A few days ago the Exorcist observed that press received by Catholic priests is usually bad press. Again the Daily News is harbinger of unneeded scandals brought on by the clergy's questionable conduct.
Mons. Eugene Clark is a high profile priest in a city where nothing goes unnoticed. He is rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral and is 79 years old. He's been around for ever. He knows what it's like to live and work in the Catholic church in NY. He does not go unrecognized.
Regardless of what went on in his recent trip to LI with soon-to-be-divorcee Laura DeFillipo, why expose yourself in this manner and at this stage of your life's work? How could a situation like this not be misconstrued? ...if indeed it was misconstrued. What on earth was the venerable monsignor thinking?
In this country there is a hair-trigger reaction to any word, any gesture, any behaviour by Catholic clergy that could even remotely imply moral equivocacy. Suspicion surrounds the priesthood and litigation, frivolous or not, against a church perceived as wealthy and willing to settle is fast becoming a national pastime.
Whether Mons. Clark has done anything else, he has been unseemingly imprudent.
The Exorcist strongly feels we need less of this.
In other, more encouraging news, it appears that the Belgian Trappist monks of Saint Sixtus Monastery in Westvleteren have won the prestigious highest score for their deep and malty Abt 12 ale on the RateBeer website.Brewing, like praying and and chanting, has long been part of monastic living. It could arguably be considered one of the pristine 'good works' through which our cloistered brethren sanctify and save.
The catch is, the good monks of Saint Sixtus run the brewery in function of the monastery. Not the other way around. They, therefore, frequently run out of beer.
The Exorcist strongly feels we need more of that.
