Posted on 04/01/2022 6:17:10 PM PDT by marshmallow
In a deposition released March 25, the former Bishop of Albany admitted that he did not report several instances of alleged sexual abuse of minors by priests, instead choosing to keep the allegations quiet and to refer the priests for treatment.
Bishop Emeritus Howard Hubbard, who led the diocese from 1977 until 2014, is himself facing allegations of abuse — which he denies — as well as numerous lawsuits filed under New York’s 2019 Child Victims Act. That legislation set up a one-year window, since extended until August 2021, for clergy sex abuse lawsuits in cases where the statute of limitations had previously expired.
Hubbard returned to active ministry several priests who were accused of abuse and underwent treatment.
The deposition was done in 2021 as part of Hubbard’s response to the Child Victims Act lawsuits. According to the Associated Press, Hubbard testified he didn’t report the allegations to law enforcement because he didn’t feel he was required by law to do so, and instead kept the allegations secret out of concern for “scandal and the respect of the priesthood.”
Hubbard has defended his response to abuse cases, saying that it was “common practice” in the 1970s and ‘80s to act as he did, though he acknowledged that his failure to notify the parish and the public when a priest was removed from or restored to ministry was a “mistake.”
Writing in August 2021, he said that sending priests to “nationally accredited treatment facilities rather than reporting the allegations to local law enforcement authorities” was the “common practice” in the 1970s and ‘80s, and that in a majority of the cases “the victims themselves did not want to make the matter public and many times sought confidentiality through their attorneys.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
They have “treatment” at a building in New Mexico at the top of a mountain with a sparse population in the middle of a vast desert. They send them there for a while and count on the fact that the isolation is the treatment, honestly I think these guys just get stuff sent in and their nastiness continues.
The only reason I know this, I had a friend who retired to that village a long time ago, used to tell me stories.
Hubbard was made bishop at a VERY young age, and was efficient at destroying the diocese. His issues (run the gamut) were very well known for decades. The Wanderer ran a 20+ part series on “The Agony in Albany”. That Catholic paper also reported on the perv priest problems in the late-80s and early-90s (Dallas, I recall was a hot spot) and was laughed at over it. It was all true and then some.
Hubbard has defended his response to abuse cases, saying that it was “common practice” in the 1970s and ‘80s to act as he did, though he acknowledged that his failure to notify the parish and the public when a priest was removed from or restored to ministry was a “mistake.”
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That was SOP throughout the Catholic church.
That’s the reason I left.
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