Affair charge rocks cleric

[Ruby Romaine]

St. Pat's rector accused of trysts with secretary

BY BARBARA ROSS, ADAM LISBERG and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

The Archdiocese of New York is looking into explosive allegations that a top priest who publicly railed against our "sex-saturated society" had a long-term affair with his married church secretary.

Msgr. Eugene Clark allegedly romanced 46-year-old Laura DeFilippo at his Hamptons home and a Long Island motel, according to police and court records.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/336012p-286980c.html

[saigon68]

1. Well at least it wasn't a 10 yr old boy

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Or a 3-way with one AND the sec'y....

[VegasWolf]

34. This time Saigon! Just you wait! nt

[DemsUnite]

71. Consensual sex between adults is different, doncha think?

[MissMarple]

3. Oh joy. More priest sex. At least it wasn't with a child.

I'm sure he had some way to rationalize that. So who do these priests confess to? Do they say a few Hail Marys and just go out and do it again, and again....?

[obxhead]

17. that's the beauty of it

you can do whatever you want your whole life as long as you say "I'm sorry" at the end.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

39. They get what's called

"General Absolution" from another priest.

You confess to sins generally, without being specific about them - no "I swore fifteen times" stuff - and the brother priest gives you absolution.

[skypilot]

50. Wow. Can God really be bought off that cheap?

*

[OldLeftieLawyer]

51. Hey, you're SkyPilot

Isn't that God's nickname?

Yes, God can be bought off that cheaply, as can all man-made inventions. It's all about what serves man's purposes, self-serving being what defines all that twaddle.

Nice, huh?

[skypilot]

52. Yes, it is/was God's nickname.

I bought if from him for five bucks and a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

54. SEE?

It's all always gone for cheap.

Pabst??????

[skypilot]

57. Yeah, Pabst.

He was alot less choosey about such things than I thought He'd be.

I think His exact words were, "It's all good."

[OldLeftieLawyer]

59. Well, it's beer

I can see His point there. But, I really pegged him for a Yuengling Guy.

Or Rolling Rock.

Go figure.

[Sanity Claws]

80. The cat is back!

I missed him.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

85. The cat asked me to tell you ..........

.... that he was so moved by your thoughtfulness, he's not only having a beer and a leer in your honor, but he's called up his buddy, the really stupid skiing squirrel.

[Sanity Claws]

86. LOL

That is one long hill the squirrel is going down. He never gets to the bottom. At least the cat gets to finish his beer.

[TankLV]

69. And if that doesn't work, you get a room at the Vatican!

Woopie!

[SteppingRazor]

4. Ehm she's cute for an old lady n/t

:evilgrin:

[livinginphotographs]

19. I agree. She could do better.

[Maat]

23. Did you say OLD lady, Buddy? (n/t)

:mad:

(Just joking - I saw that devilish grin).

[SteppingRazor]

62. What can I say, I'm 20-something!

Anything over 40 is old to me. Until I turn 30, of course. Then anything over 50 will be old. And so on, and so on. I'm always at least a decade away from being old ;)

[Maat]

76. Now, that's the way to think!

I'm going to use that system!

60 is to old then (I'll give myself a little wiggle room).

[edbermac]

5. He's 79 years old...I'm impressed!

Unless he was dipping his hand in the church's poor box to buy some medicinal "help"..

[saigon68]

12. I wonder if he used Cialis?

[edbermac]

14. If he didn't, I'm even MORE impressed!

Good genes, I guess...:rofl:

[femmecahors]

43. No, it rose from the dead. . . n/t

[Nihil]

47. Yeah but it took three days to do so ... (n/t)

:evilgrin:

[saigon68]

63. lol

[Kber]

67. When my grandpa remarried late in life

he joked (to my Dad, not to me, ofcourse) that in your 20's you "do it all night" and in your 70's "you take all night to do it".

[VegasWolf]

32. Not me. You try holding it in for 30 years. It will explode like a rocket!

[atreides1]

6. Here's my question.

Since when does a priest make enough money to have a home in the Hamptons?

[Stuckinthebush]

7. Well surprise, surprise!

Call me crazy, but if you suppress your natural desire to have sex long enough, you will find an outlet eventually.

I'm just sorry the secretary was married. It sounds like a third person was unwillingly involved and will be quite hurt from this long term hook up.

When will the Catholic Church stop the celibacy insanity? It helps no one in my opinion, especially the well intentioned men who desire to go into the ministry.

