One more reason not to get married

racquetball anyone?

Unlike Tariq, most of our staff members are marriage phobic. So we're both glad and sad to report that there's one more reason not to get married, Bernard T. Pagano has passed away. Who is Pagano you ask? Only the priest this staff member would have wanted leading the ceremony. The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Rev. Bernard T. Pagano, a maverick Roman Catholic priest who was accused and then cleared in a string of armed robberies by the "Gentleman Bandit," has died. He was 81. A woman who claimed to have been Pagano's lover gave police photographs of him because he closely resembled the composite drawings of the robber.

During Pagano's 1979 trial in Delaware, several witnesses said the lanky priest, then 53, was responsible for the robberies. Pagano drew attention for his cavalier attitude toward the proceedings, and played racquetball during a break in the trial.

In a dramatic turn, Ronald W. Clouser, from the Philadelphia suburb of Brookhaven, showed up with a lawyer and admitted that he was the real Gentleman Bandit. Though his hairline was not receding as much, Clouser closely resembled the priest. A 1981 made-for-TV movie, "The Gentleman Bandit," sympathetically retold Pagano's tale.

But for some law enforcement officials, there was more to the story.

Norman Cochran, who at the time was the Delaware State Police superintendent, said this week that he is still convinced Pagano committed several robberies. He also believes that Clouser committed robberies about the same time in areas north of Wilmington. "The ones that we charged Father Pagano with were south of the city," Cochran said. "The modus operandi was entirely different." Cochran said Clouser touched his victims in a sexual way — something he said Pagano did not do. Despite authorities' misgivings, the case against Pagano was dropped and prosecutors apologized.

Pagano, the associate pastor at St. Mary Refuge of Sinners in Cambridge, Md., at the time of his arrest, once angered church authorities when he entered a charity wrestling event as "The Mad Monk." After he was cleared of the robberies, Pagano moved to New Jersey, where he was an advocate for people wrongly accused of crimes, and he served as a parish priest at St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church in New Brunswick.

Pagano, a priest mind you, may or may not made a hobby of politely robbing people at gunpoint, played racquetball during breaks of his trial for armed robbery, had a mistress, wrestled under the name "the mad monk," had a movie made about him, defended the falsely accused, and did not - I repeat - did not touch his victims in a sexual way. Truly a life well lived.

Sorry Sweetie, let's wait another year. A good priest is hard to find.