Abusive priest’s files detail pattern of rape

NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Brendan J. Lyons
Updated 6:59 am, Monday, October 14, 2013

Albany

The once-secret personnel files of Gary Mercure, an Albany priest imprisoned for raping and sexually abusing altar boys, have been opened in a federal court as part of a lawsuit filed by one of his many victims.

The records reveal that Mercure systematically stole money from church coffers and used it to lavish young men and boys with cash, gifts and living expenses as he brazenly maintained a sexually active, homosexual lifestyle for decades. They also show how Mercure used his priesthood to gain the trust of parents whose sons he raped or abused, including on their family vacations and in their homes when he knew the parents were away.

Mercure’s sexual abuse of young boys while working as a priest in Albany, Queensbury and Glens Falls is outlined in often-disturbing detail in the internal records, which show his abuse of young boys began as early as the late 1970s, not long after Mercure was ordained as a priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

Although heavily redacted by the diocese’s attorneys, the records portray Mercure as a rogue priest who eluded criminal prosecution and was returned to ministry — with no restrictions regarding his contact with children — even after the diocese sent him away for therapy when it was revealed he had a sexual affair with a young man in the early 1990s.

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