Ex-Bangor pastor removed from post

BANGOR – The priest who shepherded St. Mary’s Catholic Church through the 1978 fire that destroyed its Cedar Street home has been removed from the pastorate of two South Portland parishes because of his association with a man accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is trying to determine whether the Rev. Paul Coughlin, 69, put children at risk through his association with John S. Skinner Sr.

The diocese also is investigating complaints that Coughlin allowed Skinner, 62, to live with him at a South Portland rectory, the diocese announced this weekend. Only church employees are permitted to live on church property.

Coughlin was placed on temporary administrative leave while his association with Skinner is investigated.

Skinner, whose last known address was in Stonington, was indicted in July by the Penobscot County grand jury on six counts of gross sexual assault. He has not been arrested but is scheduled to be arraigned in Penobscot County Superior Court on Aug. 27.

The alleged assaults occurred at Skinner’s Lincoln home between 1990 and 1994, beginning when the victim was 13 and continuing until he was 17, said Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney in Penobscot County.

Skinner volunteered as an adult supervisor for the youth group at St. Mary of Lourdes Catholic Church in Lincoln from the early 1990s until 2000 but was never an employee.

Coughlin has served as pastor of Holy Cross and St. John the Evangelist parishes in South Portland since 1996. His removal was announced in a letter to parishioners from Bishop Richard Malone read during the weekend. Listening sessions were held with members of the diocese crisis team after each Mass.

“This is an ethical issue with the church, and we want to know when did Father Coughlin know that there was a complaint against John Skinner,” Sue Bernard, diocesan spokeswoman, said on Sunday. “We’re trying to find out what he knew and when he knew it.”

The bishop was unable to deliver the letter to South Portland parishioners himself, Bernard said Saturday. The bishop was meeting with parishioners at St. Francis of Assisi in Belfast over the weekend.

“In the course of the investigation of Mr. Skinner, it has come to light that Father Coughlin has had a long association with Mr. Skinner,” the bishop’s letter said. “The complaint brought to my attention is that during the course of his acquaintance with Mr. Skinner, Father Coughlin may have placed a minor at risk.

“Additionally, Father allowed Mr. Skinner to live with him for a period of time at St. John’s rectory,” Malone wrote. “Let me be very clear: this information does not allege any claims of sexual abuse of a minor by Father Coughlin. Father’s removal is an administrative action in order to facilitate further investigation by the diocese.”

Malone also said that the diocese is re-examining a complaint made in 2002 that alleged Coughlin had sexual contact with a minor in 1985 while he was pastor at St. Mary’s in Bangor.

Those claims were investigated two years ago and could not be substantiated, Bernard said Saturday.

During the leave, Coughlin will not be allowed to exercise any priestly ministry and is prohibited from any unsupervised contact with minors.

Prosecutors in Bangor said in July that Skinner was under investigation for another incident that allegedly occurred in Cumberland County.

“My office is only dealing with one victim,” Roberts said in July. “I understand there are more victims, but some go back beyond the limit of the statute … Skinner’s [alleged] offenses go back into the 1970s.”

Bernard said Saturday that the diocese still was gathering information about where Skinner volunteered and when.

Robert Rayner, 39, of Stonington, a relative of the victim named in the indictment, said last month that Skinner had volunteered with youth groups in parishes in Ellsworth and Bangor as well as Lincoln.

The diocese could not confirm whether Skinner volunteered with the St. Mary’s youth group while Coughlin was pastor.

He was assigned to St. Mary’s, then on Cedar Street, in January 1978. On Feb. 3, 1978, in subzero temperatures, a 14-year-old boy set the fire that destroyed the 105-year-old landmark.

For two years, Coughlin celebrated Mass at the chapel at the former Dow Air Force Base while a new church was built on Ohio Street. The priest was transferred to a parish in Wells in 1987.

Rayner said Skinner did landscaping at the Ohio Street church in the early 1980s. Rayner also said that Skinner lived in an apartment on the third floor of the South Portland rectory after he left Lincoln in 2000 and until he moved to Bucksport in 2003.

Coughlin, a native of Stoneham, Mass., was ordained in 1966. His first assignment in Maine was at St. Athanasius and St. John in Rumford.

Coughlin also served in parishes in Waterville, Oakland and Augusta.

Monsignor Michael Henchal, pastor of St. Bartholomew Parish in Cape Elizabeth, will serve as temporary administrator for Coughlin’s parishes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.