VIRGINIA
CBS Evening News
[with video]
FAIRFAX, Va. — A priest in Virginia made a very public and shocking confession this week about his earlier life as a cross-burning member of the Ku Klux Klan.
William Aitcheson, 62, made a confession in an essay published Monday, writing, “My actions were despicable … while 40 years have passed, I must say this: ‘I’m sorry.'”
He wrote that “images from Charlottesville brought back memories of a bleak period in my life that I would have preferred to forget.”
CBS News’ Errol Barnett reports a spokesman for the Arlington diocese said Thursday: “At the time he began ministry here in 1993, the diocese learned of his past as well as his sincere conversion of heart.”
The spokesman also said Aitcheson’s “past was not common knowledge to current staff 24 years later.”
Philip and Barbara Butler have been reluctantly recalling the night they were terrorized by the KKK as newlyweds.
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