rockin'robin

Former priest Gary Mercure smiles after he is sentenced to 20 to 25 years for the rape of two altar boys in the 1980s

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Former priest Gary Mercure had nothing to say and only smiled Wednesday after a Berkshire County judge sentenced him to more than two decades behind bars for raping two altar boys in the 1980s.

"You are no more than a common thug," Berkshire County Judge John A. Agostini told Mercure, 62, before sentencing him to 20 to 25 years in prison on three counts of forcible rape. Mercure also was sentenced to three to five years, to be served concurrently, on one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14.

"My memories are dark and destroyed. My trust in humanity has been severely harmed. I will never shed the disgust and filthiness," one of the victims told Mercure during a victim impact statement read in court by First Assistant District Attorney Paul Caccaviello.

Mercure, in handcuffs and leg irons, sat looking straight ahead as victim impact statements were delivered to a packed courtroom. The victims and their friends and families took up nearly half the court's seats.

Mercure's other victim said, "I hope the dark cloud may finally be lifted from me so I can live a normal life."

The man's father called the victims heroes for coming forward. His statement was read to the court.

"If you were a dog, I'd take you outside and shoot you," the father said about Mercure.

A former Catholic priest with a long history of sexually assaulting young altar boys, Mercure was found guilty Feb. 10 of bringing two boys to the Berkshires in the 1980s and raping them. He will serve his sentence at Cedar Junction prison in Walpole, Mass.

During a poignant moment Wednesday, the mother of one of Mercure's victims turned to face her grown son and apologized for failing to discover the abuse.

"I am so sorry I did not recognize your abuse until it was too late," she said.

The woman had testified that she found five pairs of her son's bloodied underwear stuffed inside a wall in his bedroom. The victim said he hid the underwear after Mercure raped him when he was about 11 or 12 years old.

In court Wednesday, victims could be heard sobbing as the mother pleaded with her son to forgive her.

"Father Gary, it is time for you to have remorse and apologize to your victims," she said.

As he did after his conviction, Mercure smiled broadly when he stood up and turned to face the crowd in court as he was led away.


A few hours before the sentencing, Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard announced he is asking the Vatican to defrock Mercure.

"Now that a conviction has been rendered by the jury in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I will be forwarding to the Vatican, specifically to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the matter of the sexual abuse of minors by Gary Mercure," Hubbard wrote in a statement issued by the diocese.

"I am recommending to the Vatican, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that Gary Mercure, already permanently removed in 2008 from all ministry in the church and forbidden to present himself as a priest in any way whatsoever, now be dismissed formally from the clerical state."

Mercure last served in Sacred Heart and St. William parishes in Troy before he was suspended from the ministry amid child rape accusations in January 2008.

Caccaviello told jurors during the trial that Mercure used a variety of threats to keep the boys from telling their families or authorities. "To a young boy, his threats were like a knife to their throats," Caccaviello said.

Several jurors cried while listening to five victims' disturbing and emotional testimony during the trial. All were former altar boys at Our Lady of the Annunciation Parish in Queensbury.

The statute of limitations to charge Mercure in New York had expired, but was still in effect in Massachusetts.

The victims said in some cases the abuse started when they were 8 and continued until they were 15 or 16. One victim said Mercure sexually assaulted him multiple times in one day. The attacks occurred in the rectory after Mass, in the altar boys' dressing room in the church, after Mercure gave the boys wine, in the back seat of the priest's car, and in their homes. A couple of victims said Mercure attacked them while their parents were occupied in another room.

One victim testified that Mercure had him close his eyes and pray as a way to relax him while he was sexually abused.

Mercure's lawyer, Michael O. Jennings, had asked the judge for a sentence of eight years. He suggested during trial that the two accusers conspired with advocates for victims of sex abuse by priests and made up their assertion that Mercure attacked them in Massachusetts as well as New York.

Jennings has said Mercure will appeal the conviction.

Mercure's two Berkshire County victims testified they were abused in separate incidents in the parking lot at the former Brodie Mountain ski area and in the parking lot of an Appalachian trail head in 1986 and 1989.

The three other New York victims said they never traveled to Massachusetts with the priest.

