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	Clergy Abuse Victims Speak out WNYT February 11, 2011 http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S1968731.shtml?cat=300 [with video] Local victims of clergy sex abuse are reacting to the guilty verdict in a Massachusetts courtroom of Father Gary Mecure, a priest who worked in several Capital Region parishes. It took a Berkshire County jury only about two and a half hours of deliberation before finding Mecure guilty of sexually abusing two children, two young alter boys, more than two decades ago. Michael Flynn of Watervliet never got a chance to take his claims of sexual abuse against Father Gary Mecure to court because the statute of limitations in New York State ran out. His reaction to Mecure's conviction in Massachusetts is: "Finally, it's about time!" After Flynn came forward three years ago, others followed. Two of those victims, as it turns out, were molested by Mecure during a trip to the Berkshires in the 1980s. In Massachusetts the clock on the statute of limitations began ticking when the victims came forward. Mark Lyman, of Stillwater, who heads the Capital Region chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests -- or SNAP -- says Thursday's conviction "ends a long journey." "Our statutes in New York State are archaic and predator friendly," Lyman asserts, "If Bishop Hubbard and other bishops were serious about protecting children, changing these laws and giving victims rights to advocate for themselves, and stop their lobbying in Albany and they'll give victims the tools they need to OUT these sexual predators and make New York State a safer place for children to live." The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese issued a statement labeling Mecure's attacks "sinful, criminal, and reprehensible, but as far as Michael Flynn is concerned, that was too little too late. "Why did it take a conviction for them now to come forward with such a statement?" Flynn asks, "Why didn't they make that statement three years ago when they found credible evidence?" "However amicable that press release may seem," according to Lyman, "the Diocese has traditionally been adversarial to victims." Gary Mecure will be sentenced on Wednesday when he faces 25-years to life for each of three charges. "The amount of time he spends behind bars doesn't really change the outcome (and isn't more important than) the validation of the fact that these things did happen," Flynn says. Lyman says, "As far as I'm concerned, anyone who sexually abuses a child deserves the maximum." But based on the outcome of his own case, Lyman doesn't have such a good feeling about Mecure's sentencing. After Father Frank Genevive, of Saint Anthony's Parish in Troy pleaded guilty to molesting Lyman, Genevive was handed a suspended sentence, receiving no jail time and spending six years on probation. He also has to spend ten years on the state's sex offender list as a level II offender.
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