ALBANY (NY)
Times Union [Albany NY]
August 1, 2023
By Brendan J. Lyons
Albany’s bishop emeritus asks media outlets to “respect our privacy as a couple”
ALBANY — The Vatican has rejected the laicization request made last year by Albany Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard, who served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany for 37 years and has seen his legacy tainted by the organization’s handling of child sexual abuse cases.
Hubbard, in an open letter provided to the Times Union on Tuesday, confirmed that he had “fallen in love with a wonderful woman who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me,” adding that they were married last month.
His personal relationship with the unidentified woman was apparently a factor in his decision last year to request to be laicized, a move that came eight years after 84-year-old Hubbard had retired as the longest-serving bishop for the 14-county diocese. He has also faced his own allegations of child sexual abuse in a series of lawsuits filed under New York’s Child Victims Act.
“Last fall, after prayerful consideration and consultation, I applied to the Vatican to be returned to the lay state and to be relieved of my clerical obligations,” Hubbard wrote in the letter addressed to his colleagues and friends. “In March, I received notice from the Vatican that my request had been denied. I was encouraged to wait patiently and prayerfully and to continue to abstain from public ministry until seven civil lawsuits against me alleging sexual misconduct had been adjudicated.”
Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, in a letter being distributed throughout the diocese its congregations on Tuesday, said Hubbard’s announcement was “unexpected news and like many of you, I am just now beginning to process it.”
“While he is not permitted to represent himself as a priest or perform the sacraments in public, Bishop Hubbard remains a retired bishop of the Roman Catholic Church,” Scharfenberger wrote. “The church does not acknowledge his marriage as valid. He remains a retired bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and therefore cannot enter into marriage.”
Hubbard had noted in his letter that he may be in his mid-90s before the lawsuits against him are adjudicated and the diocese’s bankrupty case is resolved. The diocese filed for bankruptcy earlier this year in the face of hundreds of child sexual abuse lawsuits that it had been trying to settle on a case-by-case basis.
The bishop emeritus said that his prayers are devoted to four primary issues: “That survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families will find the peace, healing and reconciliation to which they are entitled; … that I will have the opportunity to prove my innocence to the allegations against me before a court of law, … that with whatever time God continues to grant me on this Earth, our marriage will be one of fidelity, love and service, and… that the Vatican will eventually grant me laicization and recognize our marriage.”
Hubbard had requested laicization last year request as he had struggled with what he said was a church policy that prohibited a priest accused of sexual abuse “from functioning publicly as a priest, even if the allegations are false, as they are in my case.”
The 84-year-old noted that he implemented the policy that has deprived him of “the single greatest joy of my life — serving our community as a Catholic priest in my retirement years.”
But the Albany diocese released a statement last November in response to Hubbard’s assertions, saying they would “like to correct a point in some reports that said there is a diocesan policy that forbids an accused bishop from sacramental ministry. … (I)n the case of Bishop Hubbard, it is he alone who voluntarily removed himself from any public celebration of sacraments.”
Hubbard’s nearly four decades as bishop marked the longest tenure of any leader in the history of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. He submitted his letter of resignation to Pope Francis when he reached the mandated age of 75; on Feb. 11, 2014, the Vatican announced it had been accepted.
Hubbard, who suffered a stroke last summer, said he had “asked the Vatican for relief from my obligations as a priest and permission to return to the lay state. In whatever time I have left on this Earth, I hope to be able to serve God and the people of our community as a lay person.”
The bishop emeritus had said he would continue to fight the abuse lawsuits against him in court and maintained that he is innocent of those allegations.
“I hope and pray I will live long enough to see my name cleared once and for all,” he said last year. “While the pain that I have felt as an individual falsely accused is great, it can never approach the devastation experienced by victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy or others in a position of authority in our society. I also continue to pray daily for the children, adults and families who have suffered that they will experience healing and reconciliation.”
In the letter released Tuesday, Hubbard, said that regarding his marriage he hopes that news outlets will “respect our privacy as a couple.”
