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.

  • @Cruxifux@lemmy.world
    3•7 months ago

    That’s a bullshit rule that the church is using to supersede the law and enables child abuse. Everyone who knows and helps cover it up is complicit and it should be conspiracy to commit child abuse at the very least.

    Religious dogma should NEVER be above the law.

    • @modeler@lemmy.world
      1•7 months ago

      The Catholic church is self-governed by Canon Law - its own law that's been around since the collapse of the Roman Empire. For a good portion of this time, Canon Law superseded national laws that applied to people who weren't priests. I think the church still privately believes that only Canon Law matters, and they can basically ignore everyone else. That's why they have protected child abusers, rapists and all other kinds of shit their medieval claptrap says isn't important. They are a bunch of arrogant pricks who believe themselves better than, you know, people who don't abuse those with less power.

      • @Cruxifux@lemmy.world
        4•7 months ago

        Dude, I think it’s a little fucking late to get credit for abandoning this rule, which they have yet to actually even abandon and is probably being used to protect pedophiles AS WE SPEAK.