VERMONT
Burlington Free Press
Published: Sunday, April 30, 2006
What follows is a summary of how Bishop John Marshall confronted various claims of priest sexual misconduct during his 21-year tenure as leader of the state's Roman Catholic diocese, and what happened afterward. Information was collected from court documents and interviews conducted by the Free Press:
In 1974, after being informed by the Rutland parish priest that the Rev. Ed. Paquette had molested "two young men" at the Rutland hospital while performing a Communion ritual, Marshall transferred Paquette to a Montpelier parish, and later to a Burlington parochial school parish.
Paquette is now believed to have molested altar boys at all three locations. Nine of the 11 cases filed against the diocese by his alleged victims were filed by former altar boys in Burlington. The other two were filed by former altar boys at St. Augustine Church in Montpelier when Paquette was a priest there. One of the alleged victims, identified only as "John Doe," claims he was molested between 30 and 50 times by Paquette.
Posted by kshaw at April 30, 2006 06:59 AM