The History of Catholic Abuse in Maine

by Leslie C. Griffin^*

The abuse of children by Catholic clergy has a long history in the State of Maine.

The Beginning

Some initial news about Catholic Maine abuse was released when the Maine Supreme Court ordered it. In Blethen Maine Newspapers v. Maine, 871 A.2d 523 (Me. 2005), the Supreme Court of Maine ordered the release of the allegations of sexual abuse by deceased priests. Names of some living individuals could be redacted to keep the balance between state needs and individual privacy balanced. In response to Blethen Maine Newspapers, in 2005 the Maine attorney general released a list of 21 dead priests who had been accused of abuse.¹ The allegations included two diocesan priests, two Jesuits, two Dominican priests, and one Dominican brother. Statements from victims were also included in the reports. The abusers’ names, released May 27, 2005, were Charles Bigelin, Henry Boltz, William Cahill S.J., Herve Carrier, Ralph Corbeil, John Crozier, John Curran, Armand Cyr, Herman Delaney, Joseph Dooley S.J., Dominic Doyon, Louis Philippe Fiset, Antonio Girardin, Thomas Henderson, Lucien Mandeville, J.R. McGowan, Lucien McKeone, Albert Pellerin, Joseph Romani, Lawrence Sabatino, and James Vallely. Further documents were released on July 8, 2005, naming Phillip Boivin, Rosario E. Ouellette, Sister Alexis-du-Sacre-Coeur, and Louis Berube. ²

The shift to reporting cases and releasing files to the media sent many abuse victims to court, where they first had to survive charitable immunity and statutes of limitation. We learned so much about church abuse when judges ordered the churches to release their personnel files about abusive priests. Opening the courts is a solution to child sexual abuse, that makes clearer who the abusers were, and who supported the abusers.

The Statutes and Charitable Immunity

When Maine issued its report on clergy abuse in 2005, the statute of limitations had run on all the files and none were prosecutable. ³ In a pre-report case, Doherty v. Talbot,⁴ Michael Doherty sued Jesuit James Talbot, the Cheverus High School, the Jesuit Order, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland, Maine. “Because of insufficient allegations of ‘sexual act’” ⁵ during the then then 12-year SOL, the act did not fit within the 12-year SOL. The court allowed Doherty to amend the complaint to include a sexual act. The statute of limitations applied to all cited, not just to the perpetrator, as the church defendants had argued.

In Fortin v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland,⁶ the Maine Supreme Court remanded a case for further review of how the timing of the parties’ actions related to the SOL. Michael Fortin sued a priest, Raymond Melville, for abuse from 1985 to 1992 and the diocese for breaching its fiduciary duty toward him while he was a student at the Catholic school and an altar boy. The diocese argued that the events from nine years earlier were not allowed by the six-year statute of limitations, but Fortin argued he was protected by a state that allows sexual abuse claims against minors to be litigated “at any time.”⁷ The diocese argued that rule applies only to the perpetrators of the abuse. The remand kept the lawsuit open despite concerns about the end of the SOL.

The Fortin Court also accepted Fortin’s breach of fiduciary duty claim against the Bishop of Portland, noting that Maine has a law requiring “school officials, members of the clergy, and other designated reporters report suspected child abuse.” ⁸ The exception in that law is for “information received during confidential communications.”⁹ The attorney general’s report noted that the church had reported sexual abuse since it became a mandatory reporter in 1997, but faulted the church for never informing its parishioners about the abuse. ¹⁰

In Angell v Hallee,¹¹ Christine Angell sued a priest, Renald C. Hallee, and the bishop of Portland for their abuse of her. The Maine Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s granting of Hallee’s motion for summary judgment, although the priest had not lived in Maine for some years because he had moved to Massachusetts years before. Maine has a long-arm statute that allows defendants to be served while they are out-of-state. In this case, the two-year statute of limitations tolled on Angell’s 18^th birthday. The court ruled Angell would have been able to find Hallee in Massachusetts but had made no effort to find him. Her case was dismissed.

Charitable immunity is a legal rule that prevents charities from being sued for damages, presumably because they are doing good work that should not be stopped. In Picher v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland,¹² the Court declined to abrogate charitable immunity for the lawsuit against the bishop, but ruled that charitable immunity is not available as a defense to an intentional tort. Picher, which is another case about the priest, Raymond Melville, alleged the intentional tort of fraudulent concealment against the diocese, and was allowed to proceed. In its review of charitable immunity, the court concluded Picher’s negligence “claims against the Bishop are unambiguously excluded from the insurance policy”¹³ and so the bishop had not waived charitable immunity through the purchase of insurance.

