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St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Fairfax ST.LEOS ()
Date: August 22, 2017 03:38PM

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 joining the clergy.

In an editorial published Monday in the Arlington Catholic Herald, the Rev. William Aitcheson described 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.”

The Rev. William Aitcheson. (Arlington Catholic Herald)
“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. It’s hard to believe that was me.”

In a statement, Catholic Diocese of Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge called Aitcheson’s past with the Ku Klux Klan “sad and deeply troubling.”

Aitcheson served with the Catholic church in Nevada before being transferred to Arlington, where he is originally from, church officials said in a statement. He was ordained in 1988 and has served in a variety of positions at parishes in Nevada; Arlington; Fredericksburg, Va.; and Woodstock, Md. His latest assignment was as parochial vicar, or assistant to the pastor, at St. Leo the Great in Fairfax City.

The Arlington diocese said Aitcheson would not be available for comment. Attempts to reach him Tuesday were unsuccessful.

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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 in several cross-burnings in Prince George’s County, Md., and other counts, including making bomb threats and manufacturing pipe bombs.

[From 1977: Maryland student charged in 6 cross burnings]

According to the 1977 Post story, state police in Maryland said Aitcheson was a leader of the Robert E. Lee Lodge of the Maryland Knights of the KKK, which had planned to recruit people to blow up facilities at Fort Meade near Laurel.

When officers searched his home in the 1970s, they found nine pounds of black powder, weapons and bomb parts in Aitcheson’s bedroom and basement. His parents told authorities they didn’t know the explosives and weapons were in their home.

At the time of his arrest, Aitcheson’s father, William W. Aitcheson, said his son was a member of the hate group, adding, “My son, along with others, are just caught up in it. … I don’t know what their thoughts are.”


Aitcheson pleaded guilty to several cross burnings, including one in the front yard of an African American family in the College Park Woods neighborhood and others at B’nai B’rith Hillel at the University of Maryland and the Beth Torah Congregation in Hyattsville. He was convicted and sentenced to 90 days, and ordered to pay a judgment of about $20,000.

The African American couple, who were newlyweds at the time of the incident, declined to talk Tuesday about the burning cross from 40 years ago. A woman who answered the door at their Silver Spring home said it was so long ago, and thinking about it would bring back difficult memories.

Five years after Aitcheson’s involvement in the cross-burning incident at their home, President Ronald Reagan visited the couple and their young daughter, saying the incident “is not something that should have happened in America,” according to a May 4, 1982, article in the Post.

[A Family’s Long Ordeal]

Aitcheson also pleaded guilty to charges that he threatened to kill Coretta King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He told a U.S. District Court judge that he wrote to King in February 1976, telling her to “stay off the University of Maryland campus or you will die.” According to a Post story, investigators said he wrote “Africa or death by lynching, take your pick, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” He was a U-Md. student studying broadcasting at the time.


Aitcheson was described in a 1977 Post article as “speaking calmly, with his head bowed slightly” at a hearing on the King case. He told a judge he was pleading guilty because “well, ah, because I’m guilty.” He also faced charges in Maryland’s Howard and Carroll counties of illegal possession of firearms and manufacturing explosives.

He was convicted in U.S. District Court in Baltimore of mailing threatening communications. A judge sentenced him to 60 days in prison and four years of probation.

In his editorial published this week, Aitcheson apologized and said the recent violence in Charlottesville prompted him to share information about his past. He called the images from Charlottesville “embarrassing,” adding that “for those who have repented from a damaging and destructive past, the images should bring us to our knees in prayer.”

[Recounting a day of rage, hate, violence and death]

Aitcheson went on: “Racists have polluted minds, twisted by an ideology that reinforces the false belief that they are superior to others.” Aitcheson also wrote that “the irony that” he “left an anti-Catholic hate group to rejoin the Catholic Church is not lost on me.”


“It is a reminder of the radical transformation possible through Jesus Christ in his mercy,” he wrote.

Billy Atwell, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, said the diocese had received information about Aitcheson’s history when he was accepted for ministry under Bishop John Keating. He didn’t provide details on what information was known.

Aitcheson attended seminary at the North American College in Rome from 1984 to 1988, according to the diocese.

Atwell said he didn’t know if a criminal-background check was conducted when Aitcheson came to the Arlington diocese in 1993, although he said more in-depth background reviews have been done routinely on staff and priests since the mid-2000s.

Since the mid-2000’s “all staff and clergy have had in-depth background checks” under policies of the Virginia State Police, according to Atwell. The checks are also done using a national criminal check system of the FBI and fingerprinting tracking databases. It wasn’t clear if his criminal record would have eliminated his ability to become a priest, either in Nevada or Virginia.

Atwell said Tuesday that Aitcheson’s “story of repentance is authentic.”

Al Leightley, head usher at Saint Leo the Great, said Aitcheson never discussed his past involvement with the KKK. Leightley found out about his past Tuesday morning, but said Aitcheson repented appropriately in his Monday letter.

