Albany bishop back battling in the streets

The Ithaca Journal ^ | March 4, 2003 | MICHAEL GORMLEY

[NYer]

ALBANY -- In 1967, street priest Howard Hubbard fought to create northeastern New York's first heroin rehab clinic. Again and again, he clashed with one of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's top drug policy advisers, outraged at the claim there was a heroin problem in Rocky's capital.

[NYer]

Additional Links

REPORT FROM RCF MEETING - ALBANY NY - Feb. 22, 2004
Agony In Albany - Extract 1 - Crisis In The Priesthood
Agony In Albany - Extract 2 - The Tridentine Mass
Agony In Albany - Extract 3 - Breakdown of the Liturgy
Agony in Albany - Extract 4 - The End Of Catholic Education - Part 1
Agony in Albany - Extract 4 - The End Of Catholic Education - Part 2

[Siobhan]

Bump

[NYer]

Two days before Minkler died of still unrevealed causes, he met with Hubbard to vehemently deny he wrote the letter.

This lie continues to be perpetuated by the news media.

According to Paul Likoudis, news editor for The Wanderer, he received a phone call from Fr. Minkler shortly after the priest returned from signing the affidavit. In the course of their conversation, said Likoudis, Fr. Minkler indicated that, contrary to Bishop Hubbard’s claim, he was summoned to the chancery by diocesan chancellor Fr. Kenneth Doyle, former spokesman for the U.S. bishops conference in Washington. According to Likoudis, Fr. Minkler explained that Fr. Doyle had the affidavit all made out and told the priest to sign it during their brief meeting.

Priest's mysterious death complicates Albany bishop's quest to clear his name

I pray that Paul Likoudis, and Stephen Brady will clear his good name.

[johnb2004]

What a disgusting puff piece on an arch liberal dissenter like Hubbard. The "conservative" was used many times in a pejorative way.

[johnb2004]

At 65 years old, Hubbard is trim and fit, due in part to a full schedule seven days a week and evening jogs on his treadmill while reading or watching "Law & Order" on TV


As he is watching, does he want the prosecution or defense to win?

[american colleen]

I really think the tide is turning on bishops like Hubbard. With the John Jay report and particularly with the surprisingly honest and forthright assessment of the facts by the laity led and hand picked (and lest we forget, not generally approved of by the orthodox Catholics) National Review Board, bishops like Bishop Hubbard can't hide anymore. The board details things like how laxness and non-fidelity to the Church has a direct correlation in the homosexual scandals. That indicts dioceses like Albany and the leaders who led those dioceses to scandal and sin.

He helped lead the church into a more open institution with girl altar servers, more laity involvement including women lectors, and ministries to help gay Catholics, among other measures.

That's the "spirit of Vatican II" at work again. The call for "openness" was a call for the Church to be less insular, a call for the laity to go and evangelize and bring the Church to the world, not a call to create more altar jobs for chicks and tell homosexuals that their lifestyle was a "gift" and should be accepted as such.

I don't know if this Albany scandal will outst Bishop Hubbard but those who are honestly and prayerfully evaluating his leadership in conjunction with the state of his diocese know the truth.

[american colleen]

Law and Order... do ya think he ever watches EWTN?

Bet he foams at the mouth at the mention of EWTN or Mother Angelica.

[johnb2004]

That's the "spirit of Vatican II" at work again. The call for "openness" was a call for the Church to be less insular, a call for the laity to go and evangelize and bring the Church to the world, not a call to create more altar jobs for chicks and tell homosexuals that their lifestyle was a "gift" and should be accepted as such.


I wish I had said that. Well done.

[johnb2004]

He should be reading the breviary. EWTN? He probably has asked the cable company to ban it.

[NYer]

Bet he foams at the mouth at the mention of EWTN or Mother Angelica.

I once mentined Mother Angelica to my pastor (whose name appears 3x in Fr. Minkler's report, as one of Hubbard's closest aides). He sneered, accused her of being a dissenter but changed the topic when I asked him to cite one example.

Mother has suffered so much at the hands of Mahony and his cronies, yet NEVER gave up her goal. She truly has the protection of St. Michael. Like the Holy Father, she is suffering her 'purgatory' here on earth. How many converts have come into the church because of EWTN. Their programming is outstanding! Of late, I watch only EWTN. Did anyone catch the interview with Noah Lett on The Journey Home, this past Monday? Just when I think that I have heard the most amazing conversion story, along comes another one to top it! (I will post Dr. Rice's conversion story later today.)

[Siobhan]

I did not hear Noah Lett's story. I will see if we can listen to it online.

Mother Angelica is God's own Apostle of the Air Waves, Radio Waves, Cable and the Dish. I just met an ex-Episcopalian priest who came into the Church on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. It seems he had a correspondence with Mother Angelica for some years before her strokes, and he credits her with his conversion. He is now seeking ordination and hopes to serve as a chaplain in prison ministry. Awesome. Awesome, as Mother would say.

[Siobhan]

That's the "spirit of Vatican II" at work again.

Time for an Exorcism.

