Richard R. Lavigne

Richard Roger Lavigne was a laicized priest of the Roman Catholic [Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts|Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield in Massachusetts] and a convicted sex offender. Lavigne was at the center of the [Catholic Church Child sexual abuse|sexual abuse cases|priest abuse scandal] in the Diocese of Springfield with at least 63 claims of sexual abuse of minors placed against him.

Biography

Richard Lavigne was born in 1941 and raised in Chicopee, Massachusetts. He was the only child of Annette and Ovila Lavigne. He claimed that his father owned a shoe store in the city.
In 1966, Lavigne was ordained a priest. He initially requested to teach at Cathedral High School in Springfield, which was denied.

Child sexual abuse

Lavigne was removed from ministry by Bishop John Marshall in 1991. He pleaded guilty to two counts of child sexual abuse on June 26, 1992, and was the only suspect named in the long-unsolved 1972 murder of 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau. In 1995, DNA tests failed to link Lavigne to the Croteau murder, and the Hampden County District Attorney, William Bennett, did not bring any charges against Lavigne. Lavigne was laicized by the Holy See on November 20, 2003. According to the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry, Lavigne spent the last two years of his life "in violation", and his last known residence was in Chicopee.
Lavigne died in May 2021 of acute hypoxic respiratory failure as a result of COVID-19-related pneumonia, just hours after the Hampden County district attorney Anthony D. Gulluni's office had begun preparing an arrest warrant in the 1972 case, based on deathbed admissions by Lavigne of specific details. Gullini declared Lavigne responsible for the death of Danny Croteau.
Two Springfield Roman Catholic bishops, Christopher Joseph Weldon and Thomas Dupré, were named as child molesters who each covered up the abuse and murder of Danny Croteau by Lavigne, who was in their charge.