'Beauty and the priest'
2005-08-12 22:31
New York - The 79-year-old rector of St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, a bastion of Roman Catholicism in the United States, has resigned after being accused of having an affair with a married woman, the church said on Friday.
Monsignor Eugene Clark has been on the front page of New York tabloid newspapers for several days with pictures of him leaving a hotel with his 46-year-old assistant and headlines such as "Beauty and the Priest" and "Father Frolic Quits".
A spokesperson for the New York archdiocese said Clark was denying the allegations but that he was resigning to avoid embarrassment for the church.
In a statement, Joseph Zwilling, said that Archbishop Edward Egan had accepted Clark's resignation.
"Although Monsignor Clark continues to deny the allegations against him, he offered his resignation for the good of Saint Patrick's and the Archdiocese. He will not be celebrating Mass or the sacraments publicly until this matter has been resolved."
Clark and the woman, Laura DeFilippo, were pictured leaving a hotel in the Hamptons, an upper scale seaside community on Long Island near New York.
A video of the pair was taken by a private detective engaged by the woman's husband, who has sought a divorce. The husband has said the affair has lasted several years.
The film showed them entering the hotel and leaving it a few hours later in different clothes.
Clark and DeFilippo have, through their lawyers, denied having an affair.