[Southsideirish]

8. His "Hamptons home?" Must be nice to be a rich, well connected cleric.

[Mairead]

56. I was just about to post the same thing -- a *priest* with a home

in the frigging *Hamptons*!?!

[wishlist]

9. A priest has a home in the Hamptons?

I thought priests took a vow of poverty and lived in rectories near their parish churches. But obviously this guy is not your average priest.

[llmart]

26. A priest lives in my neighborhood......

His house is huge, he lives about 5 or 6 miles from the church and he has all the major repairs done on his yard and house immediately. He had a sprinkler system and sod put in the huge yard last year, new roof and siding this year, new, very long paved driveway installed last year, I could go on and on. He always has the drapes drawn too.

My husband is the Catholic (born and raised and schooled until 8th grade AND an altar boy)and he gets royally pissed every time we drive by the house. He says, "I thought they were supposed to take a vow of poverty or something?" I think my husband suffers from a lot of cognitive dissonance over his upbringing.

I, on the other hand, am not surprised by it.

[HockeyMom]

29. Back in the 1950s

My Dad used to run into one of the local priests from the parish at the race track. Dad used to have a cold one with him and compare notes on the "dogs". He used to tell me the priest used to pull out a wad of hundred dollar bills when he went to place his bets. My Dad used to say to him, "Father, was there a special collection this week?"

Just THINK how much money a wad of $100 bills was worth back in the 1958.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

37. The vow of poverty

doesn't include their family money. So, if a priest comes from a family that's financially well-off, he can inherit, just like anyone else, and use that money for his living expenses.

Don't forget - priests get salaries, just like anyone else. The concept of the "vow of poverty" is not what you might think it is. If you do a little research on the vows priests take - poverty, chastity, and obedience - and see how they're interpreted in these United States, you'll be in for some very interesting reading.

[llmart]

44. But as far as the house he lives in is concerned.......

it is bought by the parish (I believe) and any repairs or remodeling is paid for by the parish also. Now, I'm not 100% sure about that but I find it amazing that there are families in the parish who are struggling and can't fix up their homes, but here he is living in a huge house all by himself.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

49. That wouldn't surprise me, though

Parishioners are strange - but then, I think people who believe in a big Almighty In The Sky are strange. They'll do without just so their "father" can live righteously. It's almost a kind of serf mentality, or maybe Stockholm Syndrome.

In either case, it sure does shine a light on the moral bankruptcy of the Church.

[BuddhaGirl]

53. My high school (catholic) principal was a priest

from a well-to-do family. He had a nice big house (not maintained by the church) with a movie room and he drove a corvette. Several years later my Dad, who sold custom and decorative interior hardware - really nice stuff - told me that Monsignor had come to his store and bought a bunch of expensive stuff for his house including a steam room setup and a fancy jetted tub.

A few years after that I heard that he had molested some boys and was asked to leave the priesthood. The diocese had to pay out 5 million to one of the boys. I don't understand why this guy isn't in jail!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

55. Because ........

we're America, and we have a double standard.

Most likely, his family also paid off the boys. That would have been the deal, and the guy would go away somewhere so that no one would know what he was.

The pressure that the Church can bring to bear on kids' families - even if the kids are grown - and the influence it has among prosecutors and police can never be underestimated. The crap these guys have gotten away with is criminal and beyond.

Just think of the good Cardinal Law and what he got for covering up all that abuse in Massachusetts - a promotion to the Vatican. The bastard should be chained to a wall in a Federal prison somewhere, but, instead, he's living his life of luxury in Italy as one of the Church's pampered princes.

By the way, my training was all Jesuit.

[dryan]

61. My 2 cents...

Diocesean priests (like your neighbor) do not take vows of poverty. Order priests and brothers take vows of poverty. Did you ever think that maybe the parish owns the house where this man lives (like they do in my parish).

[llmart]

81. I said I thought the parish owned the house......

but what the hell difference does that make? Why do they need to own a house like that and sink the parishioners' money into it? Why not something more modest?

When I was younger the priests shared a house on the church property and that house was very modest.

[graywarrior]

10. Par for the course. I used to be a custodian at a church in Mass

The head priest took off every weekend with his girlfriend and had been doing it for years. Everyone knew, everyone watched it happen. No one said a thing.

This guy was politically connected, too. Why they act so shocked is beyond my comprehension.

