WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Mark Sullivan
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Jun. 25, 2015
WORCESTER – Three former Worcester Diocese priests implicated in the sexual abuse of minors have been formally defrocked by Rome, the diocese has announced.
The three men, Gerard L. Branconnier, Robert E. Kelley and Lowe B. Dongor, have been dismissed from the clerical state by the Vatican and may never again function in any capacity as priests, according to a statement issued by Bishop Robert J. McManus.
“It is my fervent prayer that Christ may bring healing and hope to anyone who has been abused by these men or by anyone in the Catholic Church,” Bishop McManus said.
Mr. Branconnier, 63, who was assigned as a priest to the parishes of St. Roch in Oxford, North American Martyrs in Auburn, Sacred Heart of Jesus in Gardner, and St. Paul & St. Thomas Aquinas in Warren, had been removed from ministry by Bishop Timothy Harrington in 1993 following “credible allegations of abuse” involving a 16-year-old boy, the diocese said. His case was sent to Rome in 2005.
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