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	Bishop Hubbard Petitions Vatican to Formally, Permanently Remove Gary Mercure from Priesthood By Dave Canfield The Record February 18, 2011 http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/02/18/news/doc4d5e08010c56f354487998.txt After decades at area parishes, former priest Gary Mercure was removed from his priestly duties, convicted of multiple counts of child rape and, on Wednesday, sentenced to spend at least 20 years in a Massachusetts state prison. The lone remaining possible punishment could come from none other than the highest leader of the Catholic faith: Pope Benedict XVI, who has the authority to laicize Mercure, an infrequent and irreversible action that formally removes him from the clergy by decree. Hours before Berkshire County Superior Court Judge John Agostini sentenced Mercure to 20 to 25 years behind bars, Bishop Howard Hubbard said he would refer the case to the Vatican to seek that action. It is the first time since Hubbard became Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany in 1977 that he has involuntarily sought laicization of an individual, said Kenneth Goldfarb, the Diocese’s spokesman, though he has referred priests who wish to leave the priesthood at their request. The process is handled by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which reviews disciplinary matters among clergy. In a March 2010 interview posted on the Holy See’s website, the Congregation’s “promoter of justice” said roughly 300 priests accused of sexual misconduct have been laicized. While the Congregation typically holds a trial-like procedure to establish guilt, in “very grave” cases — like when a criminal conviction has been rendered — the Congregation can forward the matter directly to the Pope, without trial, for a decree banishing the priest, according to the Vatican’s website. Since 2008, Mercure has been removed of his duties by Hubbard and banned from presenting himself as a priest. When that action was taken, Mercure was serving at St. William’s and Sacred Heart parishes in Troy. Hubbard has taken such action against 24 clergy members accused of sexual misconduct after finding reasonable cause to believe the allegations against them were true, Goldfarb said. But Mercure’s case was the rare one that saw a criminal trial. While the charges he was convicted of involved isolated incidents in Berkshire County in the 1980s, victims have come forward to allege abuse dating back to the 1970s. At the trial, victims testified to repeated abuse they endured in New York. While first-degree rape and other serious sex offenses currently have no statute of limitations in New York, at the time of the offenses, criminal charges could not be brought more than five years after the victim turned 18. The statue of limitations in effect at the time of the crime, not the prosecution, is the applicable one under the law. Mercure will continue to collect the pension he earned in his years as a priest, Goldfarb said. The Diocese has no legal authority to revoke it, he said. Dave Canfield can be reached at 270-1290 or by e-mail at dcanfield@troyrecord.com.
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