December 14, 2004

Hubbard bars lay minister over past

ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union

By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, December 14, 2004

ALBANY -- Bishop Howard Hubbard has banned a 75-year-old man from public participation in his Herkimer County church after learning that the onetime Christian Brother was convicted of child sexual abuse in Canada.

John Evangelist Murphy was a lay minister at St. Joseph's Church in Dolgeville, about 80 miles northwest of Albany. His crimes were mentioned in Dallas Morning News articles last week.

Murphy is serving a 20-month sentence of house arrest imposed by a Canadian judge following his conviction last year on four counts of indecent assault of four boys at the Mount Cashal Orphanage between 1950 and 1960.

Reached Monday, Murphy, whose first trial ended in mistrial in 2003, had little to say: "Shoot, this never ends. No comment."

Posted by kshaw at December 14, 2004 08:36 AM