Victor Ekong
New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond ordered the altar at the Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Pearl River, Louisiana removed and burned on Friday.
This came after an alleged threesome took place atop the altar involving a local priest of the parish and two dominatrices.
The incident was reported by a witness who recorded the incident and showed the video to the police.
Responding to community outrage, the archbishop said the priest involved, Rev. Travis Clark, 37 will never again serve in the Catholic ministry.
“His desecration of the altar was demonic,” Aymond said
Authorities said, on September 30, a witness called the police upon seeing Clark through a window of the Church in a state of undress on the altar.
The priest was seen in the company of two women in corsets and high-heeled shoes while Clark was still partially dressed in priestly robes.
The witness became suspicious upon seeing the church lights were still on late at night.
The threesome had apparently set up stage lighting and were recording the encounter on a mobile
They were later arrested on obscenity charges for having sex within view of the public since the altar is visible through the church’s windows and glass doors, according to Fox News.
Clark was also the chaplain at Pope John Paul II High School in Slidell, Louisiana.
He replaced its previous priest, Wattigny, who was also removed for sexually abusing a minor in 2013.
Wattigny also violated the archdiocese’s technology policy by exchanging text messages with one of the students at the high school.
Archbishop Gregory Aymond ordered the altar at the Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Pearl River, Louisiana removed and burned on Friday.
“I am infuriated by his actions. We have many good priests, and I regret that they are embarrassed by the actions of a few. When the details became clear, we had the altar removed and burned. I will consecrate a new altar tomorrow.”
Archbishop Gregory Aymond
Meanwhile, Bradley Phillips, the lawyer representing the two women, Mindy Dixon, 41 and Melissa Cheng, 23, had called his clients’ arrests “appalling.”
“The fact that this involved a priest or took place in a church is completely irrelevant,” Phillips said.
“I understand that people may be upset by this situation, but that does not make this conduct illegal or criminal in any way,”
Bradley Phillips
Phillips said the only pertinent question was “if it took place in view of the public. Clearly, that is not the case.”
The day before their arrest, Dixon, a pornographic performer and dominatrix, posted on her social media that she was headed to New Orleans to “defile a house of God” alongside another “dominatrix.”
