BishopAccountability.org
	Subject: Catholic Bishop Did Not Do Everything Possible By Ed Friedl National Survivor Support Working Group May 22, 2008 http://www.snap-greatplains.org/My_Homepage_Files/Page5.html "A sad and tragic moment in our history" so claims Vermont Bishop Salvatore Matano, referring to the recent $8.7 million jury award in a priest abuse case. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080514/NEWS01/80513037 But how much did Bishop Matano contribute to this sad history? — Instead of sitting down as a good pastor with the 40-year-old victim of childhood abuse by a priest, the Rev. Edward Paquette, who, it is alleged, fondled the victim from 40 to 100 times between 1976 and 1978. In this case, like 18 others alleging similar claims about Paquette, the victim's lawyer contended the diocese was to blame because it hired Paquette in 1972 despite knowing that he had molested altar boys at parishes in Indiana and Massachusetts, and then kept him on duty after he sexually abused youths in Rutland in 1974. — Rather than sitting down and listening to the victims, and aiding them in their recovery, Bishop Matano chose to hunker down and take the advice of his high-priced attorneys - high priced for "a small rural diocese" to use his words — and allow years to pass before legal action could take place. The marginalized and forgotten victims only seek to have acknowledgement of their soul-destruction at the hands of clergymen, the release of the documents of the perpetrators and the perpetrators' location, both now and in the past, and payment of the expenses of the survivors for their healing, no matter how long it lasts. Bishop Matano, you say: "I do not want in any way to inflict suffering or pain upon the faithful." What about the suffering and pain of the victims? Are they not the least among us. Don't the gospels with high priority call all of us to tend to them? It seems you and many of your brother bishops have conveniently forgotten this core gospel principle. It seems that monetary pain of the bishop is of greater importance than the murder of young innocent souls. Bishop Matano where are your pastoral principles? While in the United States last month Pope Benedict XVI said to you and all the bishops of the United States: "Catholics have a duty to do everything possible to heal the wounds." Bishop Matano, you are a Catholic who is also included in this papal admonition. Is power and money your only concern? Lastly you had only one to two weeks of mental aguish during this trial; whereas those who were abused, raped, and sodomized by priests have a lifetime of mental aguish - blaming themselves, their faith, and their God for their physical and mental destruction. Please, Bishop Matano, start the "healing" that our Holy Father cries out for; sit down with the abused eighteen remaining individuals still suing the Diocese of Burlington, compensate them, and sincerely apologize to them and to the parishioners of every parish where abuse, rape, and sodomy took place.. Ask that others who have been abused, raped, and sodomized to step forward to hear your healing words. ...'Catholics have a duty to do everything possible to heal the wounds'... Pope Benedict XVI National Survivor Support Working Group Contact Information Kristine Ward, Chair, Ohio 937-272-0308 Fr. Bob Hoatson, New Jersey 862-368-2800 Michael Sweatt, Maine 207 831 3791 Steve Sheehan, Massachusetts 617-319-0477 James Jenkins, California 510-599-5173 Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota 952-471-3422 Tom Byrnes, Ohio 216-295-0817 Mary Parker, Oklahoma 918-749-6935 Lisa Kendzior, Texas 817-773-5907 Chuck Miller, Delaware 302-234-1519 Ed Friedl, Ohio 330-499-6842 Marjorie Bean, Massachusetts 781-648-4646 Frank Douglas, Arizona 520-404-2489 Mike Coode, Tennessee 615-364-2334
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