Rev. Johannes Rivoire, seen in this undated photo from the time he served as a priest in Nunavut, died April 11 at the age of 93. (File photo)
What did Rivoire tell his confessor?
Roman Catholic priest evaded Canadian justice, but faced the ultimate judgement
Father Rivoire finally faced the justice he evaded on earth, in Canada, and in Nunavut.
Rev. Johannes Rivoire, the notorious Roman Catholic priest, died last week at the age of 93.
He eluded Canadian authorities for more than 30 years — one-third of his entire life — hiding in France instead of facing Canada’s legal system.
But last week he faced, we have to believe, the ultimate judgement when, as a supposed man of faith, he met his maker.
His death brings to an end a painful chapter in Nunavut history, although his legacy is felt by generations.
Rivoire knew the truth about the sexual abuse allegations against him. He knew that what he was accused of doing was a violation not only of Canadian law, but of God’s law.
He worked as a parish priest in what is now Nunavut from the 1960s until 1993, when he left Canada around the same time reports that he sexually abused Inuit children began to surface.
Police charged him, yet he never saw the inside of a courtroom.
The French-born cleric left Canada for his homeland which, conveniently, doesn’t extradite its citizens to face criminal charges in foreign countries.
Nunavummiut could have guessed for years that this is how it would end. Father Time was going to get to him before the RCMP or a Canadian judge ever would.
That’s part of his sad, embarrassing legacy — that the Mounties never did get their man.
The Canadian government was wholly ineffective in convincing France to send him back to face the music in Canada.
And the Roman Catholic Church — which, since the 1990s, has grappled with sexual abuse committed by its priests — failed to act. It was always impossible to accept that someone higher up in the hierarchical Church didn’t have power (or will) to snap his fingers and order Rivoire to return to Canada.
From a journalist’s perspective, the questions that would have been great to ask: What did you tell your confessor? What did you say when you were in the confessional? What sins did you ask God to forgive?
An ordained priest until the day he died, we can assume Rivoire would have gone to confession himself. What, if anything, did he tell his confessor about his own sins?
If the sexual abuse allegations were true, and he came clean about it in a confessional, what penance would his confessor have given him to absolve him?
If they’re true, but he didn’t ask God for forgiveness, he died with unconfessed sins. And we know where that leads.
And if they weren’t true, why wouldn’t his confessor have told him to put his faith in God and go to Canada, Daniel-like, to face his legal lions?
Rivoire denied the allegations. In 2022, he said through a lawyer they were “completely unfounded.”
If Rivoire lied then, did he seek forgiveness for that sin?
Realistically, everyone knew for years that this is how the Rivoire Affair would end — an old man, mired in controversy, shrivelling away while hiding from the law.
It’s an unsatisfying, unjust conclusion to a painful, tragic, agonizing episode in Nunavut’s history.
It won’t bring much comfort to the people who say they were sexually abused by Rivoire, but last week, he was brought to justice at last, where, according to his beliefs, the sentence for unabsolved sins is eternal.
So when are the Inuit abusers who are so rampant in arctic communities going to confess and go face justice? You know, the ones that are still abusing kids, who nobody confronts as it would be too uncomfortable?
People are really going to miss Rivoire. It was so nice to be able to focus on the bad outsider who took advantage of kids; kids who had been already groomed to accept abuse, since they were already so familiar with that treatment from their home and community that they didn’t expect anything different from the priest.
“kids who had been already groomed to accept abuse”
Oh really? How do you know this?
Yes there is a lot of sexual abuse in the north. Yet, Marius tungilik came from a loving family, mother and father who loved him dearly. He was not sexually abused by family before he was sent to Chesterfiel Inlet residential School at the Age of 5. I find it very offensive that you insinuate that all children sexually abused by clergy were previously sexually abused and groomed. At home, yes some probably like all cultures around the world since time began for humans were ;but definately not all. He was sexually abused in Chester by brother parent And certain nuns like just about all boys who attended there were. So by the time he was a young teenager yes he was groomed by then to be further abused by Rivoire. Children are not born pedophiles, it is a learned behavior. Not all sexually abused children become pedophiles but a certain percentage do. So the church pedophiles certainly contributed to the problem.
Thanks for writing this interesting piece. I don’t think it belongs under the Justice heading though. Maybe fantasy fiction?
“last week, [Rivoire] was brought to justice at last”
Here’s a question I might expect a journalist to ask: “How can you be so sure, Corey?”
So, did NN find out the answer? Or is that for part 2? Did rivoire confess of his sins? I’m sure he did NN. But, I wanna know if you got the answer.
Human justice is fraught with lots of rules that make prosecutions so difficult. For instance, the residential schools abusers prosecutions are difficult because often the children could not identify the priest or the nun who abused them since they had different names than their civil names and at time it was difficult to recoup who exactly they were and the victims could not identify the individual who assaulted them. Another hurdle was that these crimes occurred years ago and the criminals had since died and in our legal system a dead person cannot be prosecuted.
In terms of extradition while it is true that France, like many other countries, does not extradite its own citizens it is because their courts have international jurisdiction and the person can be prosecuted in France for these crimes. However, like most European systems, there are time limitations for prosecutions of crimes and in the Rivoire case, these crimes were time limited under French law, so no prosecution was possible there. As well, Canada would extradite people only if the receiving state can demonstrate that a crime that exists in Canada was committee abroad, including whether the crime is barred from prosecution because of time limitation here in Canada which is often the case for summary conviction offences where prosecutions must be initiated within 6 months or 2 years after the crime was committed.
Yet, the fact that Rivoire refused to face his accusers is strong evidence of his guilt since if he had faith in his God he could be confident he would have been exonerated if he wasn’t guilty. This also confirms the victims are / were telling the truth.
“Religion is the opiate of the masses.”
(Marx or Lenin)?
Glad I don’t go to church.
Religion = Cult, and religion thinks their way of life, their belief system is better than the next and want to convert you to their side or you end up in their hell.
End of story.