Father Elvis Elano Suspended after Being Named in Lawsuit
WCBS
October 31, 2008
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/father.elvis.elano.2.852811.html
[with video]
QUEENS (CBS) ¯ A Queens priest who worked as a chaplain at a hospital has been suspended after apparently using his confessional booth to take advantage of a vulnerable parishioner and engaging in a sexual relationship with her.
The alleged affair began at the Our Lady of the Snows Church in Glen Oaks, where Rev. Elvis Elano practiced. It was in a confessional there where the illicit liaison between the Catholic priest and a woman going through a divorce began.
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| Father Elvis Elano is accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with a parishioner he took advantage of during confessional. |
"For lack of a better word, he was hitting on her," said the woman's attorney, Andrew Laufer.
Laufer says his client, Judith Rodriguez-Lytwyn was vulnerable when she walked into the confessional where Elano allegedly told her, "Your presence struck me like a thunderbolt."
The two soon starting dating.
"They became intimate, engaging in sex," says Laufer.
When Fr. Elvis left the building, he'd head to Rodriguez-Lytwyn's home, where the two carried on a seven-month affair, one that had parishioners stunned.
"I can't believe it. You know it knocks me for a loop," said Dan Torpey, one of the church's parishioners.
Added parishioner Viola Czajkowski: "I don't see how a priest who took vows could possibly do something like this and have mass every day while this was going on."
Rodriguez-Lytwyn's lawyer says his client ended the affair this month when her lover sent an e-mail indicating the presence of a sexually transmitted disease he may have gotten from another woman.
On Thursday, the diocese wasn't taking questions, but in a statement said: "In August of 2008 Ms. Judith Rodrigues-Lytwyn informed the Diocese of Brooklyn that she had been involved in an inappropriate relationship with a priest who had served in the diocese. Despite repeated requests on the part of diocesan officials, she neither would name the priest nor would she identify the parish in which the priest had served.
"We understand that yesterday the parish Our Lady of the Snows was served with a summons. Today documents have been turned over to counsel for review. We have not had the opportunity to review the summons and therefore have no statement regarding the lawsuit at this time."
Rodriguez-Lytwyn has filed a $25 million lawsuit, a suit her lawyer claims isn't about a payday or payback for a woman scorned.
"She's a God-fearing catholic and gave into sin and this cannot happen again," said Laufer.
Fr. Elano was transferred a few months ago, not to another church, but instead to work as a hospital chaplain.
On Thursday, he left the hospital in Kingston after being suspended.
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