BishopAccountability.org
	Former Priest Gary Mercure Sentenced to 20 to 25 Years in Prison for Raping Children By Dave Canfield The Saratogian February 16, 2011 http://saratogian.com/articles/2011/02/16/news/doc4d5c3be315a49064570164.txt PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Calling him a "common thug" judge sentenced former Catholic priest and convicted child rapist Gary Mercure to 20 to 25 years in prison. "You are not a priest you are nor more than a common thug," said Judge John Agostini to the 62-year-old. "You injured them not with weapons but with the tools you were given to help them." Mercure did not give a statement but smiled as he exited the courtroom. Hours before the sentencing, Bishop Howard Hubbard said he will ask the Vatican to formally expel Mercure from the priesthood. Mercure, a former Troy priest who was convicted of two counts of forcible rape of a child and indecent assault and battery at a trial last week, was banned from presenting himself as a priest in 2008 by Hubbard, who leads the Diocese of Albany. But the most severe sanction, called laicization, must come from the Vatican. Hubbard, whose diocese has come under fire in recent days for a perceived lack of investigation into past claims against Mercure, made the announcement in a statement Wednesday morning. The jury convicted him of taking two Warren County boys across the state line into Massachusetts and raping them in separate incidents in the 1980s. The men, now 34 and 35, testified at the trial. Mercure was removed by Hubbard after the Diocese found reasonable cause to believe the claims in 2008. He was serving at St. William and Sacred heart parishes in Troy at the time. He had also served in the past at Our Lady of Assumption in Latham, Our Lady of Annunciation in Queensbury, St. Teresa of Avila in Albany and St. Mary's in Glens Falls. While authorities believe Mercure committed similar crimes in New York, no charges could be brought here because the statute of limitations had expired on the crimes. They had not in Massachusetts.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.