AUGUSTA -- A push to rename the city's Father John J. Curran Bridge gained momentum Monday night, as city councilors unanimously backed a resolution urging legislators to rename the downtown bridge.

The issue could next see life in the state Capitol, where legislators have the power to authorize a name change for the bridge.

The Augusta Council's endorsement of the resolution Monday night followed an emotion-filled discussion in the council chambers in which an alleged survivor of sexual abuse by the Rev. John Curran urged councilors to call for removing the late priest's name from the bridge. The discussion also featured a handful of residents who fondly recalled Curran as a priest who worked tirelessly for his community.

Curran, who died in 1976, served as priest at Augusta's St. Augustine Church from 1962 to 1972.

Since his death, at least three claims that he sexually abused children have surfaced. If Curran were alive today, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland officials have said they would bar him from ministering and request the Vatican remove him from the priesthood.

Robert Dupuis told councilors of suffering sexual abuse by Curran in 1961, when he was a 12-year-old altar server in Old Town.

"As a result of his abuse, I lived a life of distrust and insecurity," said Dupuis, now of East Lyme, Conn. "He took from me my spirit, my trust in humanity and he broke my heart."

Dupuis showed councilors a photograph of Curran that hung in the former St. Joseph Parish in Old Town until he requested it and other Curran remnants be removed from the church.

"If you look into his eyes, you can see and almost feel his deceit," Dupuis said.

But Lorraine Gilbert, of Augusta, told the council she and her brothers, who were altar servers at St. Augustine, knew a different Curran.

"Not once did they ever witness or were they ever approached by Father John J. Curran," she said of her brothers.

She urged councilors to more carefully consider Curran's contributions to the Augusta community before calling for a name change.

"There's been a lot done for the French community by Father Curran," Gilbert said. "He's done a lot for us."

St. Augustine member Gerard Rouleau said the allegations against the late priest saddened him.

"We loved him as a priest," he said. "We never heard anything against him."

But for Dupuis, Curran's alleged sexual abuse of children outweigh the contributions he made to the communities he served.

"The good is blemished by the harm he inflicted on me and the many helpless children he abused," he said.

Before approving it, councilors added two clauses to the resolution calling children's safety "one of the most important tasks of our society" and recognizing the "trauma and anguish" sexual abuse victims have suffered.

"It is the moral duty to protect our children from the harms of abuse," Dupuis said.

Rep. Patsy Crockett, D-Augusta, said she filed a bill that would rename the bridge in May and expects the issue to resurface when a new Legislature meets in January.

"I think now is the time to deal with it and put it behind us," she said Monday.

The Augusta Council's resolution follows approximately two months of successive events that have provided the name change's proponents with more momentum.

Bishop Joseph Malone of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland last week came out in support of the councilors' recommendation to change the bridge name. Le Club Calumet President Patrick Boucher also favored the resolution.

The councilors' action follows recent decisions by two Augusta institutions to rename scholarships they offered in Curran's name.

University of Maine at Augusta officials in June changed the name of its Curran Scholarship to the Leadership and Service Scholarship just weeks after advocates for victims of sexual abuse by clergy began pressing the university to make the change.

Trustees of the Augusta-based Calumet Educational and Literary Foundation decided at a June meeting to merge their Curran Scholarship for college-bound high school seniors with another foundation scholarship and name it the St. Michael Parish Scholarship.

Foundation President Jan Michaud has repeatedly said the name change is not related to allegations linking Curran to sexual abuse of children.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com