By now everyone (even outside our Archdiocese and even outside our country) knows the scandal of Alex Crow and his behaviors, particularly with his “absconding” with a recent McGill-Toolen graduate (with whom he was “familiar” even when she was 17 and still in high school). [You’ll probably find several words in quotation marks in this essay.] Though it has made the news far beyond the confines of Mobile, still here is where the greatest weight of the story is being felt, and this is largely (perhaps even solely) the result of the investigative reporting done by Rob Holbert, along with Dale Liesch and Kyle Hamrick, for Lagniappe. We should all be hurt, upset, ashamed, angry, betrayed…fill in the blank with the emotional reaction of your choice. I have a friend who is known to be Catholic and who is employed in a predominantly non-Catholic workplace. Coming to work last week, my friend found a copy of the recent Lagniappe (the one with the biggest spread) on her desk; the implication was, “Well?! Isn’t that what you all are like? How do you want to defend or explain this?” She asked me for prayers, which I promised, and simply said, “It’s always difficult when a boil is lanced and drained in public.” And so it is. Part of the issue is one of transparency—it’s the old questions from Watergate: “What did you know, and when did you know it?” Part of the issue also is whether or not, “back in the day,” priests who were convicted of child molestation were actually certified as “cured” by what was then regarded as the competent psychiatry then in practice—in other words, were the bishops operating with the best advice available at the time? It’s hard to think so; perhaps “Strike One and you’re out” is too severe, but “Strike Two and you’re out” is not. Some of these priests and religious went through more “strikes” than during a Nolan Ryan no-hitter. Will this story simply fade away, be forgotten, and allow the Church to move on? I believe Church leaders everywhere hoped (and still hope) that will happen. I’m also convinced that Lagniappe won’t allow that to happen without some kind of accountability being acknowledged. And when windows are opened beyond the traditional statute of limitations, more and more accusations (yes, substantiated ones) will come forward. Other dioceses have had to file for bankruptcy protection; it is not impossible that it could come to that here, as well. Finger-pointing will be no answer (“But this abuse is in the Boy Scouts, too, and in non-Catholic churches too, and...”). Their houses, if cleaning needs to be done, are their business. Ours is with our own houses. “Under the rug” isn’t the answer. I have had conversations with people who want to leave the Church (or at least are severely compromised) because of these kinds of behaviors, putting children and teens at such terrible risk. Yes, this behavior is evil. How it has found its way into the Church and remained there “in the closet,” so to speak, is shameful. But please do not walk away from Christ because His servants turn out to be reprehensible. In the words of St Augustine, “Our Faith is not in a man, but in the Lord.” Let’s try to make this a moment of purification instead of recrimination. -Fr. David