On June 28, 2023, the Maine governor signed a law abolishing charitable immunity for past occurrences in Chapter 351 of the Public Laws of 2023. “The Legislature, apparently or presumably, recognized that the cases intended to be allowed by lifting this statute of limitations retroactively might run aground on charitable immunity.”¹⁴

The Maine legislature has recently proposed removing charitable immunity from liability for civil claims of sexual assault or exploitation of a minor.¹⁵ One victim of abuse calls Maine’s charitable immunity from negligence rule “the final barrier to justice” for sex abuse victims.¹⁶ All these cases involve the basic question of whether the survivor can sue the abuser and his protectors in court.

Criminals

Priests are occasionally prosecuted for their crimes against victims. Finding crimes against the abusers’ supervisors is extremely unlikely. Some Maine clergy have been convicted.

For the record, there was no criminal liability in the priests’ files turned over to the attorney general. The SOLs had run. ¹⁷

Antonin R. Caron, of the Diocese of Portland, ordained in 1969, was found not guilty of sexual assault of a girl in 1994. He said he wouldn’t have assaulted her because he was gay. He later faced other charges of abusing boys in the 1980s. He was laicized in 2016.¹⁸

Brother Marcel Crete, Brothers of Christian Instruction, Diocese of Portland, was indicted on one charge of unlawful sexual contact and six charges of gross sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old male. He pled guilty to five of the gross sexual misconduct charges and dismissal of the other two charges. He was registered as a sex offender and served seven months in prison. ¹⁹ His original sentence had been eight years, with all but two and a half years of that suspended, and probation. ²⁰ Other complaints against him were beyond the statute of limitations.

Raymond J. Lauzon, ordained in 1955, had several early complaints of abuse ignored. A 1984 charge was made against him for performing oral sex on a boy and asking him to withdraw his statement to the police. The case was settled in a plea for witness tampering. Lauzon was sentenced to six months in jail and one year of probation.²¹ More suits were filed in the 1990s; they were settled. The Maine attorney general’s report shows 18 plaintiffs. ²² Another claim was brought up in 2016, and there was a new one in 2022, as described below. In 2016, Jeffrey Libby sued the bishop for abuse he suffered at the hands of Lauzon and Christian Roy.²³

Maurice T. Lebel was a Jesuit who went to the Diocese of Maine, where he was suspended for allegations of abuse he had committed as a Jesuit in Massachusetts. Lebel went through a canonical trial in Maine, and a three-judge panel said the allegations were unproven. The Maine Diocese then lifted the restrictions on him. ²⁴

Brother Shawn McEnany, of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, pled guilty in 1988 to unlawful sexual contact and received two one-year suspended sentences and one year’s probation.

Armand J. Thibault, ordained in 1985 to the Marist Fathers, was convicted in a 1993 trial for sexual conduct and child endangerment. He was found not guilty on the sex charge but pled no contest to the endangerment charge, for which he paid a $750 fine.²⁵ All his clerical privileges were removed in 2002. ²⁶

Robert C. Vaillancourt, ordained in 1982, was on leave in 2021 on a charge of sexual abuse of a girl in the 1980s. Another woman also charged him. The diocese said the charges were unfounded. He was returned to ministry in January 2023 to an Auburn parish. ²⁷

Many of the criminal wrongdoers also were sued in civil court, as were the dioceses, as the next section demonstrates.

Civil Suits

In Fortin,²⁸ as we saw above, Fortin’s fiduciary duty lawsuit against the diocese was allowed to proceed.

The Fortin court refused to overrule Swanson v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland, 692 A.2d 441 (Me. 1997), which had dismissed claims brought by a married couple arguing a priest had become involved with one spouse while he was counseling the pair, because Fortin was a case about minors, while Swanson was about adults. The Supreme Court accepted the breach of fiduciary duty claim in Fortin, noting that Maine had a law requiring “school officials, members of the clergy, and other designated reporters report suspected child abuse.” ²⁹ The court then rejected the diocese’s argument that the First Amendment and Maine’s religious freedom barred the lawsuit. It could pass either Smith or the compelling state interest test, both U.S. Supreme Court’s tests about the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. Neither religion provision barred the lawsuit “if a religious organization knows or has reason to know that a member of its clergy has a propensity to sexually abuse children.”³⁰