[american colleen]

I did hear Noah Lett's story - you see it at 8 PM and I see it later on at 1 PM when I come home from work. I always think of you!!

"EWTN" and "Mother Angelica" are code words... you say them and watch for the reaction. I think it's kind of funny to tell you the truth. Makes my job a lot easier trying to figure out what is what. Another thing to thank Mother Angelica for!

[NYer]

I just met an ex-Episcopalian priest who came into the Church on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. It seems he had a correspondence with Mother Angelica for some years before her strokes, and he credits her with his conversion.

That's Awesome!

I love to watch the reruns of Mother Angelica Live. Looking at the dates - 1994, 1992 - as she describes the situation in the church - the abuses, etc. - she could be describing today!

It is astounding to watch the "live" programs each evening and listen to the callers talk about how they discovered EWTN while channel surfing, how the programs have changed their lives, how much they love "______" (fill in the blank with just about any program from EWTN). Were it not for Mother, none of this would be true today.

Noah Lett's real audio interview probably won't appear until next week, once the reruns of this week's program are ended. I did find a link to a previous interview; if I find it again, I'll post it.

[american colleen]

Speaking of "gifts"... this is a good one for those of us who love irony..

Last year "Voice of the Faithful" was all over the "gifts of the laity" and how they weren't appreciated and utilized by the oppressive hierarchy. So on a media led campaign, they delivered wrapped gifts to the chancery - this was to illustrate those "God given gifts" the VOTFers were earnestly trying to give to the bishop with open hearts and upheld hands.

The housekeeper accepted the gifts and later on she opened them. They were EMPTY!!! LOL! Attractively wrapped empty boxes! I still love that.

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. :-)

[Deo volente]

"people want to turn back the clock and renounce the strides we made in ecumenism and religious liberty and liturgical reform and go back to the church of before the second Vatican Council. "



Translation:

Church before 1965: BAD CHURCH

Church after 1965: GOOD CHURCH

[Siobhan]

That is one of the very funniest things I have heard. VOTF, oh my sweet Lord, someone send them to the Episcopalians post haste.

[Phx_RC]

An idea for a sign for use in Albany or Cleveland?

TIME FOR AN
EXORCISM

Could be, hmmm.
Perhaps about 18" high and 30" wide.

Perhaps not since most won't understand.

[NYer]

Commentary from Fr. Wilson
St. Luke's - Whitestone, NY

Fr. Wilson writes concerning the priest who turned up dead in Albany this past Sunday (February 15)

---

Friday evening, upon returning to my rectory from Manhattan, I found an email from a friend telling me that a Fr John Minkler of Albany would be contacting me, that he was in trouble with his bishop and needed advice. There was a phone message from Fr Minkler. I phoned him at about 8PM, and he chose to return my call immediately. We spoke for about an hour.

He was apprehensive and very burdened. He explained that he had just returned from five days of retreat, to find that his name had been mentioned publicly in the media, in connection with a report that had been sent to John Cardinal O'Connor about the state of the Albany Diocese.

This was the first confirmation I had ever had of something I heard a couple of years ago -- that Cardinal O'Connor, a couple of years before his death, was extremely disturbed about the state of the Church in Abany and Rochester, and was trying to stir up interest in the Holy See in intervening. Fr Minkler confirmed this and said that he had written a report and submitted it to Cardinal O'Connor.

Now, he was very upset that his name had come out in this regard, and he was seeking advice, which I gave him. I will say nothing else about this part of the conversation, because it is between me and a brother priest.

He did not tell me that he had actually been to the chancery that day and spoken with Bishop Hubbard. Nor did he tell me that he had signed an affadavit stating that he had not written the report.

At the end of the conversation, he was much more relaxed than he had been earlier. I told him that I'd be glad to be of any help I could to him, that I'd find him canonical counsel if he needed it, that we have a guest room here at the Rectory if he needed a place to crash. By the time we signed off, he had promised to keep in touch, knew that he had support, and I was in no way anxious about his state of mind. I expected to hear again from him in a few days. Our mutual friend phoned me the next morning (Saturday) to ask if we had connected; I said yes and briefed him, and he phoned Fr Minkler and found him in good shape.

Just to clarify: when Fr Minkler said, "They forced me to lie," I don't think we have to take that as meaning that they knowingly forced him to lie. More likely, it seems to me, was that, frightened, he denied to the Bishop that he had written the letter (I believe that he did indeed deny it), and then, when they pressed him for an affadavit or statement, he could see no way to back down, and signed it.

[undirish01]

I am an unabashed supporter of EWTN. You folks are correct, Mother has brought untold numbers home to Holy Mother Church (most especially to the Eucharist) and she just keeps right on going like the Enegizer Bunny (the network anyway).

I was told once by a "rectory rat" about Mother Angelic that she "Didn't like the way Sister Angelica did things". I asked for one example (playing stupid like Mother was some kind of whacky nun). Well, she gave me NONE!

I am hear to tell you folks, and everybody who reads this board, that if it weren't for Mother Angelica (and Judie Brown and Abp Chaput) my wife and I would NOT be having child number five on the way in August (we would have stopped at two)

Viva Madre Agelica!