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MADAWASKA – Parishioners got their first look over the weekend at the priests assigned to northern Maine to replace two pastors removed by the bishop last week for abusing minors.
The Revs. Michael Doucette and John Audibert revealed the abuse to their parishes last month. The two were placed on administrative leave by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland following meetings among the parish councils of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Madawaska, St. Agatha, St. Luc in Frenchville and the diocese.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Revs. Clement D. Thibodeau and Hubert J. Paquet addressed parishioners for the first time from the pulpit.
Both men came out of retirement to minister in the St. John Valley.
“You are in your own pain and your own loss – the loss of your priest,” Thibodeau said. “We must ask the Lord to come now to console us [and] to give us life.”
Neither man is a stranger to the St. John Valley.
Thibodeau served in Eagle Lake and St. Agatha in the 1970s and lives in Caribou. Paquet served in St. Agatha in 1955-56.
In Madawaska, Thibodeau encouraged parishioners to reflect on the day’s reading of Lazarus rising from the dead as they cope with the removal of Audibert.
Parishioners in attendance at St. Thomas for Sunday Mass welcomed Thibodeau and offered their support. At the same time, many were grieving for the loss of Audibert.
“Father Thibodeau is here to share our pain and minister to us during these trying times,” Donald Chasse, president of the St. Thomas parish council, said before Mass on Sunday. “We are in a time of deep mourning and it is a time to stay together and weather the storm.”
Many in the two parishes were hurt and angry at the abruptness of priests’ dismissal. A special second collection plate was passed during Mass in Madawaska with all donations going directly to Audibert.
“This is a way we can express our appreciation and deep gratitude for his ministry among us,” Chasse said.
Parishioners in Madawaska also were invited to attend a farewell gathering for Audibert on Sunday evening.
There were no similar plans in St. Agatha, but Doucette left a letter to his parishioners in the weekly bulletin.
“I know that some of you would have preferred to say goodbye in person,” Doucette said in the single-page, typed letter. “I have chosen to write to all of you instead.
“In the long run this will be less painful for each of us,” he wrote.
In his letter Doucette thanked his parishioners and staff for their support and acknowledged the controversy stemming from his admission that he sexually molested a teen-age boy more than 20 years ago.
“This has been a most painful month for all of us,” he wrote. “That pain will not go away easily or quickly, but God’s grace heals all wounds with time.”
Healing and moving on is something Judy Michaud, a St. Agatha parish council member, is ready to do.
“Emotions are still running high here,” Michaud said Sunday. “But now it’s time to heal [and] I think we can heal, but it will take some time.”
Michaud said parishioners must look to each other for support.
“Our community is a family and we need to lean on and support each other,” she said. “We don’t need to agree with what has happened, but we can hope to learn from it all.”
Attempts to reach Paquet in St. Agatha and through the diocese in Portland were unsuccessful over the weekend.
“It is going to take awhile for people to grieve,” Thibodeau said after Mass on Sunday. “There is no purpose in laying blame. We might just as well blame ourselves for the wrongs we have done.”
The admissions of the two area priests have left Thibodeau saddened.
“My sadness is the same as the people of this parish,” he said. “I am sad the events ever took place and I am sad that it was not settled until now.”
Thibodeau said his interim posting at St. Thomas is expected to last a few months until a permanent replacement is found.
“Now, we just have to go on with our lives,” he said.
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