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	NY Bans Pinoy Priest Who Had Affair with Divorcee abs-cbnNEWS.com October 31, 2008 http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/pinoy-migration/10/31/08/ny-bans-pinoy-priest-who-had-affair-divorcee Officials in New York's Diocese of Brooklyn have barred a Filipino priest from serving in New York City after his seven-month affair with a divorcee was uncovered in court papers this week. An Associated Press report said Rev. Fr. Elvis Elano has been accused in the $25-million lawsuit for having an affair with Judith Rodrigues-Lytwyn. The woman reported the affair in August. She, however, refused to identify the priest until his name was uncovered when the suit was filed this week before the Brooklyn State Supreme Court. "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," the report quoted a diocesian statement as saying. Church officials have declined to issue a statement on the lawsuit. Contact information regarding Elano or an attorney was unavailable. Court papers said that Elano was ordained in the Philippines in 1992 and has been visiting from Texas for services in Brooklyn and Queens parishes. In her testimony, Rodrigues-Lytwyn recounted how the affair began. She said that it started after she went to confession at the Our Lady of the Snows Church in Queens and "told the priest about her divorce from an abusive husband." "[He began] encouraging her to engage in a sexual liaison with him to assist her in overcoming her pain associated with her husband and because it was 'ordained by God,'" court papers said. The plaintiff even had evidence to show of the affair with the 50-year-old accused. She had photographs of a shirtless Elano while kneeling to her next in bed and another with the two of them embracing on a beach in Long Island. Another photograph shows Elano with a rose in his mouth. The woman said the affair ended when she got an e-mail from Elano that said he "developed a rash in his groin and legs and believed it was from his sexual liaisons with others."
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