[despairing optimist]

82. You're not from NYC, are you? That's what my old pastor did

years ago in Queens. He also drank profusely. On weekends he'd go to his house on the Jersey shore with his girlfriend. The altar boys used to talk about how his breath smelled of alcohol so that they nearly passed out while they were ringing the chimes during consecration.

I think most of us from the old parish school are at least agnostics now. Pass the pitchfork, please.

[saigon68]

11. "sitting on [Clark's] lap wearing a satin teddy."

the teen allegedly found her mother "sitting on lap wearing a satin teddy."

[jrthin]

13. I choked up my

coffee when I saw this story in the NYTs today--this is my priest, he married us.

[loudsue]

64. He married you? So this really hits home, dunnit?

That's pretty crazy, jrthin. Is he still your priest?


:kick::kick::kick:

[jrthin]

73. No. Two years ago he was

promoted (transferred) to the powerful parish of St. Patrick.

[bloom]

15. I want to know what's up with the Hamptons home

There was a big discussion recently about the priest who fathered a son and because of his vow of poverty only "made" $100/month - so he couldn't pay much of any child support ( and when she tried to get help from the Church - the Church's lawyers argued that the women chose to have unprotected sex - as if the Catholic church wanted her to use birth control and as if it was her fault - among other problems)...

So at what point do they get a house? In the Hamptons, yet.

[Tempest]

16. Interesting they use the word "cleric" to describe him

Clerics are normally thought to be Muslim and Islamic priests.

Catholic priests are called priests, pastors or fathers.


Is this a way of making only those who read headlines believe a Muslim priest was involved, thus demonizing Muslims?

[Ian David]

24. That's how they distinguish him from a Magic-User or a Paladin. n/t

[Book Lover]

36. HA!

You stole my reply :-)

[Chovexani]

38. ROFL

Me thinks the good padre should have used a Cloak of Elvenkind...maybe then he wouldn't have gotten caught. :P

[tkmorris]

46. You play MMORPG's don't ya? nt

[Barrett808]

83. Yes. ROTF. n/t

[mom cat]

18. Just one more reason that I don't want "them" telling me what i can or

can't do with anybody! Get the beam out of your own eye before you start pointing out my motes!

[eissa]

20. Slut!

She must have tempted him! This is what happens when the women folk work outside the home. :sarcasm:

[VegasWolf]

31. Exactly! She had no control over her raw beauty and the priest exploited

her!!

:toast:

[Robeson]

33. Exactly! He was tempted by the lasciviousness of this jezebel!

[VegasWolf]

35. Hell! If I had held it in 30 years, then almost ANYTHING would be

temptation to me!!

[anitar1]

78. She is probaably not the first affair. n/t

[Rich Hunt]

21. We're proper liberals, but...

consensual sex between adults is suddenly wrong now?

But thanks, NY gutter press, for this obviously retaliatory piece of dirt.

No priests (or anyone's) consensual sex life is anyone's business. I thought that was the American way.

But I guess some of us live in a more puritanical, pre-revolutionary America, where it's appropriate to go sifting through everybody's garbage, or - in a pinch- just fabricating dirt if you have to. Personally, I'd like to know what this sleaze peddler's personal "dirty laundry" is. Fair game, I'd say.

They've got a lot of nerve talking about 'hypocrisy' when they refuse to admit their total lack of respect for privacy.

This article is just more projecting by bullies who like to do things like go through people's garbage. Keep posting the garbage, and I'll keep telling you what it really says about them. The reality is some "vested interests" are feeling a bit stung today in garbage town.

[Zhade]

42. You very well know people are thinking of the hypocrisy.

NT!

[TankLV]

70. Wow - didn't take you long to show up to try to defend the inexcusable.

Just like clockwork.

Psst, hint: It's the hypocrisy - like a representative of an organization that relishes telling OTHERS how they should live, when THEY are doing worse!

Nice going, there.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. I really couldn't care less...

except for the hypocrisy of it.

[VegasWolf]

25. Follow the example we say, not the one we do. The one we do is

for us, the privileged, not for the flock.

[Ian David]

27. It MUST be a New York paper. It says they were "seen noshing."

Questioned yesterday by a Daily News reporter at a Montauk restaurant where Clark and DeFilippo have been seen noshing, the 79-year-old rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral denied he and DeFilippo were lovers.


Wow, boning a 79 year old guy is better than a trip to Disney World?

Philip DeFilippo became suspicious when his wife began working late into the night at the Madison Ave. rectory and balked at joining a family vacation at Disney World.

