The bizarre situation in Albany concerning Bishop Hubbard, allegations of homosexual activity, and the suspicious death of an apparent whistleblower priest continues.
Last weekend, Stephen Brady of Roman Catholic Faithful and Paul Likoudis of The Wanderer held an open meeting to discuss the case of the late Fr. Minkler. An interesting note: a group of protesters kept interrupting the meeting, chanting “We support the bishop” and doing other disruptive things. Apparently, it came out later that some of those protesters were sent there by Hubbard himself.
Also, the lawyer at the heart of the allegations against Hubbard has sent a letter to the Vatican, requesting that it verify that Fr. Minkler’s 1995 letter was forwarded there by Cardinal O’Connor. I doubt the Vatican will do anything with the request. Not that they would sanction the funny business described in it, but because they prefer to deal with all such stuff internally and avoid scandal (although we know how well that strategy’s worked in recent years.)
Finally, apparently a second letter written by Fr. Minkler has surfaced, this one handwritten and dated in 2001. It accuses Hubbard of specific homosexual affairs and gives the names of 24 other priests who are allegedly homosexual. Stephen Brady is apparently the source for the letter.
It is a bizarre case and must be heart-wrenching for faithful Catholics in Albany, but they should know that such pain is like surgery to remove a cancer from their midst. Hopefully they’ll be in recovery soon.
[Thanks to reader Carolyn for the links.]
I think Cardinal O’Connor had an obligation to act – whether he forwarded the letter or not. Silence is consent as St. Thomas More would say.
Well, John, seeing as how I don’t have millions of dollars to pay legal fees to defend myself against a libel lawsuit, I think discretion is the better part of valor. Why should I be the one to suffer for what you want to happen? If you want to post a link to it, set up a web site and post it. And if you’re willing to send me some money to defend myself, I’ll re-post the link.
And just because I don’t want to read a particular book doesn’t mean I’m uninformed. I assure you that I’ve been following the mess in the Church for years.
David,
The reason more isn’t being made of the letter is because it concerns homosexuality. The media is not going to make homosexuality out to be the bad guy, even if it would be fun to tweak the hypocrisy. Even so, you can see the local Albany media’s conflict. On the one hand, it’s a big story, but on the other hand, they don’t want to go where it’s leading.
And the coroner has still not come out with a definitive cause of death for Father Minkler. Very strange.