The diocese does not pay Mercure but he gets pension payments for his 34 years as a priest. He is not provided housing by the church and no diocesan funds went to his defense, diocese spokesman Ken Goldfarb said.

Goldfarb said the church first heard about Mercure's sexual activities in 1994 when a Queensbury man came forward, saying he was in an adult sexual relationship with Mercure.

"Mercure was disciplined at that time,'' Goldfarb said.

Mark Lyman, Capital Region director of SNAP -- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests -- alleged that the diocese knew for years about Mercure's activities but moved him from church to church to cover it up.

Goldfarb has said those allegations are false and Mercure was not moved anymore than is typical for the priesthood.

Ex-priest off to prison with a grin - Times Union

Deafness

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Reba

Ugh, that Mercure is disgusting!

I'm glad that he's convicted and sentenced but it's waaaay overdue.

Dixie

Agreed. I don't think there's anything more damaging to one's faith than to suffer abuse at the hands of those who work in the faith.

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Oh, you will. It is all a dream and since matter cannot be created nor destroyed, the dreams must be real in all their myriad forms. -Beowulf
This Delicate Thing God Has Made
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Smithtr

that is horrible!

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Jaimevenegas

Parents should always believe their children first.

sheila022

wow,great, we keep seeing news like this popping up everywhere and I find it's usually the Roman Catholic priests doing the abuse? News like this seem to give the Papacy and Roman Catholics a bad name =/

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sallylou

It's not only the Catholic Church. Other churches, teachers, coaches, boys scout leaders, trusted "family friends" and relatives, etc. It's a societal problem that doesn't discriminate.

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jillio

Exactly. Unfortunately, when it is a religious organization it makes better news, so those are the cases everyone hears about. To be honest, more abuse occurs at the hands of relatives or close friends of the family than by those in charge of organizations that have children as members. People get the wrong idea and forget to keep a close watch on those that are close to the family, always looking to leaders of children's organizations.

sallylou

True that most perpetrators are relatives or close friends. Unfortunately, some pedophiles seek out positions of trust with children for their own purposes. That can be in an organization or as a friend of the family. If a man wants to spend time alone with your child, be wary. There's no reason for a man to be alone with your kid. I use the "everyone's a pervert" strategy.

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jillio

Absolutely.

sallylou

Forgot to mention that some women are perpetrators, too. Just less common. Women are more likely to assault a child than sexually abuse them.

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jillio

This is quite true, as well. And when sexual abuse occurs with a female perpetrator, it is generally with an adolescent, and the result of a personality disorder in the offender.

Smithtr

law is very strict to serious horrible that is not joke!

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Dixie

When it is a female perpetrator with an adolescent male, it is usually underreported believing the male instigated it or that the male can 'handle himself'. This actually happened rather openly at my high school. A senior football player was openly dating a faculty member. Instead of firing the faculty member, they chose to allow her to remain at the school with no report to authorities but at the end of the year, her contract was not renewed for obvious reasons. They had one child together but the faculty member eventually went to prison on drug charges 4 or 5 years later. I believe she has been released and the boy is divorced from her and has custody of their son. It was a situation.

__________________
Oh, you will. It is all a dream and since matter cannot be created nor destroyed, the dreams must be real in all their myriad forms. -Beowulf
This Delicate Thing God Has Made
The world is measured in peasants; smaller than a unicorn but, bigger than a tidbit!

rolling7

While all perpetrators should be punished, it is the Catholic Church that is the real problem. Rome knows of these priest and just moves them around to where they continue to rape. Getting the truth out of the Catholic Church is much worst than pulling teeth. Everyone knows the Church is guilty but, for the life of me, why do people continue to attend????

Dixie

Because people are still searching for God. On top of that there are people that will stand by their church/faith no matter what people inside have done.

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Oh, you will. It is all a dream and since matter cannot be created nor destroyed, the dreams must be real in all their myriad forms. -Beowulf
This Delicate Thing God Has Made
The world is measured in peasants; smaller than a unicorn but, bigger than a tidbit!

rolling7

Good luck and happy hunting to anyone trying to find god in the Catholic Church. One is more sure to see an Unicorn inside the churches but not god.

Phillips

Jeez!

