NEW YORK
Saratogian
By Ian Benjamin, ibenjamin@troyrecord.com, @ibenja2 on Twitter
POSTED: 10/28/13
ALBANY >> “I’ve come a long way for a boy from the ’Burgh,” said Bishop Howard Hubbard, his voice reverberating within the vaulted arches of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany.
For those who know him, that was not a pretentious statement, but rather one reflecting his amazement at being the spiritual leader for nearly 400,000 Catholics for more than three decades.
When Howard James Hubbard, then a 38-year-old priest from the Lansingburgh section of Troy, was ordained Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany on March 27, 1977, he was the youngest bishop in the nation. He was dubbed the “boy bishop.”
The sobriquet has long since faded, and having served as bishop for more than 36 years, Hubbard is now the longest tenured bishop in the country. When the bishop celebrates his 75th birthday on Oct. 31, his career will begin to conclude.
By Papal law, that is the date by which Hubbard must submit his letter of resignation through official channels to the Vatican. It is only once Pope Francis names a successor, however, that he will actually step into retirement. …
As the bishop has weathered the closure of parishes, he also led the diocese when cases of sexual abuse at the hands of priests have come to light. After the prosecution of five priests in the archdiocese of Boston received national attention in 2002, victims of pedophile priests began to come forward across the nation, creating a crisis for the church in America, and years of trouble for Hubbard. A number of victims have since come forward in the Albany Diocese. In 2004, two men brought allegations of sexual misconduct against Hubbard, but after an exhaustive $2 million investigation led by former prosecutor Mary Jo White, those accusations were found to be baseless.
While most of the cases of sexual abuse in the church occurred roughly between 1965 and 1985, the vast majority of the reports on those cases only began gaining national attention following the Boston scandal. The same year the scandal erupted, the church instituted a number of safeguards to prevent the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Those seeking to enter the priesthood are now required to undergo extensive background checks and a long interview process that can last up to a year.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.