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Photo: Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, seat of the Archdiocese of Boston by GearedBull Jim Hood, Own work, CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.
Ronald Paquin, a defrocked Catholic priest whose abuse cases became part of the Boston Archdiocese clergy sexual abuse scandal, has died while serving a prison sentence in Maine, The Haverhill Gazette reported.
Paquin, 83, died Sept. 11 at Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine. The Maine Department of Corrections did not announce a cause of death. He had been serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing an altar boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s.
Paquin had previously served more than a decade in Massachusetts prison after pleading guilty in 2002 to child rape charges involving another altar boy. He was later convicted in Maine on 11 counts of gross sexual misconduct.
Paquin Was a Central Figure in the Boston Archdiocese Scandal
Paquin’s history extended far beyond the Maine conviction.
He served at St. Monica Parish in Methuen and St. John the Baptist Parish in Haverhill and was among the priests whose conduct was documented during the Boston Globe Spotlight investigation into clergy sexual abuse and institutional failures within the Archdiocese of Boston.
Church records reviewed by the Globe showed that the archdiocese received numerous complaints about Paquin before he was permanently removed from ministry.
According to the Globe, Paquin was taken out of his Haverhill parish in 1990 and sent for treatment, but later returned to priestly duties as a hospital chaplain. By 2000, Cardinal Bernard Law was asking the Vatican to remove him from the priesthood after multiple allegations had accumulated.
Law resigned as archbishop in 2002 amid widespread criticism over the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations.
Learn More About Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Claims
For background on the litigation, institutional liability and survivor claims, see our Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Guide.
You can also review some of the most significant resolutions in our guide to the Largest Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Settlements in the United States.
Paquin Served Prison Time in Two States
Paquin first entered prison after pleading guilty in Massachusetts to sexually abusing an altar boy.
After serving more than 10 years, he was released in 2015 and later prosecuted in Maine over abuse alleged to have occurred during trips there in the 1980s.
A Maine jury convicted him in 2018 on 11 counts of gross sexual misconduct involving one former altar boy. He was acquitted of charges involving a second accuser. In 2019, a judge imposed a 20-year sentence with all but 16 years to be served.
At sentencing, the judge said Paquin had betrayed the trust placed in him as a priest and showed little remorse or responsibility for his conduct.
An Abuser’s Death Can Bring Complicated Emotions for Survivors
The death of a person who sexually abused children can affect survivors in very different ways.
For some, it can bring relief. An attorney who has represented more than 25 people who said Paquin abused them as children, said Paquin’s death brought “a measure of relief” to some survivors because they knew he could no longer harm children.
For others, the death of an abuser can bring renewed anger, grief or frustration, particularly when questions remain unanswered or when survivors never received an apology, acknowledgment or opportunity to confront the person responsible.
There is no single way survivors are expected to respond. Some may experience closure. Others may feel that another opportunity for accountability has disappeared. And some may simply feel very little.
Paquin’s Death Does Not End Questions About Institutional Accountability
Paquin’s death closes the criminal chapter of his own case, but it does not erase the larger history surrounding the Boston Archdiocese.
For many clergy abuse survivors, accountability has never been limited to what happens to an individual priest. Civil cases and investigations have also examined what bishops and church officials knew, how complaints were handled and why priests accused of abuse were sometimes reassigned or allowed to remain in ministry.
Paquin’s case became significant in part because it illustrated those broader institutional failures.
The same questions continue to shape Catholic clergy sexual abuse litigation across the United States: whether church leaders ignored warnings, concealed allegations or failed to protect children even after concerns had been raised.
