Bishop Richard J. Malone was installed March 31, 2004, as the eleventh bishop of the diocese. On May 29, 2012, Malone became bishop of Buffalo, New York. Subsequently, Pope Francis named him as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Portland pending selection of his successor. On December 18, 2013, Pope Francis appointed Robert Deeley, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston as twelfth Bishop of Portland. His installation took place on February 14, 2014.
Sex abuse
In 1998, nine male alumni said that they had been molested while attending the Jesuit Cheverus High School in Portland. Two former faculty members, Jesuit priest and teacher James Talbot and teacher and coach Charles Malia, were accused. The school, located in Portland, Maine, confirmed the abuse and apologized to the victims. The victims also accused both Cheverus High School and the Portland Diocese of hiding information, and that they had previously known about the abuse. Settlements to victims have reached a cumulative seven figures, with ongoing counseling additional. Talbot, who was the former chair of the English Department, and Malia, the former head of the Track Team, admitted they are guilty. Both teachers lost their jobs at Cheverus in 1998. Before public accusations surfaced that he committed sex abuse at Boston College High School, James Talbot had been accused of molesting a student at Cheverus. On September 24, 2018, Talbot pled guilty to the sex abuse charges in Maine and immediately began serving two concurrent three year prison sentences. By the time Talbot was implicated in the Archdiocese of Boston's infamous Spotlight scandal in 2002, the amount of settlements which the Diocese of Portland had given to Cheverus victims had reached a cumulative seven figures, with additional counseling still ongoing. In 2016, the Diocese of Portland settled six additional sex abuse lawsuits not related to Cheveras for an estimated $1.2 million. By January 2019, the Society of Jesus' Northeast Province in the United States had acknowledged seven accused Jesuit clergy taught at Cheverus. In August 2019, the Diocese launched an abuse reporting system. Ronald Paquin, a laicized Boston priest who served time for the Spotlight abuses, received a 16 year prison sentence in May 2019 after being convicted in November 2018 of 11 counts of sexual abuse he inflicted on an altar boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s. On April 23, 2020, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld 10 of Paquin's 11 convictions, with only one charge being vacated. It was also ruled that two of the 10 charges which were upheld also accounted for two other charges he was convicted of as well, thus making them offset, but also saw some of his serious charges upheld.
Parishes
The Diocese is currently divided into 30 Clusters/Parishes.
Notable churches
Cathedral
The Diocese's cathedral is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland.
Basilica
The Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul is located in Lewiston. The parish traces its roots to 1872 and grew due to a wave of late 19th century immigration by French Canadians. Construction of the current church began in 1906 and continued until 1936, by which time it was the second largest church in New England. Construction languished because the diocese split the parish in 1905 and 1923 and the new congregations took a portion of the parish treasury to establish and construct their own churches. In 1983, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2004, Pope Benedict XVI named the church a minor basilica.
Historic places
is located in Bangor, Maine. John Bapst oversaw construction of the church beginning in 1855, and in 1973 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
On January 6, 2000, the Associated Press reported that the Diocese of Portland had negotiated with and supported a Maine lawmakers' bill that barred discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; this bill aimed to overcome the results of the Maine election in February 1998 that repealed the gay marriage law that Maine GovernorAngus Kingsigned into law. The Diocese did not have a position on the February 1998 vote, citing ambiguities in the law while acknowledging discrimination as unjust. In November 2009 it was reported that the Diocese of Portland had contributed $550,000, or 20% of the total cash contributed to Stand For Marriage Maine, a successful campaign to prevent then-impending legalization of same-sex marriage in Maine. Roughly 55% of the funds donated by the Diocese came from other out-of-state dioceses who donated money to the Diocese of Portland's PAC.
