Bishop Edward Scharfenberger says it pains him that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany is seen as an adversary in the effort to help former employees of the shuttered St. Clare's Hospital.

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed on behalf of St. Clare’s Hospital pensioners. He wishes he and the church were plaintiffs in the case, he told me.

The head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and I sat and talked for about an hour a few days after a state judge ruled that the civil case resulting from the hospital’s busted pension plan could go to trial. Scharfenberger expressed sadness and frustration at the situation, which has been a public relations nightmare for the diocese.

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“I feel bad that so many people may be alienated from the church because of this,” Scharfenberger said. “It hurts my heart, because there’s nothing that I want more, and that the church wants more, than to help.”

St. Clare’s opened in Schenectady in 1949 and had a long and important run as a hospital with a charitable mission. But nearly two decades ago, it was directed to close by a state commission designed to root out inefficiencies in the health care system. As part of a deal in which Ellis Hospital absorbed St. Clare’s, the state provided $28 million to boost a mismanaged pension fund........

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