CONNECTICUT
Republican-American
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Priest was hiding overseas
BY MICHAEL DOOLING REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
A quarter century after he fled New Mexico, and 51 years since he left Naugatuck, Arthur Perrault is no longer a priest with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
“His faculties have been revoked,” said Santa Fe’s former archdiocesan chancellor, the Rev. Timothy Martinez, when contacted several years ago.
The archdiocese was asked for, but did not provide, a list of parishes where Perrault served.
The Rev. Thomas Zotter, who replaced Perrault as St. Bernadette’s pastor, told the Republican-American that the late Helen M. Keller, who had served both priests as an assistant, once mailed something to Perrault with an address in Morocco.
Perrault’s signature is on file with the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office in New Mexico, after he needed to sell a house he owned in Albuquerque in 1994. He sold it to his assistant, Keller, and her husband. The 20-year mortgage he held provided a monthly payment to him of $469.69, according to the records.
The contract was signed by Perrault and notarized in Gibraltar, a British territory at the southern tip of Spain and is a short ferry ride from Tangier, Morocco.
After Helen Keller died in 2003 her brother, Richard Rawe, was appointed personal representative in her will. To sell her house, the county required a replacement warranty deed signed by Perrault; again his signature was notarized in Gibraltar. Rawe told the Republican-American in an email that once the deed was signed, it was transmitted to him through an intermediary named Dan Paulos.
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