BISHOP HUBBARD, A REMEMBRANCE

Once the youngest bishop in the United States when he was ordained at age 38, Bishop Hubbard led the Albany Diocese for 37 years.

Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard, once the youngest bishop in the United States and known as a staunch advocate for the poor, marginalized and those struggling with addiction, as well as a champion of peace and social justice issues and interfaith friendships, but who stepped away from his pastoral duties after his legacy was tarnished by allegations of sexual abuse in 2019, died at the age of 84 in Albany on Aug. 19.

“The life of a priest is never about himself but for those whom he serves, to whom he is sent. As we commend our brother, Howard Hubbard, to the God of all mercy, we pray also for all those who, throughout the course of his life, as priest, bishop and friend, were inspired and encouraged along their own journey, especially those who received the sacraments through his ministry,” said Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger in a statement. 

Bishop Hubbard — who suffered a stroke on Aug. 17 and died just days later while in critical condition at Albany Medical Center — leaves a complicated history in the Diocese of Albany, still beloved by many of the faithful. He was the humble “street priest” who helped those in need and suffering from addiction in Albany’s South End, and made national headlines when he became bishop at the age of 38, but later became tainted by allegations of sexual abuse. And just this year, he married in a civil ceremony after his request to be laicized by the Vatican was turned down.

“Priests are called to sanctify, to ‘make holy,’ to lift others up to God,” continued Bishop Scharfenberger. “As all priests are human, broken men, in need of redemption themselves from their own sins, we also pray for those who were in any way hurt or wounded by any priest they may have encountered. We join with everyone who can see this moment as an occasion to pray for all priests, living and deceased, and those they serve, to lift up our minds and hearts to the one God who alone knows our hearts and seeks the salvation of us all.”

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for Bishop Hubbard on Friday, Aug. 25, at St. Pius X Church (23 Crumitie Rd., Loudon­ville, N.Y., 12211). Public Visitation takes place from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Mass begins at 11:30 a.m. Bishop Scharfenberger will preside. The Mass will also be livestreamed. It can be accessed directly from the parish’s website by using this link: https://stpiusxloudonville.org

“Bishop Emeritus Howard Hubbard was a good friend of Siena College and had a close relationship with the Franciscan Friars who founded Siena,” said Siena president Charles F. Seifert in a statement. “His ordination as Albany’s bishop was held on our campus in 1977, and in 2001 he was formally affiliated with the Order of Friars Minor of Holy Name Province. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and the faithful of the Diocese of Albany. May Howard rest in peace.”

Bishop Hubbard was born Oct. 31, 1938, at Samaritan Hospital in Troy. He attended St. Patrick’s School and La Salle Institute, both in Troy, and remembered his time growing up fondly in an interview with The Evangelist in 2013.

“Troy, in the 1940s and ’50s, was a tight-knit community. Everything focused around your neighborhood, which (in my case) was Lansingburgh, and your parish, which was St. Patrick’s. So much of your activity took place around school: annual clothing drives, playing ball in (the) park. It was a very safe community; nobody locked their doors,” Bishop Hubbard said. “Kids would go out, come in for lunch, go out, come in for supper, go out, come in when the lights came on. We made our own fun, refereed our own disputes; there was very little parental involvement. I have very pleasant, happy memories of my childhood. I started out in public school; when I was in fourth grade, my parents transferred my sister and me to St. Patricks.”

After graduating from La Salle, Bishop Hubbard entered Mater Christi Minor Seminary in Albany in 1956. It was at Mater Christi that he met Matthew Clark, who retired as Bishop of Rochester after 33 years in 2012 and died in January 2023, and the two became lifelong friends. Bishop Hubbard completed his bachelor’s degree at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, where he earned his degree in philosophy. He also did postgraduate studies in social services at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He continued his studies for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning a licentiate in Sacred Theology and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Albany on Dec. 18, 1963, at the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome. 

During his early priesthood, then-Father Hubbard served as associate pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Schenectady and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, as well as serving as chaplain for the Kenwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany.

“I didn’t want to be anything but a parish priest. I was very happy about my first assignment assisting at the Cathedral. I was (also) serving as principal of the parish school, but I didn’t have the background. I told Sister Ann Theresa Flynn, ‘You have a lot of experience; you run the school. I’ll be principal in name only.’ I taught Latin and religion, but I mainly worked in home visitation with the families,” Hubbard said in the Evangelist interview. 

