‘My actions were despicable’: Catholic priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member decades ago - The Washington Post

 As I suspected, there is more to the story of just a guilty conscience,,,

UPDATE::  Former KKK member, now a Catholic priest, went public after journalist’s inquiry

It was not images from the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that spurred a Virginia priest to come forward this month and confess he was a Ku Klux Klan member charged in several cross-burnings in Maryland and other offenses 40 years ago.

Rather, it was a journalist who had contacted the Diocese of Arlington and said she learned that the Rev. William Aitcheson’s legal name matched that of a man arrested in the 1970s.

Diocesan officials then confronted the priest.

“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 in a statement.

TBH, I'm not sure why this man felt the need to step down from his position.  Yes it is important that he stepped forward about his past, a past he has renounced, but considering his position I would think he could do more good as an active priest then one whom feels disgrace.  There are numerous narratives concerning ex-supremacists, his should be added to the list.

While there are some question marks concerning the vetting of one with his criminal past, information currently available doesn't seem to warrant such a drastic step.  I am wondering if there is more to the story that we may be unaware.

Forty years ago, William Aitcheson was a University of Maryland student and Ku Klux Klan member who burned a cross in the front yard of a black newlywed couple’s home. He was sentenced to jail time and ordered to pay about $20,000 to the family. Then God changed his heart.

Aitcheson went on to attend seminary in Rome and was ordained as a Catholic priest. He returned home to the East Coast and served in several Virginia parishes, including his most recent post at St. Leo the Great in Fairfax City, where he’s been for four years.

Seeing images from the deadly white supremacist and white nationalist rally in Charlottesville spurred Aitcheson to make a confession of his own. He wrote an essay published Monday in the Arlington Catholic Herald about his KKK involvement and burning crosses before joining the clergy. He said he’s temporarily stepping down from his post.

In his essay, Aitcheson described himself as “an impressionable young man” when he joined the hate group. He wrote that images from the rally in Charlottesville “brought back memories of a bleak period in my life that I would have preferred to forget.”

‘My actions were despicable’: Catholic priest steps down after revealing he was a Ku Klux Klan member decades ago - The Washington Post

Former KKK Grand Dragon Tells All - YouTube

Scott Shepherd, reformed racist and former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, joins David to discuss getting into and out of the KKK and reforming his racist beliefs

Former KKK Grand Dragon Tells All - YouTube

See also:

From KKK Grand Dragon to Anti-Racism Crusader: The Remarkable Reinvention of Scott Shepherd

"They gave me a home, a sense of well-being, a family. It was definitely a tactic to recruit troubled kids like me."

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With its weird honorific titles, which sound like it was coined by a bunch of geeks playing Warhammer, and its costumes, which would look embarrassing at a child's Halloween party, the Klan is seen as a caricature, a risible parody of an evil organisation.

Given the contempt in which we hold the Klan, it's almost hard to imagine its members are real people, capable of real human emotions such as empathy or remorse. Yet the case of Scott Shepherd challenges some of our tropish stereotypes and suggests even the most fanatical Klansman can change their ways and learn from their mistakes, just like the rest of us.

Shepherd, a former Grand Dragon of the Klan in Tennessee, is now one of America's most ferocious anti-racism campaigners, having turned his back on the KKK and made it his life's mission to defeat the creed he once espoused. The people he once called friends have sent him death threats, yet still he carries on, desperate to atone for the sins of his past.
,,,
"I read a lot about it, it struck an interest in me. I made contact with a Klansman when I was 16 or 17 years old, they were having a rally in a nearby town. I went, and not long after I was contacted by one gentleman and recruited to into the KKK. They gave me a home, a sense of well-being, a family. It was definitely a tactic to recruit troubled kids like me."