NEW YORK
Sobran's
September 1, 2005
In early August, New York City’s two big tabloids, the Post and Daily News, ran giggly front-page stories about one of the city’s most prominent priests, Monsignor Eugene Clark, 79, rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He had been named co-respondent in the bitter divorce of his 46-year-old secretary.
Monsignor Clark, as it happens, is an old and dear friend of mine, whom I’ve known and revered for more than 39 years. He has been helpful to me personally. Until now, his honor has been unquestioned. The story shocked me, and I prayed it wasn’t so. I wasn’t giggling.
But the tabs came forth with more details, as well as pictures of the priest and the woman at a Long Island motel, taken by an investigator working for her husband. He was said to have signed in under an alias. Her 14-year-old daughter had said she’d seen the two sharing a Jacuzzi, and it was alleged they’d traveled to Lisbon together. It looked damning, but Monsignor Clark denied any guilt. He said he and the woman had been working on an editorial project; that was all. I wanted to believe him; yet it was getting harder to doubt the charges. If innocent, why would he use a false name?
When he resigned his rectorship a few days later, it seemed as much as an admission of guilt. The story had gotten so much publicity that I felt I had to write about it. I did so, as tentatively as I could, without making a judgment of culpability. A friend urged me not to touch the story, but to me that seemed a bit like not mentioning Michael Jackson’s indictment until his trial ended.