A report on child abuse by Catholics in Maryland, filed by the state attorney general, revealed the names of three priests who had also spent time in Maine.³¹ Lawrence C. Meegan, also known as Brother Luanus, raped victims. Meegan worked at St. John’s parish in Bangor Maine. Raymond Melville was sued in 2007, along with the Diocese of Portland.³² Melville was accused of sexual abuse from 1980-1985 in 1990 by someone who lived with him during Maine summers while Melville was a seminary student in Maryland. Another civil lawsuit was filed in 2001, alleging abuse of a 13-year-old in 1985. The Maine court ordered Melville to pay $500,000 to the victim, and the suit against the bishop was dismissed. Another Maine lawsuit was filed in 2007 against Melville and the diocese for abuse in 1986, with a second suit against Melville’s superiors. The judge told Melville to pay $4.2 million in damages and suits against the diocese and the superiors were dismissed. ³³ The third is Ronald N. Michaud, who was recognized as credibly accused of abuse by Baltimore in 2002 but not until 2007 in Portland. ³⁴

Joseph C. Dooley, a Jesuit priest, ordained 1939, was accused of abuse during 1956-1964 against a girl aged 3-11. He worked at Cheverus High School and Boston College High School, and is listed on the Jesuits’ list of credibly accused abusers.³⁵

Brother Paul L. Gauvin, Brothers of the Sacred Heart order, had the diocese render a substantiated claim of abuse in the 1970s. In 2012 he was placed under supervision and not allowed contact with minors.³⁶

Laurent Laplante, ordained in 1957, was accused of touching a girl’s pants on her knee and inner thigh but the diocese found the claim unsubstantiated.³⁷

Sister Alexis-du-Sacre-Coeur, of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, was accused in 2005 of the 1948 or 1949 abuse of an 8- or 9-year-old boy. “She would allegedly ‘put her dress over the child’s head … and she made him push his hands into her genitals.’”³⁸

Settlements

An alternative to bringing the full civil suit is to settle a case. Maine has made the following settlements.

The Diocese of Portland paid $1.2 million to six men who filed suit in 2016, claiming they had been abused by James Vallely.³⁹ A woman received $200,000 in 2009 for abuse she suffered in 1976. ⁴⁰

Michael L. Doucette, ordained in 1975, settled a claim of 1980s abuse with several victims. He was removed from the priesthood in 2009. A lawsuit for counseling fees failed in 2019. ⁴¹

David Fortin, who had sued for abuse in Vermont, also brought the Maine case that kept the courts open for victims of sexual abuse. He later settled the case, receiving $500,000.⁴²

The complainant against Renald C. Hallee, ordained 1970, won a chance to relitigate her case under the new statute of limitations. She then settled with the diocese.⁴³

Francis J. Kane, ordained in 1953, settled a lawsuit in 1995 for abuse of a youth in 1982.⁴⁴

Raymond P. Melville, ordained in 1985, has numerous claims, including many settled suits. ⁴⁵ A man sued Melville in 2000 for abuse starting when the boy was 13 in 1985 and continuing for seven years. That lawsuit settled. A 2007 suit alleged abuse of a 12-year-old in the 1980s. That plaintiff received $4 million dollars from the court; the diocese was dismissed from that suit. Another suit was filed in 2007.

Marcel L. Robitaille, ordained in 1964, was sued for abuse of his own family members, including his brothers and nephew. He entered a confidential family settlement, ⁴⁶ and the case against the diocese was dismissed.⁴⁷

Christian F. Roy, ordained in 1975, was sued for numerous offenses and was laicized in 2006. Among the lawsuits he settled was one about having a relationship with a woman’s husband while the couple was in counseling. ⁴⁸ In 2016, Jeffrey Libby sued the bishop for abuse he suffered at the hands of Roy and of Raymond Melville.⁴⁹

Portland’s Anthony Cipolle was ordained in 2017. In 2018, Rennee Henneberry Clark was murdered by her brother-in-law, Philip Clark, who is sentenced to 43 years in prison for the murder. Cipolle helped Clark leave her husband and helped her move into a rented room. He got into a fist fight with Philip Clark soon before the murder. He was removed from the ministry in May 2020 for his abuse of his position in the church. In April 2023, a different woman, Melissa Kearns, said she had moved back to Bangor from New York in 2018, post-Clark’s death, where Cipolle “pressured her into having sex.” Kearns made the announcement because she is worried Cipolle may continue to abuse women. Cipolle is currently a chaplain at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee. ⁵⁰ Kearns reached a settlement with the diocese for an undisclosed amount in 2022.⁵¹

Closing Thoughts

Across the country, 40 Catholic religious organizations have filed for bankruptcy. 24 of those have ended, and 16 are pending.⁵² The Diocese of Portland, Maine did not enter bankruptcy.

