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	Matano Deposition Offers Insight on His Thinking on Paquette Scandal By Sam Hemingway Free Press December 14, 2008 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20081214/NEWS02/812140309 [See also more coverage of the trial in the Free Press with more articles by Hemingway.] Salvatore Matano was a 26-year-old assistant pastor at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Johnston, R.I., in 1972 when the Rev. Edward Paquette was hired to work as a parish priest in Vermont. It's likely he'd never heard of Paquette back then. Now, as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, there may be times when Matano wishes he'd still never heard of Paquette. Matano, appointed bishop three years ago, has the difficult task of presiding over the diocese as it works to resolve 28 lawsuits brought by former altar boys who say they were sexually abused by priests in Vermont, including 19 molested by Paquette in the mid-1970s. Last week, Matano spoke for the first time about Paquette and the decisions made by former Bishop John Marshall to bring Paquette to Vermont in 1972 and to banish him from priestly duties six years later. Matano's remarks, contained in an hour-long Oct. 2 deposition, were shown to the jury last week during the latest Paquette molestation trial being conducted at Chittenden Superior Court. The deposition, a sworn interview with lawyers in the case, revealed the moral struggle facing Matano as he confronts the Paquette scandal. In one instance, for example, Matano told attorney Jerome O'Neill that "one time is one too many" when it came to the number of molestation incidents that have to occur before the perpetrator faces punishment, including the loss of his job if a priest. Moments later, Matano tries to reconcile how Marshall continued to employ Paquette after learning he had abused two young men in Rutland. Marshall had hired Paquette in 1972 despite knowledge that Paquette had molested altar boys in Indiana and Massachusetts. "I'm not denying what we have here is a very serious crime," he said. "I'm saying how it was handled then and now is different. And the way society was dealing with the situation and the knowledge society has now is very different." At one point in the deposition, Matano said that Marshall's decision to retain Paquette was a mistake. "Based on the information given, the circumstances, I think the action he took as time unfolded was wrong," Matano said. But Matano also said Marshall deserved credit for finally terminating Paquette's priestly duties. Matano said Marshall was committed to salvaging Paquette's career after the bishop of the Indiana diocese where Paquette had been employed "begged" Marshall to give Paquette a chance in Vermont. "When he was in Fall River (Mass.), yes it is true they dismissed him, but he was still able to go to Fort Wayne-South Bend and he functioned there," Matano said. "It's only when he's here that he finally loses his faculties to ever function as a priest ... That took place at this diocese. That's where it occurred." Matano agreed with O'Neill that Marshall or any bishop has the right to terminate a priest from a parish at any time. Nevertheless, he said the relationship between a bishop and a priest is not like any other employer-employee bond. "The relationship a priest has with a bishop is sacramental," he said. "The priest is an ordained minister who has received the sacrament of Holy Orders. That sacrament remains with him until he dies, whether his faculties are taken away, whether he returns to the lay state, he always remains a priest." Matano likened the relationship to the "until death do we part" bond between a husband and wife, or that of a child to a parent." Pressed by O'Neill to explain how Marshall could employ someone who had engaged in multiple "crimes" of child molestation, Matano said the blame lay with the church psychologists who advised Marshall that Paquette's sexual deviancy could be cured. "Why didn't any of these doctors ... write back and say this man is hopeless?" Matano asked rhetorically. The trial resumes Monday. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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