Priest accused of having sex dropped as chaplain
<http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--parishpriest-affa1031oct31,0,4334721.story>http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--parishpriest-affa1031oct31,0,4334721.story October 31, 2008 NEW YORK - A Filipino-born priest accused of seducing a distraught New York divorcee has been dropped as a hospital chaplain and barred from serving as a priest in the city. The Rev. Elvis Elano is named in a $25 million lawsuit that details his relationship with Judith Rodrigues-Lytwyn, whom he met when she came to him for confession at a Queens church. He left two months ago to work as a chaplain at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, a city in upstate New York, living in the rectory of nearby St. Joseph's Church. "Father Elano has been suspended from his duties at Benedictine Hospital, where he provided pastoral care to our patients since August," hospital spokesman Sean Casey told the Daily News. Church officials in New York City said Elano _ ordained in the Philippines in 1992 _ also had been barred from serving as a priest here. But the Rev. Kieran Harrington, a church spokesman, said Elano's departure from Our Lady of the Snows Church in Queens had nothing to do with the sex scandal. In the lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn state Supreme Court, the 50-year-old woman said her affair with the 44-year-old priest began in March, after she told him about her divorce from an abusive husband during confession at Our Lady of the Snows Church in Queens. She said he began "encouraging her to engage in a sexual liaison with him to assist her in overcoming her pain associated with her husband and because it was 'ordained by God,"' according to the lawsuit. As part of the suit, she provided photographs of him _ one of him shirtless and kneeling next to her bed, another of the two of them embraced on a Long Island beach and a third showing him clenching a rose in his mouth. The suit also names the Diocese of Broolyn, which includes Queens, and the Our Lady of the Snows Church as defendants, charging them with negligence for failing to properly supervise the priest. His relationship with Rodrigues-Lytwyn ended earlier this month, she said, after she received an e-mail from the priest telling her he had "developed a rash in his groin and legs and believed it was from his sexual liaisons with others." Elano is a graduate of the Our Lady of Penafrancia Seminary in Naga City in Camarines Sur, according to the Manila Standard Today newspaper. On Thursday, the Vatican issued a new document saying that candidates for priesthood should take tests to screen out heterosexuals who cannot control their sexual urges and those with strong homosexual tendencies. Priesthood "requires certain abilities as well as moral and theological virtues, which are supported by a human and psychic _ and particularly affective _ equilibrium, so as to allow the subject to be adequately predisposed for giving of himself in the celibate life," said the document from the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education. <*}}}>< <http://www.fathercorapi.com/election.aspx>An Important Message from Fr. Corapi <*}}}>< <*}}}><<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the Kingdom!<*}}}>< Prayer for Unborn Life: O GOD OF LIFE AND LOVE, You have given us the gift to participate with You to bring new life into the world. But, all too often, the mother's womb, which should be a nursery of life, becomes instead a place of it's destruction. Help us to remove this evil and ensure respect for all life made in Your image and likeness, called to fulfill its promise on this earth, and destined to find a home with you for all eternity. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our God, Our Savior, and Our ALL. Amen. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Please note that I do not send or open attachments sent to this list. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Catholics on Fire" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Catholics-on-Fire May the blessing of Jesus and our Blessed Mother be with you -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
