The Death of Catholicism in Albany

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Warning: It is assumed that individuals reading this report are true Catholics. Those who reject even one of the truths of the Catholic faith are, by definition, not Catholic and therefore could not possibly comprehend the depravity of Bishop Howard Hubbard's actions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, February 14,2004, Father John Minkler left a message on my voice mail asking me to help him with Bishop Howard Hubbard. Unfortunately, I did not check my voice mail until Monday morning and Fr. Minkler was already dead.

My first trip to Albany was November 24, 1996. I was invited by a group of Catholics from Oneonta New York. The group was headed by Mrs. Rita Armstrong. Rita and her friends were concerned about the condition of the Church in Albany and wanted RCF's help.

After meeting with local Catholics, who provided me with a list of abuses too long to mention here, I attended an evening "college Mass" at St. Mary's in Oneonta. Bishop Howard Hubbard celebrated Mass with Fr. Brian Raiche present.

The first thing that caught my attention once I arrived at the parish for Mass was a sign posted on the inside door of St. Mary's. The sign on the door stated: "if you want to be an extraordinary minister, show up 15 minutes before Mass. " The sign made it clear that anyone who wished to do so could distribute the Eucharist, and those priests about to celebrate Mass, at the very least, had little if any respect for and possibly no belief in the Real Presence.

During Mass six women dressed in white gowns danced around the Altar and through the sanctuary *. It was a scandal. Prior to Mass I had spoken to parishioners and was informed that the bread used at Mass was made by the parishioners and included sugar and honey as well as other ingredients that, according to Church law, rendered the Mass invalid. * The bread was of such a texture that Bishop Hubbard struggled to tear it apart at this pretend Mass. The parish was packed with impressionable college kids who witnessed this disgrace perpetrated by their bishop.

On the way out after the service a priest with me confronted the Bishop about his use of invalid matter, only to be brushed off by assurances from Hubbard that all was well.

By participating in such a scandalous, sacrilegious display in a Catholic Church, Bishop Howard Hubbard exposes himself as a fraud. He could not do such things and other things documented in this issue of AMDG and believe in the Real Presence, mortal sin, salvation of souls, or the existence of Hell. Hubbard is not fit to serve!

I received a phone call from Father John Minkler on January 8, 2001. He called to inform me that he was sending me a copy of the 1995 report that he prepared at the request of Cardinal O'Connor of New York. The report

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * "DANCING, LITURGICAL. Moving rhythmically to music as part of a religious ceremony... Here dancing is tied in with love, with diversion, with profaneness, with unbridling of the senses; such dancing, in general, is not pure. For that reason it cannot be introduced into liturgical celebrations of any kind whatever." "The Modern Catholic Dictionary" by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

* For VALID CONSECRATION the hosts must be: * made of wheaten flour, * mixed with pure natural water, * baked in an oven, or between two heated iron moulds, and * they must not be corrupted (Miss. Rom., De Defectibus, III, 1).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- detailed problems within the Albany Diocese, including allegations that Hubbard had engaged in homosexual activity with clergy. The report named names. Father felt RCF could use the information to help in our investigation of Hubbard.

Several days later I received the report along with a signed cover letter in which Fr. Minkler updated the 1995 report with additional information, including the names of Albany clergy who were alleged to have engaged in homosexual activity and/or been accused of abuse. Father made it clear that he wrote the report and asked that I never make his name public. Fr. Minkler was afraid of what Hubbard might do if he found out that he (Minkler) had gathered information for the 1995 report. According to Father, Cardinal O'Connor was frustrated because of the fact that Rome would not remove Hubbard.

I realize that it is difficult for some Catholics to believe that a bishop could be corrupt or engage in homosexual activity. One need only look to recent news reports to realize just how bad the situation is within the Church.

The late Fr. John Hardon worked with our organization, on a limited basis, before his death. What I remember most about Fr. Hardon was his statement that, "according to my Vatican superiors, unless the laity do something, one diocese after another will be lost. And what does that tell you? The Bishops are the problem. Let me give a few examples of corrupt bishops. For more information refer to our web site www.rcf.org or request back copies of our newsletter Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (AMDG).

*Bishop Patrick Ziemann. He resigned in July 21, 1999 after admitting to a consensual sexual relationship with a priest. The priest claimed he was coerced by Ziemann to engage in sexual activity. When Bishop Ziemann resigned, we had in our possession, correspondence between a family in the Orange, California Diocese and their thenbishop Macfarland from five years earlier. The Bishop had been notified that Ziemann had made unwanted sexual advances towards the family's son as well as other boys. When the then-Bishop of Orange Diocese responded to this family with a letter, he informed them that he did not believe what they were saying, and he reminded them that they could face legal aCtion for saying such things. The family, fearing legal action against them, dropped the issue. RCF later learned that Bishop Ziemann, after his resignation, was giving church retreats in St. David, Arizona area.

