A local priest is being removed from the ministry after the Albany Catholic Diocese says it has reasonable grounds to believe Gary Mercure sexually abused a minor in the 1980s. That news was announced to the parishes where Mercure used to serve, including one in Albany where the Diocese believes the abuse happened. We spoke to some parishioners who were surprised, but say the church did the right thing by removing him.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- People going to Sunday morning Mass may have gotten more than they had expected at church, especially at St. Teresa's in Albany, where parishioners were told that one of their former priests, Gary Mercure, 60, has been removed from the ministry after the Albany Diocese says he engaged in sexual misconduct with at least one minor in the 1980s.

Some who knew Mercure were surprised about the allegations.

"I hope Father Gary, I hope this turns out to be a mistake. But if it's not, the full punishment of the law should just drop on him," said Albany resident Joe Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald says his daughters went to school at St. Teresa's and he's sad to hear this news and he says it's not news he ever heard when he was growing up.

"I never caught a trace of this when I was young. Matter of fact, I think the priests that I knew then would have beat the living daylights out of any priest they caught doing this," Fitzgerals said.

While most parishioners coming and going Sunday morning did not want to comment, one woman does tell us she believes incidents like these have been going on for years and she's just glad now the Church is acknowledging the problem.

“I'm just glad that it's being brought out so this doesn't keep happening. It takes too many years to recover from trauma. It takes many years and some people do and some people don't,” said Albany resident Joyce Hart.

"If I did something like this, I'd be punished. We all would, we hope," said Fitzgerald.

Now Mercure, who used to work at parishes in Troy, Latham and the North Country, was suspended in January when the allegations were first reported. Since then, the Diocese says it's gotten more complaints and all have been handed over to law enforcement. Mercure is now barred from performing Mass or taking part in other sacraments and cannot perform publicly as a priest.