Clearly, they didn't do their homework.

Adams' past reveals a man whose behavior is nothing less than untruthful and contemptuous. Here is the back story.

In 2005, he inhibited a 20-year serving priest by the name of Fr. David Bollinger in the diocese of Central New York where Adams was bishop after Fr. Bollinger blew the whistle on a pedophile priest who reportedly abused 16 people. The name of that priest was Fr. Ralph Johnson. Pennsylvania state police charged the 82-year-old priest with sexual contact with a minor. Johnson was finally inhibited by Adams, but not before Adams took revenge on Bollinger for blowing the whistle on Johnson.

Bollinger told VOL at that time, "I believe I was inhibited as a punishment for trying to seek the truth about Johnson's alleged pedophile activities when I received an affidavit from one of 16 victims of my parish charging the former parish priest with sexual abuse."

Bollinger was a priest for 20 years at St. Paul's, Owego, NY, where Adams went after him for supposed financial irregularities. Adams did thisallegedly in order to shut the priest up after he had a dispute with the bishop at last year's diocesan convention following allegations of a sex abuse scandal, which the priest says Adams tried to cover up. Prior to his being inhibited, Fr. Bollinger was the Dean of the Ithaca-Courtland District for 12 years.

Bollinger sent the signed complaint to the bishop and pastoral response team. As a result of doing this, and because he blew the whistle on the former parish priest, the bishop turned on Bollinger and inhibited him. Adams then accused of misusing his Discretionary Fund. VOL interviewed Bollinger and you can read it all here: https://tinyurl.com/y7thkjvo

Adams later hired Peter Kapcio, a member of Eric Mower Associates, a major New York Public Relations firm. Adams calls him his "image consultant." He was a crisis manager and spin doctor, and the bishop hired him to spin my situation, said Bollinger. "I am convinced that Kapcio orchestrated the Holiday Inn meeting which for most clergy was a disaster for the bishop. He lost a great deal of credibility. It was a kangaroo court."

Fr Bollinger's attorney at the time was Raymond Dague of Syracuse, NY, who told VOL that there was not a shred of evidence that Fr. Bollinger had any psychiatric problems. "This was a trumped-up suggestion by the bishop that Fr. Bollinger must get psychiatric treatment."

Fr. Bollinger, was ultimately cleared of allegations that he financially mismanaged his parish by a diocesan ecclesiastical court and was restored to "good standing." Bishop Adams refused to answer questions put to him by VOL about his scandalous behavior towards Fr. Bollinger.

What is ironic is that Rev. Heather Cook was hired by the diocese, but later laid off after she relocated from her parish in Pennsylvania to Syracuse. She went on to become the assistant bishop of Maryland where she killed a cyclist in a drunken state and did time.

Among his "visionary" notions, Adams tore down the Thornfield Conference Center because the "vision committee" determined that it had no future and was expensive to run and maintain. Many parishes were not paying or are underpaying their mandatory diocesan assessment and the bishop used his column in the Messenger, calling on parishes to pay their assessments.

PRESENTMENT

There was talk of a Presentment against Bishop Adams for his mismanagement of the diocese at that time. Even the liberals didn't like him because of the Bollinger inhibition. He controlled his clergy through fear that they might be next. Even the female clergywoman who was the head of Integrity of Central New York wrote Adams a highly critical letter telling him that he was not running the diocese very well and that the Bollinger inhibition was wrong.

Adams also went after two parishes: St. Andrews church in Syracuse (you are saying the detail in the next paragraph) and The Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, NY.

In the first of two "reconciliation" attempts in his diocese, Adams went after the parish of St. Andrews Church in Syracuse in 2006, after the diocese refused to settle a lawsuit against the Syracuse parish. The Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, NY, got shameful treatment at the hands of Adams. This church had sought to leave the diocese after the election of Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual man living with his partner. The parish offered to buy out from the diocese for $150,000. The diocese refused and the church was sold to an Islamic group.

Adams vaunted notions of reconciliation are anything but. He is a clone of former PB Jefferts Schori, and has no interest but winning for a dying denomination.

The legacy of Bishops Adams can be demonstrated by his 15-year tenure as Bishop of Central New York. It has been nothing short of disastrous. He left with the diocese in financial tatters. When he took over in 2002, the diocese had 22,389 baptized persons. In 2016, it had dropped to 12,307, a drop of 49.6%. Average Sunday attendance in 2002 was 6,734. By 2016, it had dropped to 3,589, a drop of 48.6%. Plate and pledge dropped from just a tad over $7 million in 2010 to under $6.5 million in 2016.

The average age of all its priests is 62, with only 6% under the age of 44. The percentage of priests aged 55 to 65+ is a whopping 73%. In eight years, they must retire with little hope for their replacement.

The number of full-time priests of one congregation is only 39%. Part-time priests of one congregation is 38%, priests in yoked churches or parish clusters is 16%. There are more full-time women priests, 44%, with only 36% full time male priests. Non-stipendiary priests number 8%.

Based on the current trajectory, the diocese will cease to exist within 10 years, perhaps sooner.

END