* Bishop Keith Symons of West Palm Beach, Florida, resigned June 2, 1998. This is a particularly troubling case because of who followed Bishop Symons in that diocese. Bishop Symons acknowledged sexual contact with at least five boys while he was a priest. One of them, he admitted, was a long-term relationship. I don't know how you call having sex with a minor a long-term relationship. The information regarding Symons' abuse was made known to the hierarchy at least a year earlier according to press reports. It wasn't until one victim went to the press that action was taken and Symons resigned. Bishop Symons was later found to be leading retreats in the Lansing Michigan Diocese. One Michigan bishop referred to Symons as a "wounded healer."

*Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell replaced Bishop Symons in West Palm Beach, Florida. The local Catholics however, were not told that, in 1996, a $125,000 settlement was paid by the Jefferson City, Missouri, Diocese (O'Connell's home diocese), to an abuse victim of Bishop O'Connell's. The abuse took place when O'Connell was a priest in the diocese of Jefferson City, Mo. It was later learned that there were other victims and on March 8, 2002 Bishop O'Connell resigned.

Bishop O'Connell was appointed to the Diocese of West Palm Beach, a diocese that had already suffered through one abusive bishop, even though the hierarchy knew that he was a child abuser. The then Archbishop of St. Louis, Justin Rigali, allowed O'Connell to be appointed Bishop. So don't let anyone excuse a bishop's actions by saying, "the Pope appointed him so he must be a good bishop. "

*When Archbishop Rembert Weakland from Milwaukee, Wisconsin resigned at age 75, we learned that he had paid $400,000 of diocesan funds to his former boyfriend, in an effort to keep his homosexual relationship a secret.

*More than ten years ago Bishop Brom of San Diego, California paid a former seminarian from Winona, MN. more than $70,000 after the seminarian alleged that Brom coerced him into a sexual relationship in the 1980's.

RCF was founded within the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. There, Bishop Daniel Ryan resigned in October of 1999 after RCF made his predatory homosexual activity public. Ryan was not only having sex with his priests, he had picked up underage boys off the street and paid them for sexual favors. When we brought this information to the hierarchy, they refused to act. It was only after RCF went public that Ryan resigned. The new Bishop, George Lucas, would later use Diocesan funds to buy Ryan a Springfield home to live in.

March 14, 2003 RCF's attorney and I traveled to Washington, D.C. to be interviewed by Mr. Robert Bennett, of the bishops' Sexual Review Board. We presented Mr. Bennett with several hundred pages documenting our investigation of Bishop Daniel Ryan and the hierarchy's cover-up.

Went to an NO mass. Military Diocese.

Wasn't too bad. Good homily about sin and the need for confession. Mentioned not receiving unworthily.

The priest talked briefly about Our Lady of Guadalupe, and said some related prayers.

When I received the Eucharist, I noticed that it tasted like corn meal and had a corn-meal type texture. I suspect that was "in honor" of the Mexican provenance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Is there any way that could have been valid matter, presuming that it did contain corn meal?

"When I received the Eucharist, I noticed that it tasted like corn meal and had a corn-meal type texture."

I attended a Mass in Las Cruces where the altar bread tasted like corn tortilla. I later found out the various parishioners take turns making the altar bread. Each has their own recipe. Some use corn or honey or whatever the parishioner wants to include. I have been told by my previous pastor (himself a liberal) that these Masses are invalid.

"Went to an NO mass. Military Diocese."

In my nearly 30 years of attending Military Diocese Masses it has been my experience that they typically follow the lead of the host diocese.
Thus at McChord AFB we had various Hunthausenisms (Seattle Diocese) in the Mass in the late '70s.
At Mt. Home AFB we had altar girls in the early '80s as per Sylvester Ryan's Boise Diocese.
At my next assignment, near Phoenix, the liturgy was barely recognizable as Catholic.
At my final assignment, near Las Vegas, we were fortunate to have an Anglican Use church next to the base which offered a very orthodox Latin N.O. Mass along with it's very orthodox English liturgy. I only attended Mass on base once or twice.
The Military Ordinariate is no more orthodox than the diocese in which it operates.

"What I remember most about Fr. Hardon was his statement that, "according to my Vatican superiors, unless the laity do something, one diocese after another will be lost."

If we only knew what could be done, I think he could consider it done. Did the solution die with Fr. Hardon?

The solution occupies my every waking hour. I got nothing

"Bishop Symons acknowledged sexual contact with at least five boys while he was a priest."

But then shortly after Symons resigned from the Palm Beach diocese, more young men including a couple of seminarians came forward to complain about being fondled or sodomized by him.
Let's not forget who promoted Symons to bishop.

Unfortunately the pope replaced Symons with another known sodomite bishop.
http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/031403/031403g.htm
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/custom/blogs/editorial/archives/000767.html
Now that a pattern is beginning to emerge, perhaps the most charitable remark is that the pope's judgement must be impaired.

Has either soddomite been prosecuted and/or laiicized?

The diocese has settled with most of the victims, but neither bishop has been publicly prosecuted or laicized - neither is there any prospect of further action under the current pope.

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