ALFRED — A former Boston priest was found guilty Thursday of sexually abusing a boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s. Ronald Paquin, 76, was convicted of 11 of 24 counts of gross sexual misconduct. He was found not guilty of similar charges related to a second boy. Now grown men, both accusers testified […]
sex abuse
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Second accuser testifies that defrocked priest abused him for years in Maine
ALFRED — Keith Townsend described his memory of the bottle in Ronald Paquin’s hand: Tanqueray gin. He described how Paquin made him a drink and then got upset when the liquor made him throw up on the carpet in the trailer at a Kennebunkport campground. And he described the way Paquin touched him that night […]
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Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Pope visits Ireland amid new global outrage over sex abuse
DUBLIN (AP) — Pope Francis arrived Saturday in Ireland, ground zero of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse crisis, with the institution under fire across the globe for its systemic failures to protect children from rapists or to punish bishops who hid the crimes. Francis is making the first papal visit to Ireland in almost four […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Priests' sexual abuse coverup is a massive crisis
WASHINGTON — In 1972, Pope Paul VI warned that “the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God.” We see that smoke throughout the report from a Pennsylvania grand jury, which alleges that more than 300 priests abused more than 1,000 children in six Pennsylvania dioceses — including 99 priests from the Diocese of […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Republicans and Democrats just did something big together
Washington seems to be in the grip of hyperpartisan gridlock these days. Important bills are passed on party-line votes (when they are passed at all) and the investigative committees of Congress appear to be sideshows, unable to agree on basic facts. Many Americans despair that Republicans and Democrats seem incapable of coming together to do […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Greene man charged in sex abuse case
AUBURN — A 35-year-old man from Greene was behind bars Tuesday, accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old autistic girl a week before Christmas. Travis Therrien, of College Street, was arrested on a warrant early Saturday morning when police stopped his car a short distance from his home. Therrien is charged with sexual abuse of a […]
Posted inLetters
B. Wilner: No hiding behind the robes
Being a victim of childhood sexual abuse, for years, I was disturbed by the letter from Gabrielle DeMoras (June 3). If the priests, some of them abusers themselves, are the doctors of the soul, who are the doctors for the children who are damaged for the rest of their lives? I told myself, I am […]
Posted inLetters
G. DeMoras: We are all sinners
I write in response to the Sun Journal story concerning sex abuse by clergy (May 27). We should examine our own consciences before we throw stones at clergy for sex abuse. As humans, we are all sinners in need of the Lord’s mercy. People wonder why bishops do not report a priest’s sex abuse. If […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Calais man convicted of six child sex assault crimes, acquitted of two others
MACHIAS — A Calais man accused of sexually abusing three young girls was found guilty Friday of six of the eight charges filed against him. The Washington County Superior Court jury of six men and six women found Clifford Thornton II, 52, not guilty of the most serious charge of gross sexual assault and guilty […]