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.
They do care, but the issue was priests confessing. You can't punish someone who confesses or reveal what was confessed.
This is being changed to fix the obvious and heavily exploited loopholes this causes.
Don't act like the Catholic Church is actively encouraging this behavior
Do you intend to ignore the fact that the Church had an active hand in covering up the abuses and protecting the perpetrators?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sex_abuse_cases_in_the_United_States
Only the person that was confessed to is “required” to keep quiet.
The rest of the church knows what’s going on and still doesn’t bother investigating and punishing those responsible.