The retired bishop of Albany, New York, who has admitted to overlaying up for predator clergymen and has himself been accused of sexual abuse, has requested Pope Francis to take away him from the priesthood.
Emeritus Bishop Howard Hubbard, 84, introduced the verdict in a remark Friday, the day the United International locations designated because the International Day for the Prevention of, and Therapeutic from Kid Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence.
Hubbard mentioned he sought after to be laicized, or returned to the lay state, as a result of he may not serve as as a clergyman, given U.S. church coverage that bars accused clergymen from ministry. If permitted, laicization would relieve Hubbard of his celibacy tasks.
Asking the pope for voluntary laicization is strange, particularly for a bishop and specifically for a cleric who denies abuse allegations in opposition to him. Normally clergymen ask to be laicized if proof of abuse in opposition to them is overwhelming or in the event that they need to depart the priesthood to get married. The Vatican can forcibly laicize clergymen, or defrock them, as a punishment for such crimes as clergy sexual abuse.
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FILE – Bishop Howard Hubbard swings incense all through an Ash Wednesday communion provider on the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Feb. 25, 2004, in Albany, New York.
(Related Press)
Hubbard has stated overlaying up allegations of sexual abuse in opposition to youngsters by way of clergymen partly to keep away from scandal and give protection to the recognition of the diocese. He did so in a deposition for certainly one of dozens of claims by way of loads of people that have sued the Albany diocese over sexual abuse they are saying they continued as youngsters, from time to time a long time in the past.
However he has strongly denied accusations that he himself abused minors. In his remark Friday, Hubbard repeated that declare of innocence.
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FILE – On this Dec. 4, 2014 document photograph, Pope Francis listens to a speech all through a unique target market he held for individuals of the FOCSIV Italian Catholic volunteers, on the Vatican.
(AP Photograph/Andrew Medichini, Document)
“I’m hoping and pray I will be able to are living lengthy sufficient to look my title cleared as soon as and for all,” he mentioned.
Hubbard ran the diocese in New York’s Capital District from 1977 to 2014.
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Different U.S. bishops have requested Francis to renounce over their mishandling of predator clergymen, however no longer be got rid of altogether from the priesthood. Francis in 2019 forcibly defrocked ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after a church investigation made up our minds he sexually abused adults and kids.
Lawyers for abuse survivors hailed Hubbard’s request to go away the priesthood solely because the fruits of efforts by way of sufferers to carry the Catholic hierarchy answerable for abuse and cover-up. Whilst the U.S. church has had a “one strike and also you’re out” coverage in impact for twenty years, it spared bishops from sanction.
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Simplest in 2019 did the Vatican go in-house norms to research accused bishops, however the ones circumstances had been shielded in secrecy with out a complete public accounting of who has been investigated or sanctioned and leaving it to particular person dioceses or bishops meetings to free up data.
“We really feel Hubbard’s elimination isn’t just justified however important. This alerts to survivors that their voices are being heard,” mentioned legal professional Cynthia LaFave in a remark issued by way of the regulation places of work of Jeffrey Anderson, who has represented loads of abuse survivors within the U.S.