NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Three years ago, Msgr. Eugene Clark denounced "the campaign of liberal America against celibacy" from the pulpit and called the U.S. "probably the most immoral" country in the Western Hemisphere.
Now the 79-year-old archconservative Catholic cleric stands accused of breaking his own priestly vow of celibacy - and with a married woman, no less.
Clark - who frequently stands in for Edward Cardinal Egan at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and who has been a political power in the New York Archdiocese for decades - denied the claims yesterday.
New York born and bred, Clark, who said he was called to the priesthood as a child, was trained at St. Joseph's, the archdiocesan seminary in Yonkers. He was ordained in 1951 at age 26.
Rising rapidly through the clerical ranks, Clark was tapped to be the private secretary to Francis Cardinal Spellman, and then the official spokesman for Terence Cardinal Cooke and John Cardinal O'Connor.