FALL RIVER (MA)
The Sun Chronicle [Attleboro MA]
October 11, 2023
By David Linton
ATTLEBORO — Claude Leboeuf was 8 years old when the Rev. James Porter sodomized him while the now notorious Catholic priest was visiting St. Joseph’s Church.
Now 70 and living in Providence, Leboeuf said during a press conference Wednesday that he buried the memory of the abuse until he was in his mid-60s.
“Part of the reason why I’m speaking out is my voice was taken away from me all those years. My life was ruined,” Leboeuf said on the sidewalk outside the offices of the Diocese of Fall River.
The press conference was held to announce a recent financial out-of-court settlement with the diocese in the “mid-five figures” and to call for the state to change the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims.
Leboeuf was with Robert M. Hoatson, a former Catholic priest who is now the president of Road to Recovery Inc., a nonprofit charity based in New Jersey that helps victims of sexual abuse and their families.
Leboeuf’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, attended on Zoom. Garabedian, who has represented victims of Porter and other priests worldwide, declined to name the exact amount of the settlement.
“It’s not a lot of money,” Leboeuf said. “I’m not getting rich.”
The diocese issued a general statement that did not comment directly on LeBoeuf’s case.
“The actions of former priest James Porter decades ago are a painful reality in the history of the Diocese of Fall River,” the statement said.
“Through its Victim Assistance outreach, the Diocese of Fall River offers supportive services to survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families throughout the legal process and continuing after a conclusion is reached,” it said.
Leboeuf said he was abused in a back room at St. Joseph’s and was able to identify Porter as his assailant years later when he saw a photo of the priest when he was in his 20s.
His parents, who did not regularly attend church, used to send Leboeuf and his siblings money to put in the collection plate, but they would often spend it on hot chocolate and doughnuts, he said.
“I tried to avoid going as much as I could,” Leboeuf said.
He said the memories of the abuse came back in different ways, including visiting locations in Attleboro. Although the abuse occurred years ago, he still feels physical and emotional pain.
“Although what happened to me was long ago,” Leboeuf said, “it doesn’t make it any less real.”
He said he believes the abuse made him socially inept and isolated, and affected his being able to find a job with pay that matched his ability and intelligence.
“I could have done better in life,” Leboeuf said.
He was married for 34 years before his wife passed away but was emotionally unconnected in the relationship due to his own problems related to the sexual abuse.
Leboeuf says he now leads a Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests in Cumberland and is seeking a change in the statute of limitations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Garabedian said it is not unusual for someone who survives sexual abuse to come forward even in their 80s, adding it is never too late.
“The Catholic Church, all institutions and all pedophiles should not be able to benefit by their criminality. It is criminal to sexually abuse children. It is criminal to hide the sexual abuse which is what supervisors do,” Garabedian said.
He said the state should change the statute of limitations, as Maine and Vermont have done, so older claims of sexual abuse can be filed.
After the press conference, Garabedian said Leboeuf could not file a civil claim because in his case it is past seven years since he realized he was abused.
Porter, a priest at St. Mary’s Church in North Attleboro in the 1960s, was arrested in 1992, years after leaving the priesthood.
He was convicted of sexually abusing 28 children from the parish and sentenced to an 18- to 20-year prison term. He died in 2005, a year after he was released early.
Porter admitted in a phone call to private investigator and abuse survivor Frank Fitzpatrick that he abused as many as 100 boys and girls, and some estimate he abused as many as 200 during his lifetime in at least three states.
It was revealed that Porter’s superiors knew or suspected he was a pedophile.
At least twice before he formally left the priesthood in 1974, Porter was sent to treatment centers.
For more information on the diocese’s victim’s assistance, contact Director of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance Carolyn Shipp at 508-985-6508 (confidential voicemail) or cshipp@dioc-fr.org.
David Linton may be reached at 508-236-0338.