The recent arrest of Father Travis John Clark of Saints Peter and Paul Church in Pearl River, Louisiana, opened up a rather lurid story. Apparently, the cleric in question had hired two self-described dominatrices to engage in sex with him. On the altar. On camera. One of the… ah, ladies in question had posted on a social media account that she was meeting with a sister in the trade to “defile a house of God.” Not too surprisingly, Archbishop Aymond of New Orleans was rather perturbed about the whole thing, declaring that “His behavior was obscene, his desecration of the altar is demonic.” As is customary in such cases, the ruined altar was burned, and a new one consecrated in its place.
While various unpleasant details about Father Clark’s background have since emerged (including the molester status of one his boyhood clerical idols), the Archbishop’s observation regarding the demonic nature of the enterprise is worth some careful reflection. Certainly, aberrant sexual behaviour by the clergy is always sinful; morally speaking, the consecrated nature of its participants adds another layer of evil beyond the same acts practised by laymen. But there is a third tier of evil we ignore at our peril—the desire by some clerics not merely to gratify their worst desires, but to serve the Prince of Darkness thereby. …
