Rev. John Lessard, Archambault's long-time friend, said the late priest was"a victim of terrible bullying all his life."
July 12, 2011 - Northampton - Republican staff photo by Michael S. Gordon - The casket bearing the Rev. Paul Archambault is escorted out of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish Church by Hampden Police officers Tuesday, as priests of the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese, Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell and Knights of Columbus look on following funeral services. NORTHAMPTON – His fellow clergymen remembered the Rev. Paul Archambault Tuesday as a “wounded healer” who ardently performed his work as a priest despite a long-time clinical depression brought on by bullying.
Archambault, 42, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head on July 3, shortly after comforting a family in the emergency department of Baystate Medical Center, where he served as chaplain. Friends and family of the Northampton native packed his funeral at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church on King Street, along with some 50 priests and deacons and a color guard from the Knights of Columbus. Members of the Hampden Police Department, where Archambault also served as chaplain, carried his casket out of the church and into the hearse.
In his eulogy, the Rev. John Lessard, a former pastor of Our Lady of Guadeloupe Parish in Holyoke and Archambault’s long-time friend, said the late priest was “a victim of terrible bullying all his life.”
“He never fit in,” said Lessard, who heard Archambault’s confessions as well as having long personal talks with him. “Paul had come to believe the lie that he was not accepted because he was unacceptable.”
Nonetheless, Lessard said, Archambault was “wounded healer” who gave comfort to others despite his depression.
“What you saw of Father Paul was absolutely real,” Lessard said. “It was as real as it gets.”