By Rita McInerney

"Who is Vicki Long?"

"Why is this happening?"

These are questions being asked by hurting parishioners at St. John the Evangelist parish in Hapeville.

One, Mari DiCristina looks back five years to when her family came to St. John's. The parish was in its time of renewal. For her, it "was like a conversion. Father Woods did wonderful things for the parish."

She met Vicki Long shortly after the young woman came to the parish about four years ago. "I came to love her. She really is a friendly, warm person."

When Ms. Long's baby was born, Mrs. DiCristina said, it was like a parish celebration. But gradually, people began asking 'What is going on? She is taking him away from us.' Many people felt this way."

"Father Woods was respected. Then this lady appeared from nowhere. In a matter of weeks he was another person," according to her husband Dr. Michael DiCristina.

Father Woods loved the little baby girl and often spoke of her from the pulpit, Mrs. DiCristina said. "But we were hurting. We felt he was giving too much attention to them. Everybody loved him and because of him we accepted her. Until the paternity suit. Then we asked, 'Why is she doing this?'"

Mrs. DiCristina said Vicki Long made an improper suggestion while dancing with her husband at a St. John's parish dance about three years ago. Dr. DiCristina recalled Vicki saying to him at that time, "I want to make love to you."

This hurt Mari DiCristina. She went to her pastor and told him of the remark. She said Father Woods helped her to deal with the situation.

"We felt he made her apologize. But we felt she thought she hadn't done anything wrong."

When the publicity of the past few weeks mounted, they decided they needed "to show people the other side of Vicki." He contacted Channel 11 and Aug. 8 appeared on the noonday news show to speak of the incident at the dance.

"The mother and child swallowed him," the doctor said of the pastor. He said the priest had been present at the birth of the child and he believed that Father Woods felt a great deal of responsibility for her.

Mrs. DiCristina said she agreed with a description of Ms. Long as fragile, vulnerable and easy to love given in a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

But Mrs. DiCristina, with her husband and other parishioners, over the years, had seen another side of Ms. Long. "It was confusing. Like a double personality."

"She took Father Woods away from St. John's when he was at the top. The same way with Archbishop Marino. It's difficult and it hurts a lot that two good leaders fell."

Now the family are St. Jude parishioners and Mrs. DiCristina shares the hope of many others there that their pastor can come back.

A Hapeville parishioner who didn't want her name used said she sensed from the time Ms. Long arrived at the parish that "she was very bad news."

Later, friction began to develop between the "pro- and anti-Vicki factions, she recalled. People would whisper, "Every time I see Vicki, she's with Father Woods." Parishioners mentioned their misgivings to Father Woods.

"All of the players in the drama," she said, knew "that she needed help. More help than they could give."

A close friend of Ms. Long's urged people to pray for her. "Deep inside her that is a lot of good," she said.

"What happens to her when she does these things, I don't know. I'm astonished by what she is doing," the friend, who did not want her name used, said, "I don't approve, but people should have compassion."

The woman said it was affecting her to the degree that Ms. Long asked her recently, "What's wrong?"

"What you're doing to the child, yourself, Father Woods and the archbishop is what's wrong," she replied.

"I realize people are angry and hurt," the close friend continued. "All the prayers are for the archbishop and Father Woods. She needs love and prayers and forgiveness, not hate."

"I am just hoping she gets help. I am more and more concerned about the child. She has to realize something is wrong."

The friend described Vicki Long as being a kind person, who would do everything for a friend. "If she knows somebody is hurting, she hurts, too."