Albany bishop proclaims innocence, says allegations 'surreal'

Published: 2004-02-13

ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) -- Saying that he finds himself in "the most surreal situation imaginable," Albany Bishop Howard J. Hubbard pledged in an interview to "leave no stone unturned to prove my innocence" against accusations that he had sexual relations with two men in the 1970s. "If there were one scintilla of truth to these charges, I wouldn't put the people of the diocese, my brother priests or my family through the pain and anguish this situation has created," the bishop said in a Feb. 9 interview with James Breig, editor of The Evangelist, Albany diocesan newspaper. The charges were leveled against the bishop at separate press conferences Feb. 4 and Feb. 6. At the first, Andrew Zalay claimed that his brother, Thomas, had written about an affair with Bishop Hubbard before he committed suicide in 1978 at age 25. The second accuser, Anthony Bonneau of Schenectady, said that when he was a runaway teenager living in Albany, he had had at least two paid sexual encounters with Bishop Hubbard between 1976 and 1979. The bishop had emphatically denied both allegations.

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