By Judy Rakowsky
Boston Globe
December 18, 2010
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/12/18/rev_marc_pich_68_priest_urged_cardinal_law_to_resign/
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| Marc Piche |
The Rev. Marc Piche was a popular parish priest who welcomed female and adult altar servers before it was officially sanctioned and was among a cadre of Catholic clergy who urged Cardinal Bernard F. Law to step down amid the sexual abuse scandal.
Known for listening carefully to parishioners and for giving considered advice, Father Piche died Tuesday of liver cancer at a relative’s home in Avon. He was 68.
“I can’t tell you how many marriages he saved,’’ said Carole Piche, wife of Andre Piche, a younger brother. “Be it a cut knee, a strained marriage, or a troubled teenager, he soothed people.’’
A humble man with no interest in advancing in the church hierarchy, he heard and saw how much he meant to people in the weeks since he was removed from the transplant list after his disease had spread, Carole Piche said of her brother-in-law.
Visitors flocked to their Avon home, and piles of letters arrived, including one FedEx special delivery from a former parishioner that reached him two days before he died.
“It was a living wake with so many people at our house, with so many people coming in and out,’’ said another younger brother, Joseph Piche of Plymouth. “Even the cat Gizmo) wouldn’t leave his bed, and I don’t think he even cared for cats but that one.’’
One of the more than 800 letters that arrived since the pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Newburyport was removed from the transplant list was from a former parishioner who is now an FBI agent. He recalled the fun he had romping on a raft in New Hampshire, where Father Piche took young parishioners on swimming and skiing trips.
Plenty of chaperones were on hand for the swimming and skiing trips for parishioners, she said, but after the pedophilia scandal walloped the church in the last decade, he did not feel he could continue the trips.
Father Piche was one of 58 clergy in the Boston Archdiocese who signed a letter to Law in 2002 urging him to resign. It said: “Your position as our bishop is so compromised that it is no longer possible for you to exercise the spiritual leadership required for the church of Boston.’’
Joseph said his brother’s courage inspired him to put pen to paper himself.
“I wrote a letter telling him how proud I was,’’ he said. “He never made any big deal out of it. But he joked that he may need a place to live after that got sent.’’
Father Piche was in a small minority; there were 550 diocesan priests at the time, as well as 300 retired priests and 700 members of religious orders.
Carole Piche said Father Piche suffered no repercussions for signing the letter, which was sent just days before Law resigned.
Father Piche also was ahead of Rome when it came to including girls and adults as altar servers. Four years before the Vatican decided in 1994 to allow female altar servers; he put a notice in the bulletin for Sacred Hearts in Haverhill seeking altar servers. He did not say boys.
“I felt it was an issue of justice,’’ Father Piche, then pastor at Sacred Hearts, told the Globe. “I didn’t have any valid reason to delay. It takes Rome a little while to catch up sometimes.’’
When Father Piche told the congregation, “I’ll take anyone,’’ Theresa O’Brien, 80, stepped up. Within three years, she was the senior server and one of three adults among 70 servers.
Father Piche said O’Brien had been an inspiration. “Theresa became a resource to me immediately because of her long connection to the parish and so many organizations and her knowledge of so many families,’’ he said. “I consult with her often.’’
Born in Brockton, Father Piche was the second of four sons of the late Marcel and Noella (Landry) Piche. He attended Sacred Heart Grammar school in Brockton and Assumption High School and Assumption College in Montreal. He attended St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, and received a master’s degree from Providence College.
Father Piche served at St. Francis Parish in Medford, St. Peter’s Parish in Plymouth, St. Joseph’s Parish in Salem, St. Mary’s Parish in Wrentham, St. Patrick’s Parish in Stoneham, Sacred Heart/St. James parishes in Groton as administrator, was pastor of Sacred Hearts parish in Bradford for 13 years, and had been pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Newburyport since June 1, 2003.
“My brother never aspired to be anything other than a parish priest,’’ Joseph said. “He could have been asked, and he would have refused to be a bishop. He only wanted special consideration if a parish opened near mountains so he could ski. If he took a day off, everybody knew where he was in the winter.’’
Father Piche also leaves his older brother, Roger J. of Lake Suzy, Fla.
The funeral Mass is scheduled at 11 a.m. today at Immaculate Conception Church, 42 Green St., in Newburyport. Burial will be at a later date in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Newburyport. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley celebrated a vigil service last night at Immaculate Conception Church.
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