NEW YORK
Watershed Post
By Julia Reischel
7/24/14
In an unusual move, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany condemned an obituary and mass for a former priest who died last week as “highly insensitive” to the people he is accused of sexually abusing while he was a minister.
Former priest Robert H. Purcell, who died in the Delaware County village of Margaretville on Thursday, July 17, was permanently removed from the ministry in 2011 after an investigation by the Albany Diocese’s Sexual Misconduct Review Board into charges that he had sexually abused minors.
In its investigation, the Diocese “found reasonable grounds to believe” that Purcell sexually abused minors, including a victim in Margaretville from 1995 to 2001, according to Ken Goldfarb, the director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, in a statement emailed to the Watershed Post today.
Purcell was removed from ministry in 2011, after the investigation. At the time, the Diocese said that it was because of an abuse allegation dating back to 1957, 17 years before he was ordained, according to the Albany Times-Union and the Oneonta Daily Star.
However, in a recent correspondence with the Watershed Post, Goldfarb confirmed that there was also a more recent charge of abuse.
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