The Rev. Richard R. Lavigne will have to register as a sex offender, but for abuse victims and their families, the pain continues. When the Rev. Richard R. Lavigne's 10-year probation for molesting two boys ends next week, it will pierce an emotional wound of a grieving father.

Raymond J. Chelte of Chicopee said his son Raymond J. Chelte Jr. fatally overdosed on drugs four years after he was one of 17 alleged Lavigne sexual abuse victims who settled a suit with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield for $1.4 million in 1994.

His death was a suicide, his father said, ending years of drug abuse and failures that began when he was abused by Lavigne as a pre-teen.

But the end of Lavigne's probation will be a vindication of sorts for Linda M. Poirier of Chicopee, who is among friends and former parishioners who still support the priest despite more than two dozen sexual abuse accusations against him, two investigations into whether he played a role in an altar boy's murder, and a renewed drive to defrock him.

"He's being unfairly targeted," said Poirier, who grew up across the street from Lavigne.

Chelte, a retired Chicopee teacher who won the prestigious William Pynchon Award for community service last week, disagrees. "He should be in jail," he said.

Lavigne was stripped of his priestly duties a decade ago, but has maintained his status as a priest as he continues to be financially supported by the Diocese of Springfield.

He has been living in Chicopee near Elms College since pleading guilty 10 years ago to molesting two former altar boys at St. Joseph's Parish in Shelburne Falls.

He apologized to the victims at the time, saying, "I am sorry for the harm I have caused (the victims), and I ask for their for- giveness. As far as other accusers: If I have harmed them in any way I ask for their forgiveness."

Lavigne, who has not made any public comments since then and refused a recent request for comments for this story, had plenty of support when he was on trial.

"A priest couldn't do it" mentality was prevalent at the time, according to people involved in the case.

Ariane D. Vuono, who helped prosecute the case with the Northwestern District Attorney's Office, remembers the judge asking prospective jurors whether they were capable of finding a priest guilty of a crime.

Today, amid a sex abuse scandal in which 218 priests nationwide have been removed from their positions this year, some members of the local clergy as well as parishioners are speaking out against Lavigne and church leaders for their handling of the sex abuse cases.

"The Lavigne case is a microcosm of what has happened nationally in the church," said Warren E. Mason, a 47-year-old lifelong Catholic from East Longmeadow.

He and others said diocesan leaders protected child-abusing priests by keeping records secret and moving them from parish to parish.

Besides Lavigne, five other priests have been partially or fully removed from their ministries in the past decade or so in the Springfield Diocese.

Mason, like some other local Catholics, is not pleased with the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre, bishop of the Springfield Diocese.

Dupre has said the diocese never sought to defrock Lavigne because it is a cumbersome and complex process.

"It's a cop-out by the bishop. . . . When he says it's cumbersome, I hear him saying it takes too much effort. It should have been pursued regardless how long it took," said Mason.

He said other bishops successfully sought to defrock child-abusing priests in a matter of months.

Some clergy also have publicly denounced Lavigne and questioned the church's handling of the crisis.

The Rev. James J. Scahill, the pastor of Mason's church, St. Michael's in East Longmeadow, recently announced he will withhold a percentage of weekly collections earmarked for the diocese to protest its financial support of Lavigne. The bishop has said the diocese provides a small subsistence sum to Lavigne so that he will not be a burden to society.

Last week, two members of the local clergy - the Rev. Eugene D. Honan of St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish in Northampton and Sister Eunice A. Tassone of the Sisters of St. Joseph order in North Adams - publicly supported an alleged Lavigne sexual abuse victim at a news conference

Several months ago, the Rev. Kevin B. Sousa, the former director of Holyoke Catholic High School, disclosed he was sexually abused as a child by Lavigne, then a family friend. The recollection of the alleged abuse caused Sousa to abandon his clerical job in 1995.

When police investigated the bludgeoning death of 13-year-old Danny Croteau on the banks of the Chicopee River, it was at a time when no public accusations were made against priests.

Lavigne was the only suspect at the time, but he wasn't identified publicly as a suspect until almost 20 years after the murder.

Matthew J. Ryan Jr., who was Hampden County district attorney at the time of the crime, said last week that the 1972 investigation was not compromised despite the atmosphere.

"We did all we could at the time," said Ryan, refusing to elaborate.

But Carl Croteau, the murdered boy's father, said in 1991 that Ryan "told me he didn't think he could get 12 jurors to convict a priest."

Ryan said his office did not give any special consideration to the diocese.

"No deal was struck," said Ryan.

Ryan now works for Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy P.C., a Springfield law firm that recently defended the diocese in a lawsuit involving sexual abuse.

Asked if diocesan leaders were informed that Lavigne was a murder suspect and whether they were told he was sexually abusing Croteau, Ryan refused comment.

However, Carl Croteau said he told his then parish priest, the Rev. Leo E. O'Neil, that diocesan leaders in 1972 had reason to suspect Lavigne of molesting his son and possibly murdering him. O'Neil, who died several years ago, later became auxiliary bishop in the diocese.

Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett reopened the murder investigation in 1992. He didn't return a call to discuss the case.

When the murder investigation was reopened a decade ago, a DNA test failed to match blood found at the murder scene with Lavigne's. The priest was not ruled out as a suspect, but Bennett abandoned the case upon the DNA test results.

There is no statute of limitations on murder cases, so the investigation is never formally closed.

The statute of limitations for sexual abuse varies, depending upon when it occurred. It has expired on most new cases filed against Lavigne.

After the diocese settled the suit with alleged Lavigne victims in 1993, more than eight years passed before another allegation of past sexual abuse by Lavigne was made public.

Three men have recently filed civil suits against Lavigne and the diocese.

The Most Rev. Joseph Maguire, retired bishop of the Springfield Diocese, vociferously and publicly supported Lavigne's innocence during his molestation trial. Maguire was recently named in a suit charging him with knowing Lavigne was an abuser and not preventing at least one boy from being molested.

Maguire, who became bishop in Springfield several years after the Croteau murder, said the church's understanding of sexual abuse has evolved from treating it as a moral failure to a psychological illness requiring treatment to the current acceptance of it as a crime.

Diocesan leaders say only one person brought forward sexual abuse accusations against Lavigne before 1991. The diocese wouldn't name the person on whose behalf the accusations were made, but Paul R. Babeu of North Adams last week said it was him.

Honan and Tassone said they brought allegations of sexual abuse against Lavigne to then Auxiliary Bishop O'Neil in 1986 on behalf of Babeu.

Support for Lavigne isn't as vocal as it was during his criminal trial, which was moved to Newburyport because of pre-trial publicity in Western Massachusetts. Then almost 500 people signed a legal brief supporting Lavigne's effort to separate five indictments against him.

Two priests - the Rev. Timothy J. Campoli, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church, Greenfield, and the Rev. John A. Roach, pastor of Lavigne's former church, St. Joseph's in Shelburne Falls - made the journey to Newburyport to support Lavigne and signed briefs in his support.

Neither returned recent requests to discuss their support of Lavigne.

Lavigne still has supporters such as Poirier, who said the man she has known for more than 50 years is incapable of the behavior of which he is accused.

Like others she speaks fondly of a priest who was known for his artistic and spiritual gifts, relevant homilies and a vigorous embrace of Vatican II - the 1962 redefinition of the church's role in the modern world that included a much broader role for laity.

Theresa A. Slowinski of Colrain, who had several sons who served as altar boys while Lavigne was her parish priest, called him the best homilist she had ever heard.

"He spoke so well because he had been through so much," said Slowinski, who doubts Lavigne is guilty of much of what he is accused of.

Meanwhile, several Lavigne accusers, including former diocesan priest Sousa, say they have not ruled out bringing criminal charges against him.

Lavigne's probation may be ending, but his involvement with the law is not. Lavigne will be required to register as a sex offender upon completion of his probation.

A hearing was set for May by the state Registry of Sex Offenders to determine which of four levels of offender Lavigne would be considered.

Information regarding his assigned level will not be available until he registers.

The 16 surviving people who settled a suit against Lavigne with the diocese were contacted by their lawyer, Michael W. Wiggins of Boston, asking them to cooperate with the registry.

Several months ago the Springfield Diocese handed over information regarding all sexual abuse accusations that have been made against diocesan personnel. The Northwestern District Attorney's Office in Northampton, which prosecuted the molestation cases against Lavigne in 1992, wouldn't say whether Lavigne is currently under investigation.

The Hampden and Northwestern district attorney offices have refused to disclose the number of accusations or whether any priests could face criminal charges stemming from the information. The diocese has released all parties from confidentiality agreements from suits settled in the past.

In the wake of the Lavigne abuse cases and several others in the Springfield Diocese, an all-lay Misconduct Commission was established in 1992 as an independent investigative unit.

Greenfield lawyer John J. Stobierski, who represents Lavigne's recent accusers, said it is too early to tell whether it has been effective in preventing abuse.

It takes most abuse victims many years to reach the point of sharing their story, he said.

"It is extremely difficult for people in their teens and 20s to come forward with this," said Stobierski, adding that middle-aged people with better understandings of themselves are more likely to reveal abuse publicly.

Younger people are reluctant because they have struggled to accept it themselves, he said.

Also, they open themselves to ridicule about being involved in homosexual activity.

Stobierski said challenging someone highly respected in a community is extremely difficult.

"That's not something everyone can do," he said.

One of the alleged Lavigne victims who settled with the diocese in 1993 refused to discuss Lavigne or the abuse when contacted recently. He said it was too painful and better left in the past.

Chelte understands that trauma. He said his son never overcame the pain caused by the abuse.

"He had so much potential, none of it realized," said Chelte, who lives only a few blocks from Lavigne.

He hopes to move his son's remains from California one day to Greater Springfield.

"Lavigne fooled us. He really did," Chelte added.

"Sometimes I drive by his house, hoping I will see him. I want to ask him, 'Why?'"

Bill Zajac can be reached at wzajac@union-news.com