Unlike other dioceses and archdioceses around the country, the Diocese of Portland, Maine, has not published a list of abusers. Other sources have made some priests’ names available.⁵³ There is so much controversy about the lists of abusive priests, whether the archdiocese or diocese publishes a list, and whether they keep some abusers from the list. I value the lists, as they identify who abusers are. The clergy on AbuseLawsuit.com⁵⁴ and BishopAccountability.org⁵⁵ are:

John L. Audibert, ordained 1967, was accused in 1993 of abuse of a minor 1974-76. He was returned to ministry and then removed in 2002, permanently removed in March 2006 and ordered to a life of prayer and penance.

George Beaudet, ordained 1975, was on leave after allegation of 1979 abuse. There were more complaints in 2002, and he was laicized in 2008.

Louis F. Berube, ordained 1947, was accused of abuse of girls in 1954, 1961-62, and 1971. He retired in 1992 and died in 2002.

Charles Bigelin, ordained 1915, died in 1962, was accused in 2002.

Phillip J. Boivin, ordained in 1920, was accused of boy abuse in 1941, 1942. The accusations were released in 2005.

Henry A. Boltz, ordained 1920, abused in late 1940s, died in 1970, and was accused in 2005.

William B. Cahill, Jesuit, ordained 1946, was accused in 2002 of abuse between 1950 and 1960. He died in 1986.

Antonin R. Caron, ordained 1969, was found not guilty of abuse of girl in 1994. He then faced other charges. He was laicized in 2016.

Herve G. Carrier, ordained 1947. A girl accused him of abuse that took place in 1958, and disclosed abuse in 1993. The church did not believe her.

Frederick A. Carrigan, ordained 1961, removed from ministry in 1989 for behavior with adult. He was removed from all ministry in 2002. He had a church trial in Fall 2008, and had to live a life of prayer and penitence.

Anthony Cipolle, ordained in 2017, and served 18 months in Bangor until he was removed in connection with a murder investigation.⁵⁶

Ralph Corbeil, ordained 1935, accused of 1948 abuse of a 15-year-old girl and 1950s abuse of an altar boy in 2002.

Paul E. Coughlin, ordained 1966, had unsubstantiated allegation of contact with a minor, but lost his position because he later had an abuser living in the rectory.

Brother Marcel Crete, Brothers of Christian Instruction, pled guilty to sexual misconduct against a 12-year-old boy. Other complaints were beyond the statute of limitations. He was a registered sex offender who served 7 months of an 8-year sentence.

John Crozier, ordained 1949, was accused of abusing three brothers and their sister in the 1960s and 1970s.

John J. Curran, ordained 1927, died in 1976, and there are numerous abuse charges. Lawsuits filed in June and December 2022 for abuse of boys in the 1960s.

Armand E. Cyr, ordained 1939, abuse in 1949 and 1957.

Herman Delaney, not credible allegations of rape in 1967.

Eugene Descombes, a Canadian who worked summers in Maine, ordained 1932. The diocese learned in 2021 of substantiated allegation of abuse in the mid-1950s. A diocese review board told the bishop the complaints were substantiated.⁵⁷

Joseph C. Dooley, a Jesuit priest, ordained 1939, abuse during 1956-1964 against a girl aged 3-11. He worked at Cheverus High School and Boston College High School, and is listed on the Jesuits list of credibly accused abusers.⁵⁸

Michael L. Doucette, ordained 1975, settled a claim of 1980s abuse with several victims. He was removed from priesthood in 2009. A lawsuit for counseling fees failed in 2019.

Dominique Doyon, a Dominican, ordained in 1933, and accused of molestation in the 1960s and 1970s.

Louis Philippe Fiset a Dominican, accused of abuse of one boy from 1968-1978.

Arthur P. Craig, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, ordained 1955, sued in a lawsuit in December 2022 against the OMI for abusing a 4-8 year old girl. She lived in an OMI orphanage.

Brother Paul L. Gauvin, Brothers of the Sacred Heart order, had the diocese render a substantiated claim of abuse in the 1970s. In 2012 he was placed under supervision, not allowing contact with minors.⁵⁹

Antonio M. Girardin, ordained 1937. A 2005 report shows four allegations from 1943 and the 1960s.