“He is a very good priest, very dedicated to his profession,” he said. “It’s hard to see all the commotion going on with the gentleman.”

Some public Catholic figures began speaking out on Aitcheson on Tuesday, including conservative legal scholar Matthew Franck, a Princeton University lecturer.

“I hope this evidently good man returns to active ministry,” Franck tweeted. “He could do important work, especially with his history.”

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On the diocese’s Facebook page, multiple supporters of the priest praised his decision to go public, and called him a gifted pastor. “A true story of redemption. May God continue to work in and through Fr. Aitcheson,” one wrote.

In a phone interview, Franck said, “Sometimes people get involved in a hate group and then have been reborn, and have an interesting story to tell … It would be a loss for him to just vanish.”



A note at the bottom of Aitcheson’s editorial on Monday said he had “voluntarily asked to step away from public ministry, for the well being of the Church and parish community.”

Burbidge said “there have been no accusations of racism or bigotry against [Aitcheson] at the Arlington diocese during his time.” He said Aitcheson’s request to step away from public ministry was approved.

Peter Hermann, Ellie Silverman, Justin Jouvenal and Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.

Another Trump Supporter

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: ULYFY ()
Date: August 22, 2017 03:57PM

He was probably afraid his past would come out, so he beat whomever to the punch.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: You know what I'm talking about ()
Date: August 22, 2017 04:41PM

That's actually am improvement over what they usually step down for.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Turned His Life Around ()
Date: August 22, 2017 05:41PM

Stop casting stones.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Leftist.Gorilla ()
Date: August 22, 2017 05:45PM

Guilt is a bitch, eh rev?

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: LJS ()
Date: August 22, 2017 08:00PM

This situation begs the question, would you rather have a klan member or a pedo fag giving the Sunday sermon?

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: tjncm ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:20PM

it's somewhat a political move

why is because history is while NAACP (and other groups) have a history of killing cops and violence

KKK's history is almost or wholey non-violent (there was one head of kkk charged with such a crime - however i'm unsure he was convicted, there were very few followers at the time: AND if he was a leader was forwardly disputed)

(the past KKK were people protecting their quaint towns from a flood of rif raf moving in for welfare and jobs rich families would seek to give to screw over the town for a little exgtra abuse pay). that's the truth of the kkk: protecting the sanity of the town from what the greedy rich would do.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: tjncm ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:20PM

it's somewhat a political move

why is because history is while NAACP (and other groups) have a history of killing cops and violence

KKK's history is almost or wholey non-violent (there was one head of kkk charged with such a crime - however i'm unsure he was convicted, there were very few followers at the time: AND if he was a leader was forwardly disputed)

(the past KKK were people protecting their quaint towns from a flood of rif raf moving in for welfare and jobs rich families would seek to give to screw over the town for a little exgtra abuse pay). that's the truth of the kkk: protecting the sanity of the town from what the greedy rich would do.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: wb7h3 ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:24PM

it's the same as 10,000 somalians dropped in your area - most areas said no and one area who's citizens said no got them (fairfax infact - due to sharon bull-o-va gov addiction to use of tax money to gain democrat votes)

you can call being against 10,000 somalies dropped on you by Obama kkk or you can call it smart ... but being out of work or dead while democrats get $200,000 fed jobs who's qualifications aren't checked except for political affiliation (and who's requirements are extremely low for the pay)?

I'm calling you a liar if you say that's not stupid.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: wlkwx ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:26PM


(if your black or white and said no to 10,000 somalies being dropped on you - that's exactly what the kkk had been all about. due to the label getting bad press due to NAACP lies: groups that side that way simply go by different names)


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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: lx3uy ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:33PM


KEEP IN MIND obama democrats if not Obama himself got money from Somalia to get rid of these poor people (at cost to fairfax taxpayers, much to rich in somalia's chagrin and democrats)



the idea "just move all the poor to cities and everything will be alright" simply shows up as areas that were quiet and suddenly there are continual armed robberies, deaths, no jobs, terrible productivity, and etc: led by democrats only concerned with how fast they can spend (build mcmansions, eat out nearly every meal, rack up insane medical insurance bills, travel to niche vacation spots for the rich, etc, etc)

(the issue isn't if social work is good: the issue is whether democrats are doing social work or just WILLING TO KILL DENIZENS TO STAY IN POWER)

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Fag priest ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:42PM

Vow of celibacy?

(cough) faggot

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: f7et6 ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:44PM


NOW CAREFULLY REMEMBER

How did hispanics find all this out about a forgotten Priest's past?

Why is the church taking a position it was forgiven but now is NOT forgiven (i suppose God is an indian giver?)

GUESS WHAT? THIS IS A BIG FUKING LIE CREATING BY DEMOCRATS. IT COMES OUT EXACTLY AT A TIME WHEN DEMOCRATS FEEL THEIR BEST CHANCE IS TO ACCUSE TRUMP TO BE A NAZZI. (Trump - who, unlike NAACP, has shown no biggotry in office or otherwise)


the church is surrounded by illegals and those that brought them here. and the nearby church was sold by fx co to be used for breeding illegals quickly for democrat votes (a daycare center across from courthouse - all work done on courthouse is by illegals)

A hispanic man Killed a St. Leo's priest during Obama - it was called driver rage but it was done outside the cars.

I feel the priest (nuns as well killed in fairfax) may have been racial killings by hispanic to get hispanic priests


what some people don't understand is power over who is hired to maintain the church is a paid contract and hispanics have been doing those contracts



tell me hispanics give up control over their contracts easily. wrong: look at road work: hispanic 30 years running. tell me they aren't after a hispanic priest who tells them that democrat violence is ok. that's what hispanic catholic priests will do.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Mark j ()
Date: August 22, 2017 09:59PM

I think he snitched on himself to get an early PAID retirement...

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Possibly ... ()
Date: August 22, 2017 11:34PM

Mark j Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think he snitched on himself to get an early
> PAID retirement...


Or, he's sick of all the statue torching and would like to get back in with the KKK to continue his mission.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: 3WFTK ()
Date: August 23, 2017 06:55PM

tjncm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it's somewhat a political move
>
> why is because history is while NAACP (and other
> groups) have a history of killing cops and
> violence
>
> KKK's history is almost or wholey non-violent
> (there was one head of kkk charged with such a
> crime - however i'm unsure he was convicted, there
> were very few followers at the time: AND if he was
> a leader was forwardly disputed)
>
> (the past KKK were people protecting their quaint
> towns from a flood of rif raf moving in for
> welfare and jobs rich families would seek to give
> to screw over the town for a little exgtra abuse
> pay). that's the truth of the kkk: protecting the
> sanity of the town from what the greedy rich would
> do.

In what universe is this true. It surely isn't true in this universe!

Lay off the heroin.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: just thinking ()
Date: August 24, 2017 10:09AM

Maybe the St.Leos priest should come out as a liberal, then his previous actions and his position would be protected such as Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn who became tenured professors even after being on the FBI's ten most wanted list.

But we all know how liberals are protected by the media and universities.

The best thing he can do is to profess to being a pedophile, then maybe the church will spirit him away to some unknown diocese.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Blimmo ()
Date: August 24, 2017 11:31AM

wb7h3 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it's the same as 10,000 somalians dropped in your
> area - most areas said no and one area who's
> citizens said no got them
> you can call being against 10,000 somalies dropped
> on you by Obama kkk or you can call it smart ...
>

I call it smart. Somalis are nasty, disgusting, rude, obnoxious, arrogant, grubbing and thieving people.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Too lazy to log back in ()
Date: August 24, 2017 11:33AM

The guy turned his back on his despicable conduct and associations. Years have passed. By his actions, he has shown that he has repented. Let it go, already.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Uowe ()
Date: August 24, 2017 12:06PM

Too lazy to log back in Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The guy turned his back on his despicable conduct
> and associations. Years have passed. By his
> actions, he has shown that he has repented. Let
> it go, already.


He turned his back so much that he forgot to pay the couple whose lawn he burned a cross on, the $20,000 judgement.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Rev Caresmore ()
Date: August 24, 2017 11:12PM

As a Catholic, shouldn't he be burning crucifixes rather than crosses?

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: 4V4KK ()
Date: August 26, 2017 01:49PM

ULYFY Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He was probably afraid his past would come out, so
> he beat whomever to the punch.


Yep!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/william-aitcheson-virginia-diocese-kkk-priest-past/

"Church officials say Aitcheson's statement this week came after a reporter began asking questions and that's when "he acknowledged his past and saw the opportunity to tell his story.""

If that reporter hadn't been snooping, he wouldn't have acknowledged anything. He probably diddles little boys, too.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Joe Manchin ()
Date: August 26, 2017 04:24PM

People forget that Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was also an “exalted cyclops”, but Democrats always get a pass.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Jkvkub ()
Date: August 26, 2017 05:03PM

Joe Manchin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> People forget that Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was
> also an “exalted cyclops”, but Democrats
> always get a pass.


He came clean
Apologized
Became an advocate for black rights

But contards forget those facts about byrd

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: Diagoras of Melos ()
Date: August 26, 2017 06:39PM

People still believe in these fairy tails?

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: It's Always ()
Date: August 27, 2017 10:02PM

It's always the hypocritical libs who prove to be the biggest racists.

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Re: St.Leo's priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member
Posted by: causeican ()
Date: August 27, 2017 11:55PM

Why are we tolerating this lunacy? Past sins? How many sins can we pull out of history to bitch about today so we don’t have to face the reality of what we’ve done with what we have? Each of us chooses whether we handover our power to someone else or whether we use it to make a difference for ourselves. Losers choose the former.

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