WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Voice
In a seven-section outline dealing with some 56 news articles, scanning a thirty-year time span. The complete public accounting of the attempt of two clergy sexual abuse victims Mr. Gary M. Melanson and Mr. Dana Vyska, to ascertain justice in Worcester can be told in the Rev. Joseph Fredette case.
The road to justice for the victims of Rev. Joseph Fredette was initiated by a phone call into the Worcester Telegram and Gazette in 1992.
Telegram and Gazette received word of the outstanding warrant against Rev. Fredette and Kathy Shaw and George Griffin actively pursued the story based on the stories that began appearing in the newspaper August 1, 1992, the first story ran on FREDETTE IN RURAL RETREAT \ PRIEST SAID TO BE IN NEW BRUNSWICK. the story read He has been considered a fugitive from justice since he left Worcester in 1974 and headed first to the Pope John XXIII Retreat in Cassadaga, N.Y., then to the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart outside Sherbrooke, Quebec..
Constable Jean Gosselin of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Moncton, New Brunswick, whose jurisdiction covers Jailletville, said his office would investigate. According to these articles, Ms Shaw went to Canada to investigate and to locate Rev. Fredette. Immediately the Canada authorities visited Rev. Fredette to check the circumstances of why he was there. Rev. Fredette had been living in the same location without fear of pursuit for some twenty years.
Posted by kshaw at January 24, 2005 07:17 AM