CNA Staff, Nov 22, 2023 / 18:50 pm (CNA).
An Alabama priest who was removed from ministry has reportedly entered into a civil marriage with an 18-year-old woman he met through his work at a Catholic high school.
Father Alex Crow, 31, was suspended from ministry in July after he abandoned his assignment and left the country with the woman one month after she turned 18.
The Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama suspended his priestly faculties, which prohibits him from presenting himself as a priest, saying Mass, leading church ministries, or entering school grounds.
Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi said in a statement reported by NBC News 15 that he expects the Vatican to laicize Crow. He had previously said that he sees no possible way for Crow to return to the priesthood.
“The recent news of Crow’s civil marriage only confirms the Archbishop’s judgment,” the statement read. “Archbishop Rodi anticipates that the Vatican will eventually laicize Alex Crow.”
The archdiocese reported to the Mobile District Attorney’s office that Crow had traveled in July to Europe with the woman, who he met through his ministry at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School. The office, however, did not find evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Crow and the woman signed a notarized marriage certificate on Nov. 17, 2023, and the probate court received it on Monday, according to WKRG News 5 in Mobile.
The soon-to-be-laicized priest was ordained in the archdiocese on June 5, 2021, according to a now-removed bio of him on the Corpus Christi parish website.
He studied at Saint Joseph Abbey and Seminary College in St. Benedict, Louisiana, earning a baccalaureate of liberal arts and philosophy. He holds a master’s of divinity from Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, and a baccalaureate of sacred theology from the Pontifical Atheneum of San Anselmo, Rome, with a concentration in demonology and exorcism, according to his biography.
Crow, his biography says, was an Episcopalian, before joining the Presbyterian church. It wasn’t until he was 21 years old that he felt the call to become a priest, the biography says.
He has given several lectures on Marian apparitions and spiritual warfare for his parish, according to posts from the parish’s Facebook page.
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I’m glad we are “discerning the signs of the times” and being led into “conversations of the Spirit” to weed out those traditionalist orthodox nuts who might apply to seminary and instead give us the kinds of opening, non-rigid, dialogue-inclined accompanying clergy like this one … who accompanied his girlfriend to Europe. Tommy Rodi is patting himself on the back for stripping Crowe’s faculties in July: would it be appropriate to note that he’s been bishop since 2008 so, as ordinary, HAD TO APPROVE ordaining this guy in 2021. Oh, yeh, forgot to mention THAT …. Enough of excuses for the mediocrities that have nested in the episcopal college…..
Actually, if he went through years of seminary and NO ONE offered any hint he was not suited, I cannot blame the bishop for ordaining him. On the other hand, if the bishop saw something the seminary people did not and took no action, then yes, he is to blame. From the story, I cannot tell which is correct.
Crow couldn’t keep his vows to the Church I doubt he’ll be able to keep his vows to his groomed “wife”.
Sorry?? HAD to ordain him?? I would think the fact that he had first been an Episcopalian, than a Presbyterian, and the Catholic Church was his THIRD choice, would have been enough to eliminate him from the seminary. Period. These sort of unorthodox histories can be reflective of a pattern of behavior which will continue to be repeated. His commitment to the priesthood appeared to have lasted two years, until he came upon a woman who appealed. His commitment to his vocation was clearly very thin. Maybe if the Pope were not working overtime shutting down Latin Mass, which seems to produce MANY more vocations than the norm, the seminaries would not feel they have to accept marginal candidates. This is a disgrace, in any case.
Has it occurred to anyone that if we ordained some mature, married permanent Deacons, we could have more reliable Priests and avoid this nonsense?
People might say, oh, this violates the celibacy rule, but Richard Sipe in his research found that 50% of Priests were not totally celibate anyway.
Ordain some mature married men and avoid this foolishness of young Priests being interested in teenage girls.