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PHILLIP AND BARBARA Butler hadn’t given much thought to the man who burned a cross on their front lawn 40 years ago.
Then they heard the startling news Tuesday that the perpetrator had become a priest and was ministering to Catholics not far from their home.
“I didn’t know what to say. It was unbelievable,” Phillip Butler said Wednesday at a news conference.
The priest, the Rev William Aitcheson, went public with his old Ku Klux Klan affiliation Monday, writing a column in the diocesan newspaper.
He said his past was not a secret, but he felt compelled to make it more public after seeing images of violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Aitcheson, now 62, described his past actions as despicable:
To anyone who has been subjected to racism or bigotry, I am sorry. I have no excuse, but I hope you will forgive me.
For the Butlers, though, his announcement provided more questions than answers.
The Butlers’ lawyer, Ted Williams, called on Aitcheson to publicly identify his Klan associates as well as anyone who helped him with the cross-burning.
Afraid
The Butlers said the cross was big and heavy, more than six feet tall (1.8 meters), so he must have had help. Phillip Butler said someone also must have identified their home for Aitcheson to target them.
“What did we do to have them put a cross in our lawn?” he asked. The couple, among the first African-Americans to move into their subdivision, moved on after about eight years.
“It makes you very afraid of what’s going on,” Butler said.
The Diocese of Arlington initially said that for the good of the parish, Aitcheson is taking a voluntary leave of absence from ministerial duties at St Leo the Great in Fairfax.
Through the diocese, he has declined interview requests.
In response to the Butlers’ news conference, the diocese released a statement saying Aitcheson “will fully cooperate with law enforcement in addressing details of this case that were not gathered previously”.
Exposed
Williams said he believes Aitcheson, who became a priest in Nevada before eventually transferring to Virginia, came forward only because he felt he was going to be exposed.
He questioned Aitcheson’s statement that the Charlottesville rally prompted his public mea culpa, after so many other racial flash points over the decades.
“The big question is: why is this just coming out now?” he asked.
The diocese, in its statement Wednesday, said a freelance reporter had approached the diocese asking whether Aitcheson had been connected to the cross-burnings, which received press attention at the time.
“Aitcheson was approached about this, he acknowledged his past and saw the opportunity to tell his story in the hopes that others would see the possibility of conversion and repentance,” the diocese said.
Aitcheson was convicted and sentenced to 90 days in jail in 1977 after he was charged with burning several crosses, including the one at the Butlers’ home in College Park, Maryland, and sending a death threat to Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
KKK ‘wizard’
Authorities at the time said he was a University of Maryland student doubling as a “wizard” of a 12-member KKK lodge.
Years later, the Butlers won a $23,000 civil judgement against Aitcheson, and received a personal visit from President Ronald Reagan, who with his wife, Nancy, condemned the hate crime.
But Aitcheson never apologized to the Butlers, in writing or in person during their time in court, and they said they never received any of the money.
The diocese said it only learned of his unpaid restitution this week, and committed to ensuring he fulfills his moral and legal obligations.
Williams said he is researching his options in pushing the judgment and calculating possible interest in 35 years of nonpayment.
Barbara Butler said she doubts Aitcheson could say anything she would be interested in hearing in terms of an apology, and expressed skepticism about his change of heart.
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” she said, quoting Jesus Christ. Then she addressed the priest: “But you did know.”
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One would hope that this would see the excision of any reference to “blasphemy” from our Statutes, no matter how much Mr. Ahearne was in love with it. It is a provision just awaiting some extremist to avail of.
That’ll unfortunately require a referendum as Dev put that stupid crime in the constitution and then never defined what it was.
The blasphemy law was put in place by Noel Ahearne during the last administration
Hopefully overhauling the equalities act to remove the religious public bodies right to fire someone for their religion (or lack thereof) and sexuality. If ever there was a backward law its one that technically allows a religious run hospital or school to fire someone for being gay or an atheist. Absurd.
Dermot not Noël I think. And the dope has since admitted it was a mistake.
Niall…. That’s BLASPHEMOUS!
Was it? Jesus Christ!
Its hard to beat the brand new law in Sweden that makes it legal to w**k in public.
Lol, you said, “hard to beat”.
It’s the Defamation Act, not a ‘blasphemy law’. Blasphemy is a small part of it and the language is so watered down nobody will ever be convicted under it (I hope).
Where did anyone call it a “blasphemy law”? Try reading the posts. Further the wording as it stands does admit of prosecution, whether or not your learned self thinks it would be successful or not.
Dermot Lane, above, called it ‘the blasphemy law’.
Any chance they could knock that law preventing TD’s being stopped and breathalysed because they are on their way to the Dail?
In the constitution as well. Broadly, TDs and senators can’t be impeded by police if they’re on the way to the Oireachtas.
Kerry, NONE WHATSOEVER,
How about getting rid of the law banning the sale of alcohol on good Friday and Christmas Day?
Because it would lead to violent outrages and general humiliation. #coppers
The penalty for suicide up until 1964 was death by hanging.i wonder could you appeal for leniency
So they rehang a poor suicide victim … That’s overdoing it a bit don’t you think
Yeah. A bit like flogging a dead horse. Hung as a sheep AND a lamb!
Is it still legal to take a dump but not a piss on a public street?
I think you’re allowed to do your wees as long as it’s against the wheel of your carriage.
It is illegal to take a piss on a public street. My “friend” got done for it.
@Denise. I’m trying desperately to imagine the anatomical position that would render that possible
@john. My “friend” got away with the former
I think it’s still legal for pregnant women but I stand open to correction on that.
Beat me too it…
It’s legal to pee in the street if you are a pregnant woman. Can anyone confirm that it is legal to ask for a police mans hat if you are caught short to crap in. I can’t remember where I heard it but it would be interesting to try
Does this mean that ye can marry yer horse without being hung drawn and quartered?
Well I married mine.
(hi honey)
Has the ‘Kings Birthday’ been removed as a day off for public servants?
Fair play to the angry mob.
“A general fast and humiliation”: Troika anyone?
Fast and humiliation…? The chap really was off his rocker.
Say theres a few Clare lads getting fierce excited the ‘obscure’ references to copulating with siblings will be removed from the books.
Clare folk have to have a hobby.
Once I can continue to play games of chance in the town market square I dont mind what they do
Isn’t fast & humiliation just another way of saying AUSTERITY!
Not much has changed!
There must be something they are tring to take on the sly. Between that and potential loss of sheanad and Supreme Court under their control we might not know it yet but we are doomed slaves and fools for letting the pigs run the farm!!
I think you can relax: I don’t think the Supreme Court is being abolished any time soon.
How about laws for victimless ‘crimes’
Nice one!! The White Boys get away with it! It was worth the wait…
I wonder what theGuinness Estate Act1883 , is?
Now I am as well.
We did this in Colorado about 30 years ago and there was an uproar from the clergy about removing adultery from our criminal laws. The Chief Justice said at the hearing, “I know a married man who tried adultery, and he said he couldn’t tell the difference.” It cracked up the proceedings. They left it on the books, but they removed the penalty associated with it, making it non-criminal.
Blasphemy is what last year’s leaf screams at this year’s bud. All laws associated with it are repugnant to human development. Let the clergy tear their sullied gowns over it while we laugh at their all powerful gods needing the help of the legislature, so they won’t be toppled over by reason and true compassion.
I wonder what the Guinness Estate Act 1883 was.
Have you tried here? http://tinyurl.com/GEA1883
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