“Then the Head Start program came into effect. In those days, it was under human services (rather than education). The head of Catho­lic Charities, Father (Richard) Downs, asked if I would be willing to pilot a Head Start program in Albany. Because the program went well, it gave Father Downs the idea to suggest to the bishop that I go back to school to study social work. I said I would prefer not to, but I took a vow of obedience to the bishop. … I got a letter a couple of weeks later saying I was assigned to the school of social services at Catholic University.”

In his early days, Bishop Hubbard — who was heavily influenced by the Second Vatican Council which began in 1962 — was known as a “street priest” who walked the South End finding apartments for people with no place to go, collecting food donations for the hungry, and driving people with addictions to detox.

“In 1966, it was the midst of the civil rights movement (and racial tensions in Albany). An interfaith task force had been formed (with members who were priests, rabbis, divinity students, laity and others). We worked during July and August in the South End, trying to address issues people were facing, (from) discrimination in housing (to) trash pickup. There were 40 members, at least,” Hubbard said.

“(Since the effort only took place during the summers,) we decided each of us ought to write to our denominational leader and say it was a shame everything would come apart until the next summer. I wrote to Bishop Maginn. To my surprise, the bishop asked if I would forgo my second year of studies to open a storefront social service center. Little did he realize I didn’t want to be there (in school) in the first place! I was very happy to get back to the Diocese.”

He founded Providence House in 1966 and co-founded Hope House, one the storefront crisis intervention center, and the other a residential recovery program for adults and teens struggling with addictions.

“The biggest scourge in the community was heroin addiction, but nothing was available (for treatment), not only in Albany, but in all of northeastern New York. I had to pull together (resources) to start an outpatient program,” he said. “I tried to get people to the point where they were willing to go for inpatient treatment. They would detox (at Albany Med) and I would drive them to residential treatment. (Then the downstate treatment centers began to complain that all the Albany patients were taxing their capacity.) They said, ‘You’re going to have to open your own treatment center.’ ”

Which was Hope House and it exists to this day and continues to offer high-quality treatment. He also served as the founding president of LIVCORP, a program providing group homes for those with developmental disabilities and was president of Albany’s Urban League.

Father Peter Young, the former CEO of Peter Young Housing, Industries and Treatment, who died in 2020, worked right alongside Father Hubbard in those days.

“At the time that Father Howard Hubbard arrived in the South End of Albany, it was at the height of the uprisings of racial confrontations. He demonstrated, in his ministry, outstanding leadership with his work for the poor and needy as a networking service to bring hope to resolve differences without hostility. I’m a grateful priest for his commitment to the ministry of peace and justice,” Father Young told the Evangelist in 2013.

“He spent 10 years calming me down while enjoying our 10 p.m. nightly visit to Howard Johnson’s to share the ideas of how to serve our people with an example of how to use the Christian Gospel to bring peace in those troubled times. Living with him for 10 years, we were bonded with outstanding volunteers.

“He lived at St. John’s in Albany in the most humble setting that, now, our homeless men have complained about (since the rectory is now being used as a shelter, and what was once the bishop’s room is located under the eaves), but he never complained. That’s our bishop as an example of mission and ministry as his priority.”

He also served on numerous diocesan committees and boards, including the Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. He was Vicar General of the Diocese of Albany from 1976-77, and during that same time was elected by the Board of Consultors as administrator of the Diocese.

On Feb. 1, 1977, he was appointed as the ninth Bishop of Albany by Pope Paul VI, making him the youngest bishop in the United States at that time; he was 38 years old. He succeeded Bishop Edwin B. Broderick, who left the Diocese to become Director of Catholic Relief Services in New York City. He was ordained to the episcopacy on March 27, 1977, at Siena College in Loudonville. And it certainly was not something that he sought out.

“It came out of the blue. I was in Granville; we were closing the Polish parish of All Saints (and I was dealing with that in my role with the Pastoral Planning Office). I came home to a telegram from the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the U.S. that said, ‘The Holy Father has a mind to name you the Bishop of Albany. You have 24 hours to consider this matter, and you can only speak to your spiritual director,’ ” he said.