[girl gone mad]

41. Phillip DeFillipo?

What were his parents thinking?

I would choose Disney World, but hey, I'm weird that way.

[pelagius]

60. A good salary can be quite a turn-on

>Wow, boning a 79 year old guy is better than a trip to Disney World?

I suspect Ms. DeFillippo's "$70,000-100,000" salary from the diocese may have a certain allure over and above then that of a wizened weenie.

I must confess (hahahaha) that I'm in the "Thank God, it's an adult women" camp.

[mixedview]

79. not only that, but his high status/fame/power

Women (not all, I know) are attracted to power - and he had that.

[llmart]

28. My husband's great grandfather was a priest.......

so this has been going on for a very long time. I, too, say it's not the sex that bothers me so much as the hypocrisy.

[Kelvin Mace]

30. Typical! Effin' typical

Any time I hear someone going on and on about sex, especially molesting kids, I wonder, "Who's kid os he molesting.

Same thing with adultery, "fornication", etc.

[Chovexani]

40. Every time these padres try to tell people how to live

Stuff like this makes them look like the hypocrites they are.

[nookiemonster]

45. HYPOCRISY

It's the new black!

:silly:

[arwalden]

48. The Catholic Church Is ABOVE Its Own Rules... It Stinks Of HYPOCRISY!!

But all things considered, at least it was a consentual relationship instead of with a ten-year-old boy.

[saigon68]

65. They just "DEFROCKED" the Good Father Feeney

For raping a 12 year old boy


Posted on Mon, Aug. 08, 2005

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/12334962.htm


Vatican defrocks convicted Green Bay priest

Associated Press

GREEN BAY, Wis. - John Patrick Feeney, a Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting two adolescent brothers, has been defrocked by the Vatican, the Green Bay bishop announced Monday.

Feeney was convicted last year of three counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted sexual assault of a child in incidents in 1978 against two brothers aged 12 and 14.

A judge in January upheld the convictions and the 15-year prison sentence.

[Mairead]

58. Interesting. Go find a pic of Law when he was first appointed to Boston

This guy could be his brother, for looks.

Interesting coincidence.

[0007]

66. Jimmy Swaggart sez this is just absolutely appalling!

[TankLV]

68. Stop all this "catholic bashing"! There I said it before the usual

DU apologists for this evidently common behavior of the Catholic Church spew here.

Oh, I forgot to add - this is just ANOTHER in a LONG LIST of EXCEPTIONS to that "saintly" and "good" institution!

I want to ask the apologists here, how long does the list of crimes and abuses have to be before it is considered typical representative behavior and not "just a few bad apples".

From where I stand, that barrel is filled with a awfull lot of those "few bad apples"!

[robcon]

72. He resigned

"A 79-year-old monsignor named as "the other man" in a Westchester County divorce case resigned Thursday as rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the New York archdiocese said.

Cardinal Edward Egan accepted Msgr. Eugene Clark’s resignation despite Clark’s denials that he has been carrying on an affair with his 46-year-old private secretary, the church said.

“He offered his resignation for the good of Saint Patrick’s and the Archdiocese,” the statement said. “He will not be celebrating Mass or the sacraments publicly until this matter has been resolved.”"

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/336282p-287196c.html

[saigon68]

88. They will simply "TRANSFER" him Like Father Geogan and Father Feeney

His stinking corpse will "POP" to the surface at some other Diocese.

[leftofthedial]

74. wow. a catholic priest

who isn't a predatory homosexual pedophile

who knew?

[neuvocat]

75. She's pretty hot.

But I don't think that she's 46, more like 26 if anything.

[lumberingbear]

77. Diosean Priests don't have to take a vow of poverty.....

Priests belonging to religious orders have to take a vow of poverty.
I don't see how any priest could live in grandure and be serious about their calling.

[ShockediSay]

84. Always be careful

of the set up story

[chieftain]

87. I'm Catholic and what continues to baffle me

is how a hierarchy which tolerates and conceals pedophelia, which was/is willing to put its young at risk to known predators, which deals with its own sexuality in less than the prescribed manner, which denies the rightful place of women in the liturgy, which support war mongers and the greedy , think that they have the moral authority to deny God's grace as embodied in the sacraments to those who think that a woman's decision to discontinue a pregnancy is between her and her God rather than her and the State.
The arrogance of usurping God's place to judge is as breathtaking as it is indefensible.