Former Alabama priest, Alex Crow, recently departed from his parish in Mobile to go to Italy with an 18-year-old woman, with whom he claimed to be in love.
In a Valentine’s Day letter, he declared, “I love you, and I thank Jesus for you every day. You are his gift to me.”
Father Crow, 30, served as a parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Parish. He left unannounced on July 24 and declared that he would never return to the U.S.
Crow’s sudden departure prompted an investigation by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office. A relative of the woman found the couple in Italy, reporting that the young woman had left willingly. The sheriff’s office is still probing the nature of the relationship to determine if the woman had been manipulated or coerced.
Mobile Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi told Father Crow, who was ordained in 2021, that he could no longer serve as a priest or present himself as one. The Mobile archdiocese issued a statement that Father Crow’s actions were “totally unbecoming of a priest.”
The woman is a recent graduate of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, which Father Crow also attended. He visited theology classrooms and heard confessions there after his ordination. Some speculated that the two traveled to Spain for an exorcism due to Father Crow’s interest in demonology.
The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office has opened an investigation, and the sheriff’s office has urged anyone with information to contact them at 251-574-8633.
