A former Albany-area priest gets 20 to 25 years in prison for the rape of two boys. Gary Mercure was found guilty of all charges last week. Our Brandon Walker was in court for the trial and for Wednesday's sentencing and he joined us from Pittsfield with the story.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- A former priest from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany who was found guilty of raping two altar boys in Berkshire County in the 1980s was sentenced to 20 to 25 years in state prison.

Gary Mercure was found guilty last week of four counts of rape. The two victims accused Mercure of raping them in Berkshire County while on a trip. Mercure was a priest at a church in Queensbury at the time.

Mercure was removed from the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese back in 2008.

Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany said Wednesday that he is recommending that the Vatican laicize Mercure, or formally dismiss him from the clerical state.

Statement from Bishop Hubbard:

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.

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 [laicized].

While I, as Bishop of the Diocese of Albany, have the authority to remove a priest from all ministry and to forbid him from presenting himself as a priest, which I have already done, only the Vatican has the authority to dismiss a priest from the clerical state [laicization].