Hubbard admits to cover-up, lies
The Front Page
Morning Update
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
By Ken Tingley
Twenty years ago, one of my Post-Star colleagues and I agreed to meet with lawyer John Aretakis and two of his clients. The two men were accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany of covering up sexual abuse by priests.
The men were middle-aged now. They spoke slowly, deliberately and were clearly uncomfortable talking about the past. But they gave detailed accounts of what had happened to them.
It was ugly and hard to believe.
The Boston Globe had recently exposed the Catholic church’s coverup of the same type of scandal there. Aretakis said he has dozens of clients.
Over the years, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany repeatedly issued denials.
Then, Gary Mercure, a priest with ties to Queensbury and Glens Falls parishes, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on three counts of forcible rape on a child younger than 14 in 2011. He could not be tried in New York because of the statute of limitations. But they did convict him in Massachusetts.
The judge said he was “no more than a common thug.”
The judge was being kind.
Mercure was a monster.
But the scandal went much deeper. There were many other monsters.
For years, the New York State Legislature grappled with whether to pass the Child Victims Act to allow victims of pedophile priests to seek redress in court. The Catholic Conference in New York paid millions of dollars lobbying against the law. Behan Communications took some of the money. Betty Little did not support the legislation until the end.
The law was finally passed in 2019.
This feels like old news, but it is still relevant.
We found out last week all those denials by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany were lies.
Officials tried to hide the abuse to avoid scandal.
And to save themselves.
It went right to the top.
The Albany Times Union reported last week that former Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard, now 83, testified last year the dioceses had “systemically concealed incidents of child sexual abuse and did not alert law enforcement agencies when they discovered it.”
We should be shocked by this, but I doubt we are.
Under oath, the bishop said he was motivated by fears of a scandal while wanting to preserve “respect for the priesthood.”
There did not seem to be any concern about the children.
The testimony was made public last week when a judge ordered the release of a deposition by Hubbard from last April. He was questioned by dozens of attorneys who had filed claims under the Child Victims Act.
In one case a county social services commissioner had contacted Hubbard and told him that a priest had sexually abused a child. The priest admitted to Hubbard he had engaged in the behavior and Hubbard sent him away for treatment.
Hubbard was asked last year why he didn’t call the police.
He said he was not required to do it.
“Would I do it now? Yes. But did I do it then? No,” Hubbard said.
Hubbard admitted he covered up the abuse.
And it gets worse.
He admitted that records documenting sexual abuse allegations were kept in secret files that only he and other top church officials could access, but he never reviewed them out of concerns for past abuse.
Cynthia S. LaFave, an attorney representing dozens of alleged victims, told the Times Union: "The transcript of Bishop Hubbard’s testimony, which is being released today, will be read with horror by the public. The public will see the culpability of the diocese in perpetuating a culture of sex abuse by priests that was allowed to continue for decades. Now the public will understand not only what happened but how it happened. Now the public will see the responsibility the diocese and Bishop Hubbard bear for the atrocity of protecting this institution over the children."
And Hubbard still seems to be unable to accept responsibility.
Last August, the Times Union published an op-ed by Bishop Hubbard so he could explain. He concluded that essay by writing:
“While we never condoned, ignored or took lightly sexual abuse of minors, we did not respond as quickly, as knowledgeably and as compassionately as we should have, and for that I am sincerely sorry. My most fervent prayer each day is that victim/survivors and their families will find healing, reconciliation and peace in God’s love and that we as a church and a society will learn from this tragedy.”
But that was not the truth either.
In a case involving a local priest who went on to teach school in Glens Falls and Hartford after being removed as a priest, Hubbard denied being aware of sexual abuse allegations during the 1970s. The priest in question was accused of raping and sexually abusing multiple children hundreds of times over many years while the diocese moved him from church to church.
But the Times Union found Hubbard’s testimony contradicted records and testimony of other priests who said Hubbard had been aware of the sexual abuse.
Over the years, The Post-Star and other newspapers did many stories about the sexual abuse at the hands of priests. Almost every story contained a denial from Hubbard or the diocese in Albany.
In one 2004 story, The Post-Star reported that a former local priest had been accused of abusing a child.
The Albany Diocese said the following in response: “Bishop Hubbard never knowingly allowed any priest to abuse any child, and the allegations to the contrary in this lawsuit are false.”
It turns out that was a lie that has been repeated by Hubbard and the Albany diocese for decades. And they knew it.
The Times Union reported that Peter J. Saghir, an attorney representing an alleged victim, filed a motion saying that Hubbard's commentary in the Times Union contained "material contradictions to his sworn testimony in an effort to conceal the true nature of his conduct and improperly influence the jury pool" should the cases go to trial.
Saghir then hit Hubbard with both barrels:
“As leader of the diocese, (Hubbard) protected and enabled predator priests to continue abusing children despite the risks known to him of re-offending with his self-serving goal of avoiding scandal and preserving the church's reputation. He seeks to continue to do the same now through misrepresenting material facts, and contradicting his own sworn testimony to avoid public scrutiny and avoid scandal, while promoting 'respect for the priesthood.'"
This is horrific. There’s similar horrors that were and are still going unpunished in our family court system. Are these horrific crimes less serious because they are being committed by a family member? Often the child’s own father or stepfather? The family court system is not protecting children.
I was not aware of all this until I read it in the Post Star yesterday. I am glad that they extended The Child Victim Act. I think they should allow priests to marry in view of this.