“I want to express my profound gratitude to my friends and colleagues and the people of our diocese for the love, care and concern you have shown me in my nearly 60 years of priestly service, 46 as a bishop, and for the wonderful fraternal bond I have enjoyed with my brother bishops and priests, deacons and the religious women and men who have served in our diocese, the laity and the interfaith and civic leaders with whom I was privileged to serve,” he wrote. “My life on the public stage has come to an end. To all of you, I thank you with the words of my episcopal motto, ‘Rejoice, we are God’s people.’ God bless you all.”
Before becoming bishop in 1977, Hubbard was known as a “street priest” for his efforts in the city’s South End helping individuals find housing, collecting food donations and assisting those with drug and alcohol addictions. His biography on the diocese’s website notes that he founded Providence House and Hope House, one a storefront crisis intervention center, the other a residential recovery program for adults and teens struggling with addictions.
But Hubbard also has faced fierce criticism for the diocese’s handling of sexual abuse allegations when he was heading it, including shuffling priests accused of child sexual abuse in and out of treatment programs without alerting the public or congregations. In some instances, priests who were returned to ministry went on to sexually abuse other children.
Cynthia S. LaFave, an attorney handling dozens of Child Victims Act lawsuits filed against the Albany diocese, had said last year that Hubbard’s removal from the clerical state was “not only justified but necessary.”
“Without the Child Victims Act, without the courage that the survivors have shown, this would never have happened,” she said nine months ago. “It was not one, nor two, but a community of survivors who came forward to tell their truth about the abuse forced on them by Bishop Hubbard. This is a day of vindication.”
Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, who succeeded Hubbard as bishop, issued a statement in response to Hubbard’s request last year, saying: “Whatever considerations and circumstances may have led to this decision, most probably after a difficult process of discernment, we offer him our prayers and our hopes for happiness and well-being,” it reads. “This news may be shocking and painful for clergy and laypersons who know and love Bishop Hubbard and have appreciated his many years of ministry. I offer Bishop Hubbard my own prayers and fraternal assistance.”
The Archdiocese of New York separately had waged a legal battle to block the disclosure of more than 1,400 pages of internal records related to its investigations of Hubbard.
The records, many of which were eventually turned over to attorneys for alleged sexual abuse victims, were being sought in connection with a Child Victims Act case filed against Hubbard, the Albany diocese and deceased former priest Francis P. Melfe, who like Hubbard is a target of multiple child sexual abuse claims.
The archdiocese’s records on the former bishop were created under disciplinary procedures known as “Vos Estis” that were mandated by Pope Francis in 2019 to govern the investigations of child sexual abuse allegations against bishops or other church superiors. The pope’s mandate also included examinations of any alleged interference with investigations of abuse by a bishop.
The attorneys for the archdiocese had argued that the records are protected from disclosure under the First Amendment. They contend the “production and review of such documents would necessarily excessively entangle the court in matters of internal church governance and call into question the Archdiocese and Cardinal (Timothy) Dolan’s internal processes in exclusively ecclesiastical matters governed by religious law.”
Hubbard’s handling of sexual abuse in the diocese as bishop faced further scrutiny when it was revealed that he had testified under oath in a deposition two years ago that he and the diocese systematically concealed incidents of child sexual abuse and did not alert law enforcement agencies to avoid scandal and preserve “respect for the priesthood.”
The former bishop also confirmed that many of the records documenting the sexual abuse allegations were kept in secret files that only he and other top church officials could access. He said the “sealed” files included allegations of abuse as well as records on priests accused of other forms of wrongdoing, such as financial misconduct or alcohol abuse.
The deposition, which was released after attorneys removed the names of alleged victims, confirmed the efforts by the former bishop and the diocese to conceal incidents of sexual abuse when Hubbard was bishop.
“There was a sense in those days that these crimes should be handled with a minimum of publicity that might re-victimize a minor,” Hubbard had said, adding that church leaders’ “failure to notify the parish and the public when a priest was removed or restored was a mistake.”
Brendan J. Lyons is a managing editor for the Times Union overseeing the Capitol Bureau and investigations. Lyons joined the Times Union in 1998 as a crime reporter before being assigned to the investigations team. He became editor of the investigations team in 2013 and began overseeing the Capitol Bureau in 2017. You can reach him at blyons@timesunion.com or 518-454-5547.