MADAWASKA – Two retired Roman Catholic priests will take over the pastoral duties this weekend of four St. John Valley parishes and will stay until permanent priests can be found, according to diocesan officials.

The Revs. Clement D. Thibodeau and Hubert J. Paquet will take over the parishes by the coming weekend. Thibodeau will be at St. Thomas Aquinas in Madawaska, and Paquet will be at St. Luce in Frenchville, St. Joseph in Sinclair and St. Agatha.

The two pastors who served the parishes were removed from their ministry last weekend by Bishop Joseph Gerry for abusing minors. The Revs. Michael Doucette and John Audibert revealed the abuse to their parishes last month.

The Diocese of Portland, which oversees churches in Maine, had approved a new “zero tolerance” policy regarding sexual abuse of minors.

Thibodeau and Paquet are not strangers to the St. John Valley. Thibodeau served in Eagle Lake and St. Agatha in the 1970s, and now lives in North Caribou. Paquet served as assistant pastor in St. Agatha in 1955-56. He retired in 1997 while serving as pastor in Limerick.

Both assignments are effective March 15.

“I certainly hope this announcement will help the situation,” Kevin Lavoie, acting president of the pastoral council at St. Agatha, Frenchville and Sinclair, said Wednesday. “Father Paquet, I am told, was in the area many years ago, and he is willing to come up and help in our situation.

“Our people are starting to digest the weekend announcements that were a great shock to us,” Lavoie said. “I hope that confidence levels return, because we certainly can’t change the decisions that we made.”

The parish councils had been told ahead of time that their recommendations might not be followed by the bishop when he made his final decision. It still was a shock, Lavoie said.

Lavoie said he has heard about a petition to reinstate the priests being circulated by Catholics in the area, but he had not seen it Wednesday afternoon. He said he did not believe a petition would make a difference, because a decision has been made, and it will be lived up to.

“A petition is not the route to go, even if the decision may have been a disappointment,” Lavoie said. “We have to honor the decision of the bishop.

“I understand the rationale and logic of the bishop’s decision,” he continued. “The bishop has to think of all the Catholics in Maine, not just the ones of our four parishes.”

Lavoie said he believed good would come of the hard times facing the four St. John Valley parishes. He said the present cleansing was going on across the country, and the present crisis was not the first for the church.

“The church has gone through such controversies for centuries,” he said. “It’s a matter of us regrouping, and we will overcome.”

He said he also had heard of people slowing their contributions to the church, and that could hurt the local parishes because only a small percentage goes to the bishop and the diocese.

The council president also heard that contributions to the bishop’s annual campaign could suffer a hit. The annual financial appeal is coming up in a matter of weeks.

“I hope, and believe, there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Lavoie said. “Our beliefs have been shaken, because there was a genuine sense of forgiveness toward the two priests in our communities, and we would have given the priest the opportunity.

“People wonder why, if we were willing to forgive, why couldn’t the diocese do the same,” Lavoie said. “However, the bishop has to look at the entire state, Catholics all over Maine, and what is better for all of them.”