Rev. Albert Boulanger: Late Priest Reassigned Twice, but Kept Ministry

By Kathryn Marchocki
Union Leader
March 4, 2003

http://www.theunionleader.com/church_show.html?article=18735

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Even though the diocese knew the Rev. Albert L. Boulanger engaged in sexual misconduct with minors in the mid-1960s, he was sent to counseling and reassigned to a Nashua parish where he molested an 11-year-old boy in 1971, the state reported.

After the boy’s parents complained to Bishop Ernest J. Primeau that Boulanger sexually assaulted their son while he was at St. Joseph Parish, Primeau immediately removed his faculties as a priest and again sent him for counseling.

But in the fall of 1971, Primeau assigned Boulanger to full-time ministry in North Conway.

In April 1987, Boulanger admitted in psychological reports that he molested minors into the early 1980s.

The state said there is compelling evidence that the diocese knew of three separate occasions when Boulanger sexually abused children.

But Boulanger continued in ministry until his retirement in 2000 and did not have his faculties to function as a priest revoked until Feb. 15, 2002.

Investigators said they could not complete their investigation for two reasons: several alleged victims are unidentified and Boulanger, 71, died just days after the diocese opened its files to investigators under a grand jury subpoena last June.