ALBANY (NY)
Times Union [Albany NY]
August 18, 2023
By Brendan J. Lyons
The Albany diocese’s longest-serving bishop married last month after asking the Vatican to remove him from priesthood
Albany Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard, who recently married after he had asked the Vatican to remove him from the priesthood, is at Albany Medical Center Hospital in critical condition after suffering a massive stroke Thursday morning, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Hubbard, 84, is unconscious and on a ventilator, one of the people said. He became the ninth bishop of Albany in March 1977, at age 38.
Although he was widely revered for much of his tenure as bishop, his legacy has also been marked with controversy, including his laicization request to the Vatican, his abrupt marriage last month, the Albany diocese’s handling of child sexual abuse cases under his leadership, and a 2004 investigation into him regarding allegations of sexual misconduct.
That investigation, which cost the diocese roughly $2 million, was led by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White. It ended with a 200-page report that found “no credible evidence” to back up a man’s allegations about sexual encounters with the bishop.
Before becoming bishop in 1977, Hubbard, who grew up in the Lansinburgh section of Troy, 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 noted 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 mishandling of sexual abuse allegations during his tenure, 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.
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 minor stroke last summer, said in an open letter he provided to the Times Union earlier this month that he “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.”
In the letter, he confirmed that he had “fallen in love with a wonderful woman who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me.”
His personal relationship with the unidentified woman was a factor in his decision last year to request to be laicized, a process under Canon Law in which a bishop, priest or deacon are formally removed the status of being a member of the clergy. Hubbard’s request was made eight years after he had retired from his role as bishop of the 14-county diocese, a position he held for 37 years. Hubbard has also faced allegations of child sexual abuse in a series of lawsuits filed under New York’s Child Victims Act.
“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,” Hubbard wrote in the letter addressed to his colleagues and friends.
Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger wrote a letter that was distributed to the diocese and its congregations noting the church would not acknowledge the marriage.
“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. “He remains a retired bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and therefore cannot enter into marriage.”
For now, Hubbard remains a bishop in the Catholic Church pending any action by the Holy See, the central government of the Roman Catholic Church, that is headquartered at the Vatican and headed by the pope.
Hubbard had requested laicization last year as he 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.”
Hubbard, who would turn 85 in October, noted that he implemented the policy that he said 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 it 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.”
The bishop emeritus 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.”
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. 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 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. Hubbard has also been accused of child sexual abuse by at least 10 individuals who filed lawsuits against him. He has denied the allegations.
“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.”
.Written By Brendan J. Lyons
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.