Peter Paul Gorham, ordained 1953, accused of 1953 abuse. He was permanently removed from ministry for a life of prayer and penance in 2007.

Renald C. Hallee, ordained 1970. Complainant originally lost on SOL but that was reversed and she settled with the diocese. The diocese received a 2020 complaint that Hallee sexually abused a student in the 1970s. The diocese found the complaint credible in 2022. ⁶⁰

John E. Harris, ordained 1984, disciplined for a website and on leave for nude swimming and boating with youths.

Thomas Henderson was accused of one attempted rape in 1945 or 1946.

Ernest Justin Hill, Trinitarian order, ordained 1951, accused of sexual abuse in the 1970s or 1980s.

Francis J. Kane, ordained 1953, settled abuse of a youth lawsuit in 1982. Ordered to life of prayer and penance in 2007.

Laurent Laplante, ordained 1957, was accused of touching a girl’s pants on her knee and inner thigh but the diocese found the claim unsubstantiated. He was returned to his parish.⁶¹

Raymond J. Lauzon, ordained in 1955, was convicted and has tons of abuse in cases with 18 plaintiffs. There are 2022 lawsuits too.

Thomas M. Lee, ordained 1953, had 14 accusers against him but they were not believed by the church.

Angelo B. Levasseur, ordained 1983, had the diocese sued in February 2023 for teenage boy abuse. He died in 2009; the first accusation was in 2017.

Lucien Mandeville, ordained 1935, was accused in 2002 of abuse of a boy in 1944 and another in the 1950s.

Brother Shawn McEnany, of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, pled guilty to unlawful sexual contact and got two one-year suspended sentences and one year probation. He was accused in 2018 of sexual assault.

Joseph R. McGowan was ordained in 1920 and accused of abuse post-death. The accusations against him were substantiated and tributes to him were removed from parishes.

Lucien McKeone, ordained 1959, was a family friend and post-death accused of abusing brothers and sister.

Raymond P. Melville, ordained 1985, has numerous claims and settled many suits.

Leo James Michaud, ordained 1977, was accused of abuse while a seminarian.

Rosario E. Ouellette, who died in 1969, was accused of abuse in the 1930s.

Brother Albert Pellerin, a Dominican, was accused of groping after Pellerin had died.

Michael L. Plourde, ordained 1976, on leave in 1994 for 1976 abuse of minors. Laicization in 2008. A December 2022 lawsuit for his abuse.

Marcel L. Robitaille, ordained 1964, had abuse of his own family members but not a lawsuit. Instead he entered a confidential family settlement. He was sentenced in 2008 to prayer and penance.

Joseph C. Romani, ordained 1934, accused of abuse of girls with post-death charges. He was a supervisor of Lawrence Sabatino.

Christian F. Roy, ordained 1975, was sued for numerous things and laicized in 2006. He settled lawsuits about having a relationship with woman’s husband while the couple was in counseling.

Lawrence A. Sabatino, ordained 1955, was sued for numerous rapes of girls. He worked with Romani. There is a December 2022 lawsuit against the diocese, and more lawsuits filed in March 2023.

John Shorty, ordained 1974, was sued in June 2022 and laicized in 2006. He left the priesthood in 1998 after complaints of abuse 1976-1981.

Sister Alexis-du-Sacre-Coeur, of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, was accused in 2005 of 1948 or 1949 abuse of an 8 or 9 year old boy. “She would allegedly ‘put her dress over the child’s head … and she made him push his hands into her genitals.’” ⁶²

Armand J. Thibault, of the Marist Fathers, ordained in 1985, was convicted in 1993 trial for sexual conduct and child endangerment. He was found not guilty on the sex charge but pled no contest to the endangerment charge. All privileges were removed in 2002.⁶³

Robert C. Vaillancourt, ordained 1982, on leave in 2021 for charge of sexual abuse of girl in the 1980s. Another woman also charged him. Diocese said charges were unfounded and he was returned to ministry in January 2023 to an Auburn parish.

James P. Vallely, ordained in 1949, had tons of settlements. A woman got $200,000 for abuse, and diocese settled with six men in 2006 for $1.2 million.

Sister Mary Geraldine Walsh, Religious Sister of Mercy, was sued in 12/21 for sexual abuse of a boy in 1957-1958. She died in 1973 at age 86.

Edward F. Ward, ordained 1928, was sued in December 2022 of abuse in 1966. Ward died in 1997.

I hope the Maine Supreme Court will decide that all the current lawsuits can continue. You will read about that in my next blog post.