Fr. William Aitcheson expressed remorse for his past and urged others not to take up the KKK’s cause.

A Roman Catholic priest in northern Virginia is stepping away from ministry after admitting he was deeply involved with the Ku Klux Klan during his college days in Maryland, in the 1970s.
“When I think back on burning crosses, a threatening letter, and so on, I feel as though I am speaking of somebody else,” Father William Aitcheson wrote in the Arlington Catholic Herald. “It’s hard to believe that was me.”
The 62-year-old priest discussed how he joined the anti-Catholic hate group as an “impressionable young man,” but was brought back to his faith “through Jesus Christ in his mercy.”
And while Aitcheson found a new path, the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va., resurrected his dark past.
“The images from Charlottesville are embarrassing,” he wrote. “They embarrass us as a country, but for those who have repented from a damaging and destructive past, the images should bring us to our knees in prayer.”
“Racists have polluted minds, twisted by an ideology that reinforces the false belief that they are superior to others.”
Aitcheson was the subject of a March 1977 Washington Post story when the then-23-year-old was charged with six cross burnings in the Washington, D.C. area.

Aitcheson was enrolled at the University of Maryland studying radio, television and film, but state police said he was the “exalted cyclops” or a leader of the Robert E. Lee Lodge of the state’s KKK chapter.
Police told the newspaper the hate group’s presence
The lodge was planning to recruit bombers to attack facilities in Ft. Meade — home to an Army base and the National Security Agency.
State police found nine pounds of black powder in Aitcheson’s parents’ Ellicott City, Md. home when they arrested the future priest. They also found pieces to make bombs in his bedroom and the basement.
Aitcheson’s father told the Washington Post his son was a member of the Klan, but couldn’t explain why.
“My son, along with others, are just caught up in it … I don’t know what their thoughts are,” he said.

The hate and open racism portrayed in Charlottesville prompted Aitcheson to come forward about his past and condemn hatred

The images in Charlottesville prompted Fr. Aitcheson to come forward about his past and condemn hatred

But the son has since owned up to his misdeeds.
“My actions were despicable,” he wrote.
“If there are any white supremacists reading this, I have a message for you: you will find no fulfillment in this ideology. Your hate will never be satisfied and your anger will never subside.”
Aitcheson was first ordained to serve in the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas, but was later relocated to the Diocese of Arlington — near his native Maryland.
A note from the diocese said Aitcheson voluntarily stepped away from public ministry “for the well being of the Church and parish community.”
Bishop Michael Burbidge, head of the diocese, called Aitcheson’s past “sad and deeply troubling” in a statement to the Washington Post on Tuesday.
But, he added, “there have been no accusations of racism or bigotry against (Aitcheson) at the Arlington diocese during his time.”