NEW YORK
New York Daily News
By BARBARA ROSS
and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Laura DeFilipo's motel moment with Clark means he may have presided at his last Mass at St. Pat's.
The motel-hopping monsignor accused of having an affair with his married church secretary resigned in disgrace yesterday as rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
But Msgr. Eugene Clark didn't admit to an affair with Laura DeFilippo - even after a videotape showed them checking into a Hamptons motel.
"Although Msgr. Clark continues to deny the allegations against him, he offered his resignation for the good of St. Patrick's and the archdiocese," archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling said in a statement.
Clark was not defrocked, but Zwilling said the 79-year-old priest would "not be celebrating Mass or the sacraments publicly until this matter has been resolved."
The Eternal Word Television Network also pulled the plug on Clark's weekly "Relationships" television show. During the half-hour broadcast, Clark often lectured about marital fidelity and railed against Hollywood, homosexuals and others he deemed "the enemy of Christian marriage."