PROVIDENCE (RI)
Boston Globe
November 7, 2024
By Christopher Gavin
Gelineau is credited with changing diocese operations to spend more time with parishioners. He also faced accusations during his 25-year tenure that he didn’t do enough to protect children from clergy sex abuse.
PROVIDENCE — The Most Reverend Louis E. Gelineau, who served as the sixth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence for 25 years, died Thursday, church officials said.
Rev. Gelineau died at Saint Antoine Residence in North Smithfield, R.I. officials said. He was 96.
Prior to his retirement in 1997, Rev. Gelineau launched the Providence-Haiti Outreach project that now serves 350 children annually, and a $40 million campaign in 1995 “called ‘Vision of Hope’ to provide long term financial support for parishes, projects, and ministries,” the diocese said in a statement.
He is also credited with organizing the diocesan administration in a way that allowed him to spend more time among parishioners — a model that is still in use in use, the diocese said.
“As Bishop of Providence, Bishop Gelineau emphasized the pastoral dimension of his office and enjoyed traveling throughout the diocese to meet the People of God, leading to him oftentimes being referred to as ‘the people’s bishop,’” the diocese said.
Like other church leaders of his time, Rev. Gelineau faced accusations that he did little to address or was slow to react to instances of child sex abuse committed by priests during his more than two-decade tenure — the second longest in the history of the diocese.
In 1993, the diocese brought in an outside investigator to look into sexual molestation complaints against priests, but for some, that came years too late.
In the case of former priest James Silva, for instance, Rev. Gelineau allegedly was repeatedly warned about Silva in the 1970s and 1980s but continued to transfer him from parish to parish — some 12 transfers in approximately 15 years.
After a Catholic Navy chaplain informed Rev. Gelineau of one of the cases in 1981, the bishop supposedly responded, “Oh, no, Not again!,” according to court records.
Silva was eventually sent to a treatment center in New Mexico, but molested another boy in 1991 after he returned, was removed from the ministry in 1993, and pleaded guilty in 1995.
In 2019, the diocese released a list of 48 priests and deacons it said had been “credibly” accused of sexual abuse of minors dating back to 1950. Silva is among the dozens named.
Rev. Gelineau was born on May 3, 1928, in Burlington, Vt., and earned a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., the diocese said.
He was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1954, and first served in the Diocese of Burlington before Pope Saint Paul VI appointed him to serve as bishop in the Providence diocese on Dec. 6, 1971.
During the 1960s, Rev. Gelineau “created the Immaculate Heart of Mary community to better serve the spiritual needs of the growing Hispanic immigrant community in Rhode Island and worked to secure more Spanish-speaking clergy,” church officials said.
In the 1970s, he traveled to Haiti, an experience that led him to launch the outreach project, the diocese said. The effort began “with the opening of a two-classroom school serving 50 students — which today serves 350 children annually,” officials said.
“During his time as a bishop, he ordained more than 120 men to the priesthood,” the diocese said. “And following the call of the Second Vatican Council to restore a permanent diaconate, he established a formation program in 1973 and ordained the first permanent deacons in the Diocese of Providence three years later, first assigning them as assistants to the bishop and chaplains to state institutions and nursing homes, and eventually to parishes as well.”
Rev. Gelineau was also known for his local Catholic cable TV show “Rejoice in Hope” and a weekly “Ask the Bishop” column in what was then known as The Providence Visitor, now Rhode Island Catholic, diocese officials said.
He retired in June 1997, and later served as bishop emeritus and in other roles.
Rev. Gelineau leaves six nieces and nephews, church officials said.
Material from previous Globe stories was used in this report.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.