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Monsignor Eugene Clark has kept a low profile since the scandal broke last week, but now says nothing improper happened in that hotel room. You'll recall that Clark, the former rector at St. Patrick's Cathedral, is accused of having a long-running affair with his secretary, Laura DiFilippo. In July, the two of them spent five hours together at the White Sands Motel in Amagansett, caught on video by a private eye hired by Laura's husband. But a source tells CBS 2's Tony Aiello that Clark insists nothing improper went on, saying they merely stopped to rest after a long lunch...

Didn't this scam go around FR a few times? :) Happy St. Patty's.

Pro-abortion nuns to speak at Wisconsin parish Matt C. Abbott Matt C. AbbottFebruary 6, 2005 Catholic and pro-life activist Darla Meyers sent me a notice that Sisters Brigid and Jane McDonald, CSJ, will be speaking on "Living Non-Violence in a Violent World" at a conference at St. Patrick Church in Hudson, Wis. (a parish in the Diocese of Superior) on Feb. 19. On the surface, it looks fine. But these nuns are notoriously left-wing, believing, among other things, that legalized abortion is "crucial," though they are supposedly "troubled" by abortion itself. In addition, Sister Jane has been quoted as saying,...

Rows of dark wooden memorial boards hang along the walls of Paul Pardoel's old school chapel, the names of more than 800 past students who served in World War I through to the Vietnam War inscribed on them in gold. Soon the name of the 35-year-old former St Patrick's College student, the first Australian serviceman killed in the Iraq war, will be added to the list - accompanied by a small gold cross, marking him out as one of those who will never come home. He will be mourned by his former school at its annual commencement Mass tomorrow, but...

<p>TEMPLEPATRICK (AP) -- Ireland is shrinking, a scientist warned Monday at a conference on the deterioration of coastlines. . . . Andrew Cooper, director of the Coastal Research Group at the University of Ulster, said the sea was swallowing up about 750 acres of Ireland each year and warned that the process would quicken.</p>

March 16, 2004NYCHow Al Gore Helped to Start Irish TraditionBy CLYDE HABERMAN L GORE may have been the popular-vote winner of the 2000 presidential election, but among the many things he couldn't get right that year was his wardrobe. Searching for his inner alpha male, he kept bouncing around, from casual earth tones to dark business suits.He was in full beta mode just before St. Patrick's Day, 2000. For an Irish-American political forum in Manhattan, he showed up in blue suit, white shirt and red tie. Not a swift move, color-wise."This is an important event for us," said Brian O'Dwyer,...

Bloomberg and Mayor Who Performed Gay Weddings March at Alternative St. Patrick's Parade Mar. 7, 2004 By Karen Matthews / Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has sent mixed signals on same-sex marriage, and New Paltz Mayor Jason West, who was criminally charged for performing them, both marched Sunday in the gay-inclusive Queens St. Patrick's Day Parade. Bloomberg, who stands behind the state law banning same-sex marriages, and West also spoke at the parade in Queens, an alternative to the older Manhattan parade, which bans gay Irish groups from marching under their own banners. "What...

Virginia has sent many emissaries into the world, some of them great, but the record is not perfect. This week the Old Dominion is shamed that two of its own were involved in a sex scandal in New York's famed St. Patrick's Cathedral. Being of naturally sunny disposition, we are slightly cheered that the event in question did not include altar boys, priests, bishops, deacons, or a horny choir mistress. The act was consensual, between a man and woman, and somewhat hidden (taking place in the vestibule). Indeed, one school of thought has it that compared to other sex scandals...

Opie and Anthony are over and out. The New York-based shock jocks, criticized by Catholic groups for broadcasting a live account of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral, had their nationally syndicated show canceled Thursday. The station, owned by Infinity Broadcasting, offered no further comment. The pair had been pulled off the airwaves Monday, three days after the stunt was aired. The cancellation was announced shortly after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell directed the agency's enforcement bureau to investigate the broadcast. The FCC had been flooded with hundreds of complaints about the show. The rest of...

<p>NEW YORK — A Virginia couple was arrested in New York City Thursday for public lewdness after allegedly having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral as part of a radio stunt that outraged parishioners and church officials.</p> <p>Also arrested was comedian Paul Mercurio, 40, who provided a running on-air commentary of the sex act, which took place just five feet away from worshippers praying on the Feast of the Assumption, a holy day of obligation for Catholics.</p>

St. Patrick's Day celebrations unfolded across America Saturday, led by the nation's oldest and largest parade which paused for a silent moment to honor the dead in a city healing from terrorism. As bagpipers played the last chords of "God Bless America," thousands of marchers and hundreds of thousands of spectators along Fifth Avenue faced south in silence toward where the World Trade Center towers had stood. "Many of those who were lost on Sept. 11 would otherwise be marching proudly. ... We know their spirit marches with us," said Ireland's president, Mary McAleese, who joined the New York parade...