UNITED STATES
The Sun Chronicle
BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
20 years ago this week, he was brought to justice
John Robitaille sits at his desk at the Larry Friedman Center for Entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, and looks back over a lifetime of achievement: starting several businesses, running on the Republican ticket for Rhode Island governor, inspiring students to innovate.
But within the business lab’s sunny rooms, few would guess that the dynamic 63-year-old former North Attleboro resident had once been at the center of a controversy that would rock the foundations of the Catholic Church – and liberate hundreds of people who were abused as children by sexual predators hiding behind the robes of priests.
“I dislike the word victim,” said Robitaille, one of the original accusers who went public 20 years ago about how former St. Mary’s Church curate Father James Porter sexually abused them and others during the early 1960s. “I’m a survivor. We were all survivors.”
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