Diocese to Sell Headquarters Camp to Pay Sex Judgments, WPTZ, February 3, 2010

Diocese to Sell Headquarters; Camp to Pay Sex Judgments

WPTZ
February 3, 2010

http://www.wptz.com/mostpopular/22420079/detail.html

[with video]

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese is planning to sell its Burlington headquarters and a Lake Champlain children's camp to help pay monetary settlements with victims of priest sexual abuse.

Diocese Attorney Tom McCormick said the church is ready to relocate its offices as a way to put the sex abuse cases in the past.

"We very much want to settle these cases.," McCormick said. "The litigation has gone on too long for the victims, the victim's families, for people in the pews, for the good priests. It's time for everyone to settle these cases."

John Evers, attorney for the plaintiffs, is not surprised the Diocese wants to settle. "This is not the first we've heard that the Diocese wants to settle. The plaintiffs have always been open to those kinds of negotiations," he said.

There are currently 25 priest sex abuses cases pending and the diocese just reached an out-of-court settlement against a man who had been awarded $8.75 million by a jury. The diocese headquarters is worth about $11 Million, according to Diocese officials.

The diocese's headquarters are currently located in a North Avenue building that's on a 30-acre lot that overlooks Lake Champlain. The 26-acre Camp Holy Cross fronts on Mallets Bay in Colchester.

Meanwhile, a judge has ordered that 18 pending priest sex abuse cases against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vermont be tried together.

Vermont Superior Court Judge Helen Toor ruled Monday that the cases against defrocked Roman Catholic priest Edward Paquette would be combined to save time.

A majority of the cases involve former altar boys at Christ the King Church in Burlington who say they were molested by Paquette more than 30 years ago.