Michael Rose at CruxNews.com provides a comprehensive look at what has happened in the Diocese of Albany all the facts and allegations together in one story.
Many Catholics in the Diocese of Albany and beyond have also been critical of Bishop Hubbard for further reasons, not the least of which is promotion of a homosexualist agenda within the Catholic Church. For example, in 1991 the bishop defended his practice of ordaining known homosexual priests, telling the Times Union: “I believe the Church has a responsibility to all its memberss another article on church closings, this one about the recommendation that four parishes in Dorchester be closed. Suddenly this is a big topic in all the news because all the recommendations from the local clusters are due in to the archdiocese at the end of the week. (Short recap: Local clusters of parishes have to recommend at least one parish from their group to be closed. Doesn’t mean that every recommendation will be taken, but it gives the parishes some input.)
This article and the one I referenced in the entry before this contain the same predictable responses: “You can’t close my parish, it’s important to me.” (Every parish is important to the people that go there, but some still have to close. That’s the sad fact.) “Even though I haven’t been to Mass in years, it’s wrong to close my parish.” (Well, maybe if you’d been to Mass, there would be enough people supporting the parish and providing new vocations for the priesthood and so on, that we wouldn’t be closing any parishes.)
I’ve had some direct experience with this situation myself. My pastor asked me to join our parish’s delegation to the local cluster on Friday because several members were out of town. So I went to the meeting of our six parishes. What a mess. The details of our deliberations are supposed to remain confidential for now to avoid the panic that’s already seeping out in the articles I’ve linked to, but I can give you the mood. For one thing, there is much distress and a lot of tension. Some people are realistic about what needs to be done, others in denial. Some people suggested we should the recommendation into the diocese that we don’t have any recommendations. Unfortunately, one cluster already tried that and it was sent back to them, telling them to suck it up and do the job (not in so many words).