“When the Holy Father asks you to do something, you’d better have darned good reasons to say no. I didn’t have any compelling reasons to say I wouldn’t accept. I was notified Jan. 19 that the announcement would be made Feb. 1. I couldn’t tell anyone. That began the longest 10 days of my life.”

In March 1977, he told the Evangelist that even though he would become bishop, he would continue to “live a rather simple lifestyle.”

“I think that the bishop has to be a man of prayer and a man of service. I have always tried to live a rather simple lifestyle as a priest, and I would hope to continue that in my tenure of office as bishop. I think the most important thing is what’s within the heart of a person. If the person has a simplicity of lifestyle within himself, then no matter what physical circumstances in which he finds himself, that would come through.”

This is what he did when he was Father Hubbard, living for years in St. John’s rectory on South Ferry Street and then when he became Bishop Hubbard, he sold a large diocesan-owned property on New Scotland Avenue — home to previous bishops that had a staff and a driver with a fancy car.

In 1983, he was appointed to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Non-Christians by Pope John Paul II. Over the course of his episcopacy, Bishop Hubbard authored two pastoral letters — “We are His People” and “We are God’s Priestly People” and wrote two books, “I am Bread Broken: A Spirituality for the Catechist” and “Fulfilling the Vision: Collaborative Ministry in the Parish.”

He served as president of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, sued to prevent an abortion clinic from opening in Albany, and led a historic Palm Sunday reconciliation service between Christians and Jews in 1986 at the Cathedral. The service was believed to be the first in the world. In 1989, Bishop Hubbard and Rabbi Martin Silverman walked through the “Portal” sculpture at the Cathedral hand-in-hand symbolizing reconciliation and friendship to commemorate the 1986 event.

He also served as Episcopal Liaison to the Catholic Aids Network and the National Council for Pastoral Planning and Council Development. During his entire time as bishop, he served as chairman of the Public Policy Committee of the New York State Catholic Conference, and as a member of the conference’s Executive Committee. Bishop Hubbard also oversaw a $20 million renovation project at the Cathedral, and, in 2007, launched the “Called to Be Church” pastoral planning process in which he decided in 2009 to close 33 parishes by 2011.

Bishop Hubbard also made national news, when in 2002, he was the only one of 284 bishops to voice opposition to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “zero-tolerance” policy proposal, which would remove any priest credibly accused of abuse from ministry. Bishop Hubbard wanted to deal with accused priests on a case-by-case basis.

The 2002 conference was the Church’s real beginning in finally coming to grips with the scope of the sexual abuse scandal while implementing procedures outlined in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, more commonly known as the Dallas Charter, such as the one-strike-and-you’re-out policy, background checks on every employee, specialized training to spot signs of sexual abuse as well a law review and national review boards.

In 2004, Bishop Hubbard was accused of being in sexual relationships with other men and paying a teenage boy for sex. He was cleared by a comprehensive investigation, led by former prosecutor Mary Jo White. In the 200-page report, White found “no credible evidence” to back up the allegations. 

Bishop Hubbard submitted his letter of resignation to Pope Francis at the age of 75, as required, and on Feb. 11, 2014, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had accepted his resignation. On the same day, the Vatican named Bishop Scharfenberger as his successor. At the time of his retirement, Bishop Hubbard’s 37 years as bishop marked the longest tenure of any bishop in the history of the Diocese.

In summing up his career in 2013, Bishop Hubbard said: “I tried to be a disciple of Jesus and a compassionate shepherd. I didn’t always succeed, but I tried my best.”

Bishop Hubbard was tainted by scandal in his retirement. When the Child Victims Act went into effect on Aug. 14, 2019, Bishop Hubbard was named in a lawsuit accusing him of allegedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old in the late 1990s. In all, Bishop Hubbard has been named in seven CVA lawsuits. Bishop Hubbard vehemently denied he abused anyone saying in 2019 after he was named in a second lawsuit that “I have never sexually abused anyone of any age at any time.” He also voluntarily withdrew from public ministry that year. The crush of the more than 400 lawsuits eventually led the Diocese of Albany to file for Chapter 11 reorganization on March 15, 2023.

