Funny thing when the story appeared yesterday I tried googling Fr. Clay in Scranton Pa with several different keywords and didn't get anything.
Dig into the story a little more. No "church officials" knew what was going on. It was Clay and the pastor in Texas, no one else.
There was a post yesterday when this story came up in the Religion forum of a draft letter from the pastor of this parish to his parishoners. Clay was a friend of his. He took his word that he was okay to function in Texas. Now, where that letter came from I have no idea but I trust the poster to have put it up in good faith.
There seem to be several versions of who got told what about what he said he was going to be doing in Texas.
My search was "Rev. Christopher*Clay".
Rachel Dillard