Diocese of Albany Engaged in Decades-Long Cover-Up of Sexual Abuse

Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are obsessing over barring Joe Biden from receiving communion due to Biden's support for reasonable abortion rights.  Meanwhile, these same individuals continue efforts to avoid accountability for decades of sexual abuse of minors and youths by Catholic clergy and concerted efforts to cover up such abuse.  A story out of Albany, New York, provides a view of the lies, deception, and utter indifference to the victims of abuse that characterized the Albany diocese and which sadly was replicated in dioceses all over America and the world. Having been raised Catholic - all of my family has left the Catholic Church at this point - I continue to be struck by the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of bishops, cardinals and popes who lectured others on morality and, of coursed, demonized LGBT individuals.  Here are highlights from a piece in the Times Union: 

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany engaged in a decades-long cover-up of chronic child sexual abuse committed by its priests by employing practices described in a recent statement from former Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, who ran the diocese from 1977 to 2014. 

Hubbard’s statement, issued through his attorney in response to a series of questions from the Times Union, confirmed that the diocese shielded priests and others facing sexual abuse allegations — sending them into private treatment programs rather than contacting law enforcement officials or alerting parishioners. Some of those priests allegedly emerged from treatment and committed more crimes.

Hubbard's response comes as he is facing multiple allegations of sexually abusing a minor, and is named in dozens of additional court cases in which he stands accused of covering up abuse by others.

The bishop's acknowledgement comes as there have been roughly 300 Child Victims Act lawsuits filed against the Albany diocese, providing an unprecedented window into the organization's documented history of abuse, as well as the actions of Hubbard.

The cases name hundreds of predators and describe decades of abuse allegedly committed by priests and others who preyed on the children in their care, while using their positions to evade accountability.

For this story, the Times Union reviewed thousands of pages of court records, including once-secret documents kept by the diocese, and interviewed attorneys, survivors and experts on child abuse.

One such case unfolded around 1983, when Eileen Thompson received a tearful phone call from her teenaged nephew. 

He said he'd been molested by Gerald Miller, a priest from Altamont, and didn’t know what to do. He’d confided with another adult at his school, but that person had told him, “Well, after what happened to you, you’re never going to be a real man.” 

He couldn’t stop crying during the phone call, Thompson recalled.

“I have to go. I'll call you," she remembered him saying before he hung up. She expected him to call back to finish their conversation, or maybe drop by her home to see her, which he did frequently. 

Instead, the next day he went to his uncle’s house in Rensselaerville and killed himself with a shotgun.

An attorney who has handled thousands of abuse cases against the church nationally said that the body of evidence suggests Albany was a "problem diocese," as both Hubbard and his former second in command, Edward Pratt, both stand accused of abuse. 

Thompson was "almost hysterical" at her nephew's funeral service. She heard someone mention in passing that Miller was supposed to officiate, since he was so close with the deceased, but ultimately hadn't for some reason. A few weeks later, Thompson called the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and asked to speak with the bishop.

“Father Gerry is being sent to New Mexico where they have more respect for priests,” Thompson said Hubbard told her. New Mexico is the home of a now-infamous treatment site where abusive priests from around the country were sent. 

Jeff Anderson, an attorney with one of the largest abuse firms in the country, compared Hubbard to former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. A former powerful figure in the American Catholic church, McCarrick was defrocked due to allegations of child abuse, and on Friday was charged with sex crimes against a 16-year-old boy in the 1970s. 

Hubbard "was able to protect himself and all of his priests at the same time, doing the same things that McCarrick did. As an offender and also as someone who was in complete control over all the clerics," Anderson said. "He was able to protect himself without accountability to anybody, to protect so many offenders. So many kids and so many months, years and decades.” 

Attorneys for many of the alleged victims said they are seeking to prove that the diocese’s practices enabled abuse. They're seeking personnel files from all accused priests, not just the ones who allegedly abused their clients; the diocese is fighting that request in court. But an appellate judge recently ruled that the diocese must turn over the records in the coming weeks. 

Given the Catholic Church's continued refusal to accept a full accounting for the abuse it allowed and in some ways fostered, I find it difficult to comprehend how moral individuals can remain members of the Church..