Confession Obsession

OCTOBER 29--Meet Father Elvis Elano.

A New York City woman claims that she succumbed to sexual advances from the Roman Catholic priest after he heard her confession earlier this year about the fractured state of her marriage.

Judith Rodrigues-Lytwyn alleges that immediately after Elano received her confession in March at Our Lady of the Snows Church, he 'professed his love, devotion, and physical attraction' to her and said, 'Your presence struck me like a thunder bolt,' according to a New York State Supreme Court lawsuit.

Rodrigues-Lytwyn, 50, charges that Elano encouraged her to have sex with him as a way of 'overcoming her pain associated with her husband.' Elano, she alleges, said that such a sexual liaison was 'ordained by God.' Rodrigues-Lytwyn claims that she was 'overwhelmed' by Elano's advances and 'soon thereafter succumbed to them engaging in intercourse' with the priest.

Rodrigues-Lytwyn's $25 million lawsuit, an excerpt of which you'll find here, accuses Elano, his former Queens parish, and the local Catholic diocese of negligence and infliction of emotional distress. The affair has caused her to suffer 'severe stress, anxiety, guilt, fear, humiliation, and shame,' the lawsuit charges.

Included as exhibits to the October 27 complaint are photos and documents meant to corroborate the woman's affair with the priest. As seen here, one image shows a shirtless Elano next to a bed. In other photos, the priest is pictured in his clerical garb and, in a more relaxed shot, holding a rose between his teeth. In the above picture, Elano and Rodrigues-Lytwyn are shown last month on a Montauk, N.Y. beach.

The complaint also includes a copy of an invoice for Viagra, which was billed to Elano and shipped to him at Rodrigues-Lytwyn's apartment.

Rodrigues-Lytwyn contends that the affair recently ended after Elano reported that he had developed 'a rash in his groin and legs and believed it was from sexual liaisons with others.' In an October 6 e-mail included with the lawsuit, Elano reported that he had 'tried to look for a doctor who does not know me.'

Elano, who just transferred to an upstate New York parish from his former Queens church, did not return a phone message left for him or an e-mail sent to his Yahoo! account. (8 pages)