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	Prior to Sentencing Diocese Recommends Mercure Removal Fox 23 February 16, 2011 http://www.fox23news.com/news/local/story/Mercure-to-spend-20-to-25-years-behind-bars/1suJiVeaf06jCR59ZKKzUw.cspx [with video] Former priest Gary Mercure will spend the next 20 to 25 years in a Massachusetts state prison for raping two young altar boys in the 1980s. Mercure said nothing in court, as victim impact statements were read and Judge John Agostini told him he violated the tenets of his calling to abuse his young victims. The two victims, now in their 30s, offered statements before the judge handed down sentence, one of them read by the prosecutor, the other voiced by the victim himself. In the first victim's statement, he told Mercure that his childhood was lost forever, replaced by dark memories of what happened. "All I can hope for is that out of the ashes and agony," said the victim, "That something positive can arise." The other victim did not look at Mercure, seated dressed in a blue blazer and tan slacks while handcuffed and shackled, and spoke of how this situation had been with him longer than it hadn't been. "It just seems like the dark cloud may finally be lifted, "said the victim. "I'm glad justice is being done so I may be able to live a normal life." Judge John Agostini then addressed Mercure before he handed up concurrent sentences of 20 to 25 years in state prison on three counts and three to five on the other. The judge told Mercure he violated his calling while cloaking his behaviors in the ritual of the Church, adding, "You're nothing more than a common thug." Mercure will do his time at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction, time that given the fact he is already 62-years-old, will likely be a life sentence. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany released a statement prior to Mercure's sentencing saying it is asking the Vatican to formally dismiss Mercure from the priesthood. The statement from Bishop Hubbard reads: "Now that a conviction has been rendered by the jury in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I will be forwarding to the Vatican, specifically to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the matter of the sexual abuse of minors by Gary Mercure. I am recommending to the Vatican, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that Gary Mercure, already permanently removed in 2008 from all ministry in the Church and forbidden to present himself as a priest in any way whatsoever, now be dismissed formally from the clerical state [laicized]. While I, as Bishop of the Diocese of Albany, have the authority to remove a priest from all ministry and to forbid him from presenting himself as a priest, which I have already done, only the Vatican has the authority to dismiss a priest from the clerical state [laicization]."
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