NYC Sermon Sparks Uproar

The New York Archdiocese distanced itself from a high-ranking church official's sermon that critics say appeared to blame the Catholic Church's child-molestation scandal on both gay priests and widespread American immorality.

Monsignor Eugene Clark was filling in Sunday for Cardinal Edward Egan at the pulpit of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

"He was speaking for himself," archdiocese spokesman Joe Zwilling said.

Clark, the rector of St. Patrick's, called the United States "probably the most immoral country in the Western Hemisphere," labeled homosexuality "a disorder" and said that admitting gay students into seminaries was a "grave mistake," the Daily News reported Monday.

In a statement Monday, Clark said his homily had been "misconstrued and misinterpreted."

"I did not associate homosexuals with the illness of pedophilia, although some priests had fallen, sadly, into man-boy sexual relationships. Nothing in the homily implied that homosexuals were, categorically or individually, guilty of any crime," Clark said.

Clark celebrates Mass at St. Patrick's when Egan visits other churches in the archdiocese. The monsignor is not expected to consult the cardinal about the content of his homily, Zwilling said.

"I don't know if the cardinal even knew about Monsignor Clark's remarks before he departed for Rome yesterday," Zwilling said. "He certainly did not comment on them to me."

As Clark spoke Sunday, priests throughout the archdiocese read parishioners a letter from Egan apologizing for any mishandling of sex abuse cases involving priests. The cardinal struck a conciliatory tone in person Sunday when he asked a Bronx congregation to pray for him as he left for Rome to discuss the scandal with fellow cardinals and Pope John Paul II.

Clark estimated that 3 percent of U.S. clergymen have a tendency toward abusing children that is aggravated by sexual images in popular entertainment.

Clark is known in the archdiocese as a staunch conservative, unafraid to criticize the church hierarchy, said the Rev Tom Reese, editor in chief of "America," a Catholic weekly magazine. "It's clear that Monsignor Clark is speaking for himself and is expressing the views of very conservative Catholics," Reese said.

Catholic League President William Donohue said he would be surprised if Egan disagreed with Clark's statements, which he called long overdue.

"This MTV world of sexual titillation has everything to do with the corruption, whether that's in the church or out of the church," Donohue said.

Clark's sermon echoed, in part, the Vatican's first public statement about the scandal. The pope's chief spokesman told The New York Times last month that the church needs to prevent gays from becoming priests.

Marianne Duddy, executive director of the gay Catholic advocacy group Dignity/USA, called Clark's homily "very irresponsible."

"I think that most Catholics see this for what it is - an attempt to deflect attention away from the horrible mishandling of the situation by church officials and the decades of cover-up," she said.

By Michael Weissenstein