NEW YORK
New York Daily News
By NICOLE BODE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Edward Cardinal Egan skipped Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday, staying out of the public eye amid the resignation of scandal-scarred rector Eugene Clark.
Egan "did not celebrate a public Mass. He celebrated privately," his spokesman Joseph Zwilling said yesterday, adding, "He is in New York."
New York's top Catholic cleric has remained mum about Msgr. Eugene Clark, 79, who stepped down as St. Patrick's rector on Friday following allegations he had an affair with his secretary, Laura DeFilippo, 46.
Clark has denied the affair despite being caught on tape last month ducking into a Hamptons motel with the married mother of two. The duo emerged hours later wearing different outfits. Through her lawyer, DeFilippo also has denied any hanky-panky.
By yesterday's Mass, Clark's name had been stripped from the church's welcome signs. Egan has not given any public indication of whom he would appoint to take Clark's place.