Retired priest who sexually abused children in Guam dies in Minnesota

A retired priest accused in more than 130 sexual abuse lawsuits and who admitted to molesting children on Guam has died in his native Minnesota.

The Archdiocese of Agana said the Rev. Louis Brouillard, 97, who was ordained on Guam in 1948, died Wednesday, according to the Archdiocese of Agana, as reported in the Pacific Daily News.

The archdiocese, in a statement released Friday, said Brouillard's health had been declining in recent months.

The archdiocese did not say where in Minnesota Brouillard lived and died, but recently he had been reported to be living in a senior apartment in Pine City, in east-central Minnesota's Pine County.

Brouillard worked on Guam until 1981 as a parish priest in Mangilao, Chalan Pago, Barrigada, Malojloj and Tumon, and as a teacher at Father Duenas Memorial School.

Brouillard lived more than 30 years on the remote island before being transferred in 1981 to the Duluth Diocese, where he served in three churches even as he reportedly brought teen boys from Guam to live with him.

Today Minnesota is known by many islanders as the place where the accused serial abuser fled.

"Looking back, I realize I crossed the line with some of my actions and relationships with the boys," he wrote in the document, referring to a sex education class he taught. "At the time, I did believe the boys enjoyed the sexual contact."

The Duluth Diocese revoked Brouillard's ability to serve as a priest in 1985. He was never defrocked.

That Brouillard ended up on a tiny tropical island is likely because of a little-known relationship between Minnesota Catholic educators and Guam. Decades ago, it wasn't uncommon for some wealthier students in Guam to attend the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Brouillard apparently met students from Guam while he studied to be a priest at St. Paul Seminary.

He was expelled from St. Paul Seminary and finished seminary in another state, asking Catholic officials in Guam for an assignment.