In March 2022, as first reported in the Times Union, in deposition testimony from 2021 that was made public that month, Bishop Hubbard was questioned by an attorney representing people who had filed claims of abuse against the Diocese of Albany under the CVA. Asked why he did not report a suspected case of child sexual abuse to law enforcement when he was bishop after a priest allegedly admitted to him that he had abused a child, he replied, “Because I was not a mandated reporter. I don’t think the law then or even now requires me to do it. Would I do it now? Yes. But did I do it then? No.”

On July 19, 2022, Bishop Hubbard was involved in a car accident in which it was determined that he suffered a stroke, then on Nov. 18, 2022, he announced that he petitioned the Vatican to be returned “to the lay state.”

“I am 84 years of age and fully retired from ministry. I had hoped that in my retirement I might be able to continue to serve our community as a priest. I am not able to do so, however, because of a church policy that prohibits any priest accused of sexual abuse from functioning publicly as a priest, even if the allegations are false, as they are in my case,” Bishop Hubbard said in a statement at the time. “Recently, I asked the Vatican for relief from my obligations as a priest and permission to return to the lay state. In whatever time I have left on this earth, I hope to be able to serve God and the people of our community as a lay person. I also will continue to vigorously defend myself against the allegations against me. Resolution of these civil cases takes a very long time. I hope and pray I will live long enough to see my name cleared once and for all.”

In a statement Aug. 1, 2023, Bishop Hubbard announced that he was married in a civil ceremony.

“Last fall, after prayerful consideration and consultation, I applied to the Vatican to be returned to the lay state and to be relieved of my clerical obligations. In March, I received notice from the Vatican that my request had been denied,” Bishop Hubbard said in the statement titled, ‘A Letter to My Dear Colleagues and Friends.’ “I was encouraged to wait patiently and prayerfully and to continue to abstain from public ministry until seven civil lawsuits against me alleging sexual misconduct had been adjudicated.

“Shortly thereafter, the Diocese of Albany declared bankruptcy, as have six of the eight other Dioceses in New York State. I have been advised that it may be several years before the Albany bankruptcy case is settled and all of the Child Victims Act civil lawsuits adjudicated. Presently, I am 84 years of age and will turn 85 in October. I could be 91 or 92 before these legal matters are concluded.

“In the meantime, I have fallen in love with a wonderful woman who has helped and cared for me and who believes in me. She has been a loving and supportive companion on this journey. After much prayerful reflection, we decided to marry and did so in July in a civil ceremony.”

In the close of his statement, Bishop Hubbard said he hoped and prayed for four things.

“As I look to the future, I hope and pray for four things: (1) That survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families will find the peace, healing and reconciliation to which they are entitled; (2) That I will have the opportunity to prove my innocence to the allegations against me before a court of law, (3) That with whatever time God continues to grant me on this earth, our marriage will be one of fidelity, love and service, and (4) that the Vatican will eventually grant me laicization and recognize our marriage.

“I want to express my profound gratitude to my friends and colleagues and the people of our Diocese for the love, care and concern you have shown me in my nearly 60 years of priestly service, 46 as a bishop, and for the wonderful fraternal bond I have enjoyed with my brother bishops and priests, deacons and the religious women and men who have served in our Diocese, the laity and the interfaith and civic leaders with whom I was privileged to serve. As I enter this new phase of my life as a retired private person, I humbly ask that the news media and others respect our privacy as a couple. My life on the public stage has come to an end. To all of you, I thank you with the words of my episcopal motto, ‘Rejoice, we are God’s people.’

“God bless you all.”

Bishop Hubbard was the son of Howard Hubbard and Elizabeth Burke, the brother of the late Joan Engelman (Richard) and the late Kathleen Kawola (Constantine). He was the uncle of 13 nieces and nephews: the six children of his sister Kathleen: Michael Kawola, Thomas Kawola (Sue), Matthew Kawola (Jackie), Nancy Keeler (Bill), Lynn Fitzgerald (Steve) and Carol (Scott) as well as the seven children of his sister Joan: Susan Gibson (Mark), Kathleen Gulla (Bob), Richard Engelman, Jr., (Elizabeth) David Engelman, Kevin Engelman, Karen Sprague (Galen) and Christopher Engelman. He also was the grand uncle of 32 nieces and nephews and the great great grand uncle of 12 nieces and nephews. He was the cherished nephew of Loretta Burke.

In addition to prayers for him, Bishop Hubbard asked that any bequests be made to the Priest Retirement Fund of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany or to the charity of one’s choice.