By Sewell Chan
New York Times
November 8, 2007
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/the-priest-conan-obrien-and-fellinis-la-dolce-vita/
A statement in a class-reunion report may shed some light on the Roman Catholic priest who has been charged with stalking and harassing the talk show host Conan O'Brien. Then again, maybe not.
The priest, the Rev. David J. Ajemian of Boston, was arrested on Friday when he tried to attend a taping of NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" show at Rockefeller Center and was held pending a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.
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The Rev. David J. Ajemian was arrested for stalking Conan O’Brien. Photo by The Stoneham Independent, Mark J. Haggerty/Associated Press |
Father Ajemian graduated from Harvard University in 1983 and Mr. O'Brien in 1985, according to alumni records, and court papers in the case refer to correspondence the priest sent to Mr. O'Brien, saying he had followed his career since they both attended the school. In 2001, when Father Ajemian was ordained, The Boston Herald reported that he had been baptized as an Episcopalian and previously worked as a paralegal for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and taught elementary school in Medford, Mass.
In 2003, Father Ajemian wrote a message in a report published for members of his class, who celebrated their 20th reunion that year. In his message, he referred to the recent scandals over sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Boston. He also described his journey from agnosticism to Catholicism, a journey in which watching the Federico Fellini film "La Dolce Vita" was a seminal moment.
Father Ajemian wrote:
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After graduation, I spent many years searching for my place in the world. I learned the hard way that a degree from Harvard meant little without an inner compass. It wasn't until I reached 30 that some direction began to emerge. At that time, I had a completely unexpected conversion to Christianity. Like St. Paul traveling on the road to Damascus. It occurred at a particular time and place during a viewing of the Fellini film "La Dolce Vita" in the basement of the Carpenter Center. This unusually symbolic movie conveyed a momentous message to me, transfixed in the darkened screening room: God and man and Marcello Mastroianni, all somehow in alignment on Quincy Street, some long ago December night that changed my life. Eventually, a deeper study of my burgeoning faith led this anonymous Christian to enter the Catholic Church at St. Paul Parish, down the street. Once enmeshed in that community of faith, I derived the call to religious life and entered the Pope John XXIII Seminary in Weston, where I was ordained a priest in May 2001. I am now assigned as parochial vicar at the St. John the Baptist Church in Peabody. It has been a challenge for me to live through the past year of scandal and shame, but my faith in Jesus Christ and the Christianity he founded perdures. As someone whose beliefs have emerged out of an agnostic past, i can testify that faith and reason can indeed coexist, but still as all is truly grace, poured forth and overflowing into these fragile vessels of clay. God bless everyone.
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