Priest kills himself after sex allegation Dover-Foxcroft cleric had been suspended

DOVER-FOXCROFT – A priest who served Catholic churches from Milo to Pittsfield was found dead Friday at the rectory in Dover-Foxcroft one day after being told he was suspended from the ministry pending an investigation into an allegation he sexually abused a minor nearly three decades ago.

The Rev. James Robichaud, 56, committed suicide, according to Dover-Foxcroft police.

In a press release announcing Robichaud’s suicide, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland said the priest was informed Thursday that he was temporarily suspended from ministry, effective Friday, until an investigation could be completed into an allegation that he sexually abused a minor 29 years ago while serving in Massachusetts.

“It is important to note that at this time, there is not enough information to substantiate or dismiss the charge,” Sue Bernard, diocesan spokeswoman, said in the statement.

The diocese was notified about the allegation of abuse by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a religious order of men in which Robichaud was ordained in April 1979. A native of Augusta, he served with the Oblates until 2000 when he returned to Maine. In 2003, he came under the supervision of the diocese.

“This is a tragic end to a story that we may never completely understand,” Bishop Richard J. Malone said Friday. “It is simply our mission to bring the healing presence of Jesus to this agonizing situation. May his [Jesus’] love work through each of us to find compassion for the woman who made the complaint, Father Robichaud’s soul, his family, friends and parish community.”

Linda Sylvia, a Eucharistic minister in the Dover-Foxcroft church, said Robichaud held Mass Thursday morning, his birthday.

“It’s unbelievable this happened. I would never, ever have expected it – not suicide,” Sylvia said.

The Catholic Church considers suicide a mortal sin, but a funeral Mass and burial in a Catholic cemetery still are offered to victims of suicide.

To commit a mortal sin individuals must be mentally healthy and not be acting on reasoning clouded by confusion and-or despair, according to church teachings.

It will be up to Robichaud’s family, Bernard said, to decide what kind of funeral will be held.

“If they want to have funeral Mass,” she said, “there will be a funeral Mass.”

The timing of the suspension and of a newspaper ad in Friday’s Bangor Daily News urging victims of sexual abuse to inform the diocese was coincidental, Bernard said Friday. The half-page ad ran in Friday’s edition of the BDN and was scheduled to run Saturday in the Portland Press Herald, she said.

Robichaud’s body was discovered at about 10 a.m. by an employee who found him in a second floor bathroom, according to Sgt. Gary West of the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department.

West said Robichaud died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

No note was left behind, he said. Robichaud had served in the area since 2000 and was responsible for Cluster 7, which included St. Francis Xavier-St. Paul in Milo, St. Anne Catholic Church in Dexter, St. Agnes Catholic Church in Pittsfield, and St. Thomas Aquinas in Dover-Foxcroft. He was the only full-time priest in Piscataquis County.

Decisions about who would preside at Masses this weekend and who would replace Robichuad had not been made yet, Bernard said Friday afternoon.

Sylvia said parishioners knew that Robichaud was overworked and they had tried to help in any way possible. “We’ve always talked about the stress he was under,” she said, adding that he hadn’t looked well lately.

Eight years ago, Robichaud was administrator of the Dover-Foxcroft parish and St. Francis in Brownville Junction. Parishioners closed St. Francis and its rectory five years ago.

In 2005, St. Anne Catholic Church in Dexter was added to his responsibilities. Last year, the churches in Milo, Dexter and Dover-Foxcroft united to become our Lady of the Snows. After the death of the Rev. Paul R. Kerns of cancer on June 23, 2007, Robichaud was assigned St. Agnes Catholic Church in Pittsfield.

Robichaud attended the Oblate College and Seminary in Natick, Mass., and earned his bachelor’s degree from Framingham State College in Framingham, Mass., in 1974. He earned his Master of Divinity degree in 1978 from Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass.