TORONTO (AP) — Joannes Rivoire, a French priest accused of sexually abusing Inuit children while serving in the mission in their Canadian Arctic community, has died after a long illness, officials said Friday .
The Oblates of Lacombe Canada and the Oblate Province of France said Rivoire, who was 90, died Thursday. He had lived for years in a retirement home in Lyon, France.
An Inuit community in northern Canada has long sought help from the Vatican to secure Rivoire’s extradition. He exercised his ministry with Inuit communities until his departure in the 1990s and his return to France. Canadian authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 1998 on several counts of sexual abuse.
The Rev. Ken Thorson of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Lacombe Canada said in an email that the death could be difficult news for those who have advocated for the priest to be brought to justice in Canada.
“We sincerely regret this,” Thorson wrote. “Rivoire never made himself available and will never face the charges against him. We further regret that efforts to have him formally removed from his priestly duties have failed.
Rivoire arrived in Canada in 1959. He remained in the North until January 1993, when he told his superiors that he had to return to France to care for his elderly parents.
That same month, four people went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the northern territory of Nunavut to accuse Rivoire of sexual assault.
An arrest warrant was issued in 1998 for Rivoire to return to Canada to face at least three sexual abuse charges. The charges were not pursued.
Another arrest warrant was issued for Rivoire in 2022 for a charge of indecent assault involving a young girl between 1974 and 1979. French authorities refused an extradition request.
Rivoire has denied all allegations against him and none have been proven in court.
Oblates in Canada and France repeatedly urged Rivoire to face the charges, but he refused.
In September 2022, a 10-member Inuit delegation traveled to Lyon, hoping to persuade Rivoire to return with them to Canada to appear in court. But the Oblate priest refused and denied any wrongdoing.
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