Louis Edward Gelineau
Louis Edward Gélineau is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Providence from 1972 to 1997.Biography
Louis Gelineau was born into a Franco-American family in Burlington, Vermont, to Leonidas and Juliette Gelineau; he has an older brother, Robert. After attending and Cathedral High School in Burlington, he studied at St. Michael's College for two years before beginning his studies for the priesthood at St. Paul's University in Ottawa, Ontario, from where he later obtained a Licentiate of Sacred Theology and a Bachelor of Philosophy. He was ordained a priest on June 5, 1954, and then served as assistant pastor at in Richford and at in Winooski.
Gelineau was sent to further his studies at the Catholic University of America in 1957, and later earned a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1959. Returning to the Diocese of Burlington, he was named assistant chancellor of the Diocese and secretary and master of ceremonies to Bishop Robert Francis Joyce. He also served as director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and assistant chaplain at De Goesbriand Memorial Hospital. He became chancellor of the Diocese in 1961 and was raised to the rank of Papal Chamberlain by Pope John XXIII. In 1968 he became vicar general of the Burlington Diocese and a Prelate of His Holiness.
On December 6, 1971, Gelineau was appointed the sixth Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on January 26, 1972 from Bishop Joyce, with Bishops Bernard Joseph Flanagan and Edward Cornelius O'Leary serving as co-consecrators. In 1988, Gelineau declared that removing a feeding tube from 48-year-old Marcia Gray, a comatose Rhode Island woman, "does not contradict Catholic moral theology," but emphasized that he "in no way supports or condones the practice of euthanasia." He also opposed a 1985 ordinance for the city of Providence to protect homosexuals from discrimination in employment, housing, credit and access to public accommodations. He said, "Homosexual acts are contrary to God's command and contrary to his purpose in creating sex. To give support to this proposed legislation may easily be interpreted as supporting the homosexual lifestyle." Later, in 1995, when the Rhode Island Senate passed a gay rights bill, Gelineau stated, "If seeks to afford protection from unjust discrimination, which is not now afforded under our laws, then those laws should be changed."
Gélineau has long been accused of various forms of sexual misconduct. According to a 1997 deposition by Robert Cadorette, Gélineau, while assigned to a Vermont orphanage in the 1950s, molested Cadorette as a boy several times and attempted to drown him later. In a 1997 deposition, he denied any sexual misdeeds with an altar boy in 1994.
Gelineau was also criticized for his management of sexual abuse allegations in the Providence Diocese.
After a 25-year-long tenure, Gelineau resigned as Bishop on June 11, 1997. He became chaplain at St. Antoine Residence in March 2004.
