Reverend Claude R. Gendreau

The Reverend Claude R. Gendreau currently serves in the Diocesan Tribunal as an Ecclesiastical Notary handling marriage cases. Father Gendreau often assists in the Portland Peninsula & Island Parishes with weekday and weekend Masses. He most recently served as Rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and priest serving the Portland Peninsula & Island Parishes.
 
He was born in Grand Isle in 1955 to Hervy Gendreau and Lorraine Nadeau. Father Gendreau, along with his sister and brother, was raised in a French speaking home in Madawaska and attended both St. David and St. Thomas Aquinas Churches and graduated from Madawaska High School in 1973. Upon graduation he worked as a baker, and in the retail industry until 1975 when he began to work for Fraser Paper Limited where he held various office positions. He was also a member of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (O.P.E.I.U.), where he served as shop steward, vice-president, and treasurer of his local. While at the paper mill, he continued to work part-time for local retail stores and through it all built his own home.
 
It is during this time that he felt a greater urge to discern a call to priesthood. Having played long enough a tug-of-war with God, he met with diocesan officials and after much discernment, in 1987 he resigned his position in cost accounting at the paper mill, sold his home, and entered St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. Father Gendreau received a B.A. in Religious Studies in 1992 and was ordained a priest on May 29, 1993 at St. David Church in Madawaska by Bishop Joseph J. Gerry, O.S.B.
 
Since his ordination, Father Gendreau has served as parochial vicar in Fort Kent and Waterville, as pastor in St. John, St. Francis, Allagash, Frenchville, St. Agatha, Sinclair, Fort Kent, administrator in Lewiston, and Rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He has also served on the Diocesan Presbyteral Council, and is currently serving on the Priest Personnel Board and Clergy Benefit Board/Board of Incorporators.