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LuciaDisturbed

I agree!

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LuciaDisturbed

Very true.

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"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - Philosopher George Santayana.


Implanted left ear 10/11/06, activated 10/16/06 - Nucleus Freedom

My own CI experience, my views on CI and ASL and Deaf Culture and Society

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rolling7

Very true BUT the other orginizations turn over the rapist to the cops.....however...the catholic church not only hides them but moves them around to rape somemore!!! So it is the church that is the bigger problem.

shel90

I have read about that happening. That's a shame.

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Dixie

It is not just a Catholic problem. It happens in other well-known denominations. Google up Southern Baptist Convention, Texas Scandal. A megachurch in Texas had a problem with pedophilia and for years covered it up until a minor went forward to the police. Come to find out there were a total of 7 deacons and one pastor involved in the whole thing by the time the entire story and all the victims came forward.

The SBC also tried to 'deal with it' by removing the pastor from that specific church but still allowed him to be ordained but was limited strictly to adult ministries but he still continued his pedophilia in smaller churches.

I know all of this all too well from personal experience with the SBC and a youth minister. Does it make me hate the SBC? No, but it is more of those at the Associational level that decide to turn their heads and pretend this stuff isn't happening so they just ask the pastor to step down from his current church with a reference to another church outside the Association. This is why I have a sore spot when it comes to our current Associational Director. Pompous little jackass that believes he is damn near to the level of Jesus in Gods eyes. Even went so far as to say that he himself has closed churches in the Association for disobedience. He also believes this country is suffering because of the tolerance of homosexuality. Oh Lord I was sitting front and center that day and I very near came to literally throwing my Bible at him I was so mad. I should have just slammed my Bible shut and walked out. I have never liked him. Whenever he visits our church I just want to knock him between the eyes for using the pulpit as a stage for his hate speeches. His wife is equally annoying. She knows ASL and every time her husband would say something she would say AMEN! PREACH IT HONEY PREACH IT, PREACH JESUS! It was so bad I finally turned around and signed to her 'WOMAN SHUT UP' She just looked at me like WTF was that? She didn't say much after that. LOL.

But back on topic, there are churches all across America besides the Catholic Church that does everything in their power to cover up pedophilia scandals and sex scandals.

__________________
Oh, you will. It is all a dream and since matter cannot be created nor destroyed, the dreams must be real in all their myriad forms. -Beowulf
This Delicate Thing God Has Made
The world is measured in peasants; smaller than a unicorn but, bigger than a tidbit!

rolling7

My question:

Why is it that almost all of America wants the KKK shut down forever but will not take the same position about the Catholic church? Don't both do equal harm and deserve banishment forever?

KristinaB

The Catholic church as a whole is not responsible. From what I understand, the religion itself if sound and true. It's just some of the people involved with the church. Also, It's not only Catholic priests and bishops that do this. There are others in other religions that are guilty of the same thing as well as the untold millions or thousands of people who are guilty of this, but not "in the church's name". They are just using the fact that it is a "Catholic priest' or "Catholic bishop" for the sensationalism, when in fact, there are many, many men and women and teens who are guilty of the same things.

The KKK was killing people and terrorizing others. Not that rape and such is not a form of terrorizing, but it is different.

rockin'robin

Agreed...it only takes one "bad apple" to make everyone else look bad...but as for the Catholic Church, it's been more than "one bad apple", tho'....Catholism is a very powerful religion, and the Pope is thought of as a "Saint"....It's being sensationalized, to make people "wake up" and realize what is really going on behind those "godly robes." People can be so gullible and trusting.

As far as the KKK...just another race-hating organization (racism)...we still have chapters here where I live.

rolling7

Oh, well excuse me!!! Although the Pope, the leader of the church, when he was yet the pope assisted in the cover up and now is the leader, the church gets a "pass" because the people do good things. I really, really do wonder about those people who followered Jim Jones and Mason. What were they thinking??? You must all be fine with folks knowing their leaders are child rapist and staying under the control of the leader. And, for those who don't follower the catholic church, the Pope is considered "god on earth" and "infalliable" when speaking on matters of the church. A CHILD RAPIST SPEAKING FOR god!!!!!! Give me a break!!!