Thank you to those who brought attention to the following article regarding Albany, New York’s “most well-connected and influential lobby firms” law firms waging a costly battle on behalf of the state’s bishops against, amongst other things, the Child Victims Act.
30 May 2016: EXCLUSIVE: Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform
I don’t see “Albany” without thinking of American Montfortian priest and serial molester Father Carl Stone and the Canadian Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, Ontario.
I was wanting to give you a run down of the sorry saga of Stone being given safe harbur in the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall by then Bishop Eugene Larocque. This, actually, was right after November 1981 when Stone had been charged and entered a guilty plea to sodomizing two teenage boys in Albany “Man admits sodomy, faces examination,” and “Man pleads guilty to sodomy.”
One month later, Stone is across the border and serving as chaplain to St. Joseph’s Villa in Cornwall, Ontario. This was before the judge had pronounced sentence!
By end December ’81 Father Carl Stone was placed on probation:
“Man on probation in sex case.”
So, he was placed on probation in the States, and this right in the heel of sodomizing those two boys in Albany, and by the time he was put probation he was nestled in Cornwall Ontario, and somehow a deal was struck that he would report to Cornwall probation officer Ken Seguin. Seguin, for those unfamiliar for the Cornwall sex abuse scandal and cover-up, was a former seminarian turned probation officer and “alleged” child molester. Seguin committed suicide in November 1993. Numerous men have since come forward alleging they were sexually abused by Seguin, most if not all while they were probationers. Many of these men launched lawsuits against Correctional Services and settled out of court.
In June of 1982 Bishop Larocque sent a letter to immigration officials – “To whom it may concern” – asking that Stone be cleared by Immigration “to continue his work among us.”
In October 1982 Larocque sent a letter requesting assistance from Ed Lumley, the latter former Mayor of Cornwall and then in the federal Liberal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Stone’s extension permit runs out 29 October 1982.
In December 1982, Bishop Larocque travelled to Ottawa to meet with Lloyd Axworthy, the federal Immigration Minister with the Trudeau Liberal government. Larocque apparently asks for a Minister’s Permit allowing Stone to remain in Canada
Then came Lloyd Axworthy’s letter to Bishop Larocque. Axworthy agreed to issue a Minister’s Permit on the basis that, among other things, Stone would not be allowed to work with young people and Larocque agrees to be “personally responsible for Father Stone and his behaviour in Canada and are willing on all occasions top answer for it.”
Larocque accepted “with gratitude” the conditions laid down by Axworthy for Stone.
There is really no such thing as a quick rundown. I could go on, but the whole dirty mess is laid out in detail here on the Father Carl Stone page.
There is also an excellent recap by Paul Likoudis of the sorry sage here: Former Cornwall Bishop . . . Reveals Strange Career Of Albany Priest (Paul is very very sick, suffering from cancer. Please pray for Paul and his dear family that they be blessed with the grace, peace and courage needed to get through these difficult and painful days.)
Anyway, the bottom line is that, when I think of Albany, that’s what I think of. As strange as it may seem, when I think of Albany, I think of the Father Carl Stone Shenaningans – and to this day I still wonder why and how American officials permitted a self-confessed molester to cross the border into Canada to serve his probation here, and I wonder why Bishop Larocque and other Canadian officials permitted this man to sashay around the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall with nary an innocent and trusting soul knowing that a wolf in sheep’s clothing had been set loose in their midst.
Enough for now,
Sylvia