NY- The woman at the center of the St. Patrick’s Cathedral sex scandal sought some refuge yesterday – in church.
Clad in denim short-shorts, church secretary Laura DeFilippo came out of hiding to get a little nourishment for her body and soul.
After going to the supermarket, the alleged mistress of Msgr. Eugene Clark went to St. Barnabas Church in the Bronx, her girlhood parish. She sat in a back pew and appeared to pray for 10 minutes before leaving.
“She came in, she sat down. She was by herself,” said Melissa Connors, 18, who was praying with her family when DeFilippo walked into the church, at E. 241st St. and Martha Ave., about 3:20 p.m.
It was the first time the 46-year-old mother of two has batted her brown eyes in public since allegations of an affair with Clark, her 79-year-old boss, hit the headlines last week.
Her estranged husband, Philip DeFilippo of Eastchester, Westchester County, his 14-year-old daughter and her own sister gave statements to police detailing her alleged illicit relationship with the top priest.
The betrayed husband even had a private eye tail his wife and Clark, and videotape them going into an Amagansett, L.I., motel last month. They emerged in different clothes than when they went in five hours earlier.
Both have denied the affair. Clark resigned last week as rector of St. Patrick’s. Archdiocese of New York officials have refused to divulge the current work status of DeFilippo, whose husband said she made $70,000 to $100,000 a year.
Laura DeFilippo ended her seclusion by strolling out of her dad’s house looking like Daisy Duke – dressed in blue-jean shorts cuffed high, a white tank-top and platform sandals.
Earlier, her father, Thomas Donohue, gave the finger to reporters camped outside his house. But his daughter walked calmly to her blue minivan, ignoring questions and driving away.
Her first stop was at Dominick’s C-Town grocery store, two blocks away, where she bought a box of Special K with berries cereal and griped to the checkout workers.
“She was chatting with some of the cashiers, just saying it was a little annoying what was going on,” the store manager told the Daily News.
After driving around seemingly aimlessly, DeFilippo suddenly pulled over and stopped, sitting in her van for several moments before moving on.
She ended up at St. Barnabas Church, next to St. Barnabas elementary and high school, which she attended as a teen.
She drove straight back to her father’s, parking in the driveway and entering the house through the back door, carrying her cereal in a plastic bag and the weight of the world on her shoulders.