Agony in Albany - The Roman Catholic Faithful

Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. / AMDG May 2004 Albany newslettersomething else operating here as well, a driving vanity.A fellow priest remembers: “There was anotherpriest who was working as a ‘street priest,’ onlyhe was doing it better. He was banished, so thatHowie wouldn’t be outshone.”A Sad CaseFr. Hubbard had been in Albany for fouryears when Bishop Edwin Broderick was appointedBishop, replacing Auxiliary Bishop Edward Maginn,who had been named administrator of the Diocesewhen Bishop Scully could not function.“Broderick was a sad case,” recalled thepriest. “He was bright, witty, intelligent, orthodox indoctrine, but he had some personal problems.”Broderick was rector of Dunwoodie whenTerence Cardinal Cooke saw that the seminary’s survivalmight depend on finding another position forhim to fill, so Broderick was appointed Bishop of Albany.The Church structures that had kept Broderick’sproblems under control in New York City werenot present in the Church in Albany, and Broderickbegan to suffer from his personal problems. He neverreally liked being out of New York City, and formuch of his reign, he was “basically an absentee landlord,”in the words of one priest.According to the same source, this situationwas exploited by a group of very ambitious youngpriests, all graduates of the North American College.They included the very intelligent Fr. C. HowardRussell, who managed to become chancellor for theDiocese and a close friend of Hubbard, and Fr. MatthewClark, now Bishop of Rochester.“Fr. Russell probably would have become thenext Bishop,” speculated a Wanderer source, “exceptthat too many stories began to circulate about him.”During Russell’s years as chancellor of theDiocese, it was the policy that every candidate offeringhimself for the priesthood must be “homegrown,”that is, come from a family in the Diocese known forbeing a practicing Catholic family. Fr. Russell flagrantlydisregarded those rules by bringing in numerouscandidates for the priesthood from outside theDiocese. Many of these were of questionable moralcharacter.“Almost every priest brought in during thisperiod when Russell was running the chancery,” revealeda source, “has turned out to be a homosexual.”Eventually Russell himself left the priesthood, andmoved to Florida.The Advantages Of Being RadicalDuring this period of chaos and turmoil, thecareer of Bishop Howard Hubbard’s close friend,Bishop Matthew Clark, also advanced.A year older than Hubbard, Clark graduatedfrom the Gregorianum in 1963, received a parish assignmentfor a year while he taught at the VincentianInstitute, returned to Rome in 1964 to pick up aCanon Law degree, was vice-chancellor in the Diocesefrom 1966–1967 when Hubbard was a streetpriest,became chairman of the Priests’ PersonnelBoard, 1969–1972, and then from 1972–1979 heserved as assistant spiritual director and spiritual directorof the North American College in Rome.“Fr. Clark would persecute any seminarianwho believed in One Person of the Blessed Trinity,”quipped a priest, “Let alone all three.”“That sounds funny,” he added, “but it wastrue. He gave some seminarians a very hard time.“You have to understand,” he continued, “thiswas at a time when every radical was being promoted,and the more radical you were, the better jobs yougot.”As the Albany Diocese deteriorated and amajor financial scandal threatened to unfold, TerenceCardinal Cooke from New York City intervened,moved Bishop Broderick up and out of Albany, andan intense power struggle ensued to make the streetpriesta Bishop.When the news broke that Fr. Hubbard wasnamed Bishop, two of the best and most-loved priestsin the Diocese reacted by having nervous breakdowns.Credibility ProblemIn a congratulatory message to Bishop Hubbard;Archbishop Jean Jadot, the progressivist ApostolicDelegate, reminded the “boy-bishop” that if hewere ever asked to fill a role in the National Conferenceof Catholic Bishops (NCCB), he should do soenthusiastically. (In recommending Hubbard for Albany,Jadot repeated what he did dozens of times duringhis tenure as Apostolic Delegate. He advanced thecareers of progressivist and Modernist priests andbishops by promoting them to fill the episcopal vacanciesin one diocese after another.)27