Posted on 05/14/2004 3:39:22 AM PDT by sidewalk
Abuses hard to prevent, ex-bishop says Albany-- Rev. Broderick believes diocese priesthood was too large to monitor, stands by Hubbard
The former bishop of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese insists there was little he could have done to prevent the clergy sexual abuse that plagued the diocese in the 1970s and continues to haunt church leaders today. "In those days, we had 550 priests," the Rev. Edwin B. Broderick said. "What are you going to do, go down to every rectory at midnight and check to see if the priests are alone? Or if there are little boys around? They all take a vow of celibacy."
The remarks by Broderick, who headed the diocese for eight years before Bishop Howard Hubbard took over in 1977, are his most extensive since the scandal erupted in 2002. Nearly 80 percent of the abuse documented by the diocese dates from the 1970s or earlier, with some cases occurring on Broderick's watch even though came to light long after he left Albany.
Nineteen priests have been removed from the ministry since 1950 and nearly $4 million has been paid out in settlements and services to victims.
The 87-year-old Broderick, who is retired and living on Park Avenue in New York City, spoke to a Times Union reporter after he presided over confirmation ceremonies Wednesday at Holy Spirit Church in East Greenbush. Broderick still travels north several times a year to assist Hubbard in dispensing sacraments to the 400,000-member diocese.
He said he was troubled by the current allegations against Hubbard and vowed to stand by the man who succeeded him when he left to head up Catholic Relief Services, a world charity outreach organization.
"I had lunch with him last week and I said, 'Look, I'm with you, if there's something I can do,' " Broderick said. "He is the last person I'd ever think would have such allegations raised."
Hubbard was accused in early February of engaging in sexual relationships in the 1970s with a young man who later killed himself and another who said he accepted money for sex in Washington Park. Then came the Feb. 15 suicide of the Rev. John Minkler, after being linked to a 1995 letter to then-New York Archbishop John O'Connor accusing Hubbard of homosexual behavior and theological transgressions.
The former VA chaplain, who was ordained by Broderick in 1972, died two days after he signed a statement for the Albany Diocese disavowing authorship of the letter.
On Thursday, Hubbard said that Broderick served the Albany diocese with great vision and zeal at a time when the Second Vatican Council transformed the church.
"He was sensitive to the difficulty that some clerics, religious and laity had in understanding it," Hubbard said.
Originally from the Bronx, Broderick, the son of County Clare immigrants was ordained, and held pastoral, teaching and administrative positions in the New York Archdiocese before moving to Albany as its eighth bishop in 1969.
At Wednesday night's confirmation, many of the 44 teenagers and their families seemed impressed at the sight of the lanky priest in full-dress red- and cream-colored cope, vestments and tall peaked miter.
With an imposing crosier, or bishop's staff, planted firmly in his right hand, Broderick slowly led five other concelebrating priests, and several hundred parishioners, down the steep driveway to the adjoining school hall.
A priest for 62 years, Broderick lived up to his reputation as a globe-trotting urbanite with an abundance of Irish charm as he happily shook hands, clapped backs and posed with panache for dozens of pictures in the extreme heat.
He has been named in society columns around the country for the celebrity marriages he's performed and the high-society soirees he's attended. In the 1950s, Broderick produced the weekly Christian television program "Life is Worth Living," featuring Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
While he enjoyed the life of a bishop, he admitted that he got greater fulfillment with Catholic Relief Services, which he headed until 1982.
"I really loved that job," Broderick said. "You're doing something instead of being under house arrest."
Picking from a plate of grapes and melon, Broderick said he had no regrets about his tenure in Albany, even as he acknowledged the scandal could taint his legacy.
Raising his hands, he said, "It's a terrible thing. ... But, you try to do the best you can with what you have as talents."
"What are you going to do, go down to every rectory at midnight and check to see if the priests are alone? Or if there are little boys around? They all take a vow of celibacy."
Well, moron, for starters you obey the Vatican and make sure none of them are butt cowboys. That way you don't have to worry about whether there are little boys around.
From the Poynter Abuse Tracker
Friday, September 12, 2003
ALBANY - A busy day in the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal saw a $500,000 settlement, another suit being dropped, an appeal of a previously dismissed suit and an attorney making a motion to get a new judge.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, after "extensive mediation," agreed to pay the victim of former priest Rev. Dozia Wilson for abuse that occurred in the Boston Archdiocese. The victim initially asked for $2 million. The settlement is not part of the recent $85 million settlement between hundreds of victims and the Boston Archdiocese.
Wilson, who was ordained by the Albany Diocese in 1972, was sent to Boston by then Bishop Edwin Broderick in 1976 after the diocese received complaints of sexual impropriety.
FULL TEXT
Wednesday, July 9, 2003
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By ANDREW TILGHMAN, Staff writer
The 52-year-old Capital Region man referred to in court papers only as John Doe accuses the late Rev. John Mea of raping him repeatedly in the rectory of St. Joseph's Church in Fort Edward. For three years the priest allegedly forced the altar boy to engage in oral and anal sex and told him "that he would go to hell if he were to tell anyone about the sexual misconduct," according to the lawsuit.
The diocese -- led at the time by Bishop Edwin Broderick -- also "used moral arguments to manipulate the plaintiff and his family to convince them not to press criminal charges or pursue any civil causes of action," the lawsuit alleges, without providing details.
FULL TEXT
And if any slide through, the first complaint or two should give you a hint.
If anyone out there has access to Paul Likoudis' orginal Agony in Albany series (I can't find my copy right now) could they scan or keyboard the section regarding Bishop Broderick's career and post it here?
It is very painful to see all the Irish names attached to so many involved in some way in the sexual perversion scandals. When I think of my very traditionally and humbly devout Irish born grandparents and wonder about the very traditional and very humbly devout parents of some of these perverted priests and bishops, my heart breaks.
"The 87-year-old Broderick, who is retired and living on Park Avenue in New York City"
How come a retired bishop has enough money to live on Park Avenue in New York City?
"Wilson, who was ordained by the Albany Diocese in 1972, was sent to Boston by then Bishop Edwin Broderick in 1976 after the diocese received complaints of sexual impropriety."
Maybe that sort of moral turpitude answers my question.
"What are you going to do, go down to every rectory at midnight and check to see if the priests are alone? Or if there are little boys around?"
No, Bishop Broderick, I wouldn't expect any bishop to be able to constantly monitor
his priests' activities. But I would certainly expect him NOT to go out and actively recruit homosexual seminarians and priests, which I understand the current ordinary has done repeatedly.
And promote heterodoxy and dissent in his diocese.
And speak about the need to continue the discussion on ordaining women, in the face of the infallible ruling by the Holy Father in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.
And hire a New York law firm at $700 an hour with no timetable to clear his precious name of well-founded allegations of sexual impropriety, with diocesan money taken from the faithful in the pews.
(By the way, has anyone heard from Mary Jo lately?)
These things I would expect a bishop NOT to do.
This 87 year old bishop is living a kIng's life. He sounds like one more arrogant prince.
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