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Thursday, April 06, 2006

The last time we saw young Ryan McFadyen…

…he had jumped into his GMC Yukon and trucked off into the night, far away from Duke University, from which, after the publication of his email detailing the sadistic necrophilia he had planned for a local stripper, he “has been removed,” writes Newsday.

Only nineteen years old, McFadyen has evolved a degree of sexual hypocrisy that would be the envy of his fellow (fictive) Catholic, Stephen Dedalus. The hero of James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, you recall, spent his days as one of the most pious boys at his Catholic school, and his nights in the arms of Dublin whores. For his part, Ryan

attended a "Take Back the Night" march against domestic violence on campus on March 29, about two weeks after the [Duke lacrosse team] alleged assault.

"I completely support this event and this entire week," the player told Duke's student newspaper.


Note the smooth ability to issue appropriate statements to the newspaper. Not just this event. The entire week. You can quote me on that.



McFadyen didn’t attend just any Catholic school. These were monks:

The independent college preparatory school for grades 7 though 12 is run by the Catholic Benedictine monks of St. Mary's Abbey "and is rooted in the values of the Christian community," according to a welcome message from Travers on the school's Web site.

"Each boy must assume responsibility for gaining both knowledge and judgment, which will strengthen his faith, his membership in the life of the school, and his contribution to broader society," he wrote. "In short, while the school offers much, it also seeks boys who are willing to give much."



A Benedictine rule of silence is certainly being observed all over:

No one answered a knock at the door of the $1 million house McFadyen's family owns in Mendham, a few miles down the road from Delbarton in nearby Morristown. Nor did neighbors on the street.

His coach at Delbarton, Chuck Ruebling, did not return a call seeking comment, and the school's headmaster, Rev. Luke Travers, declined comment.

"We have nothing to say," he said.