 18? Because we don;t see this kind of hubbub when its small children.
The church is mad that they made it official and got married. And yes the church is fucked
defrocked
"They can't help themselves, can they?"
- Jimmy Carr
he should be raped and murdered in prison.
Is this even newsworthy? Two adults got married. Nobody was hurt. They started a new life in another country. So what...
dude was grooming a high school kid, married her the moment she turned 18.
adults?? neither of these 2 were acting like adults.
The article doesn't say anything about that. It says there was an investigation that was later closed with no findings of wrong doing.
And yes it's borderline that he waited til she was 18, but he DID wait til she was 18. Isn't that the entire point?
And she is 18 and has the right to make her own choices/mistakes now. Are you going to tell someone who is an adult in the eyes of the law that they can't choose whom to marry, or that the decision to marry is somehow morally wrong? Because that's exactly the implication that the church is trying to push here.
Maturity is a different question entirely.