MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican
By Brian Steele | bsteele@repub.com
on January 02, 2017
SPRINGFIELD — Thomas L. Dupre, a former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield who left his position in disgrace amid The Republican’s reporting of child sex abuse allegations, died Friday at the age of 83.
Dupre was bishop from 1995 to 2004, when accusations made by the mother of an alleged abuse victim became public.
He retired the day after The Republican sought his response to detailed written accounts of alleged child rape. The diocese claimed the timing was a coincidence, saying the pope had allowed Dupre’s months-old request to retire five years early due to failing health.
On Sept. 27, 2004, about seven months after Dupre retired, he was indicted by a Hampden County grand jury on charges that he sexually assaulted two altar boys, ages 12 and 13, more than three decades prior. The same day, then-District Attorney William Bennett announced the case would not go to trial because the statute of limitations had expired on some charges and the grand jury declined to indict on others.
Dupre was the first Roman Catholic bishop to be indicted in a nationwide wave of sexual abuse accusations against priests and other church leaders.
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