The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese has permanently removed the Reverend Gary Mercure, 60, from the ministry, announced Bishop Howard J. Hubbard. Mercure has been on administrative leave since January when the Diocese received a complaint alleging that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor in the mid-1980s at St. Teresa of Avila parish in Albany.
The allegations are still being investigated.
Mercure has served at Sacred Heart and St. William parishes in Troy, St. Mary's in Clinton Heights, St. Mary's in Glens Falls, Our Lady of Annunciation in Queensbury, St. Teresa of Avila in Albany, and Our Lady of the Assumption in Latham.
The Albany Diocese urges anyone who as a child was sexually abused by a Catholic priest or deacon to report the matter to a law enforcement agency or to the Diocese.
Since 1950, the Albany Diocese has removed 22 priests from ministry after finding reasonable grounds that they sexually abused minors.
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