NEW YORK
Gay City News
By ANDY HUMM
Schadenfruede was at high tide, especially in the gay community, after Monsignor Eugene V. Clark, 79, rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and longtime grand inquisitor of the Archdiocese of New York, resigned after being named as the “other man” in a divorce suit.
Clark, who in 2003 famously blamed the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic priesthood on gay people, was alleged to be having an affair with his $100,000-a-year secretary, Laura DeFillippo, 46, married and the mother of two.
In divorce papers, Phillip DeFillippo, her husband, includes an affidavit from their 14-year old daughter who wrote that she “found my mom and her boss [Clark] together on the couch, her sitting on his lap wearing a satin teddy with her arms around him making out.” Mr. DeFillippo also had the couple trailed by a private investigator who caught them on videotape entering a motel room at midday in the Hamptons and exiting five hours later wearing different clothes.
Clark and Mrs. DeFillippo deny, through their lawyers, having a sexual relationship. And they are charging that Mr. DeFillippo threatened to expose the affair if his wife did not agree to his terms in their divorce settlement.
But from all appearances, Clark and his secretary had a close personal relationship that included taking vacations together in St. Bart’s and weekends at the priest’s $2 million home in Amagansett in Eastern Long Island. As a diocesan priest, Clark is entitled to keep any personal fortune he has, but all Catholic priests promise to be celibate, which strictly speaking means remaining unmarried. Clark has repeatedly preached on the value of celibacy and chastity from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s and on the Eternal Word Television Network.