Former Priest, Westfield Resident, Tied to Clergy Allegations Set for Trial in Vermont

By Stephanie Barry
The Republican
January 5, 2013

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/former_priest_westfield_reside.html

The Rev. Edward O. Paquette Jr. walks down the driveway of his Westfield home Thursday in 2005.

BURLINGTON, Vt. - The state's Roman Catholic Diocese will be forced to defend itself against allegations it hired a priest it knew had a history of child molestation in an upcoming trial in federal court.

The accusations surround a defrocked priest, Edward Paquette, 84, now living in Westfield, Mass., whom the complainant said sexually abused him when he was 12-year-old altar boy in 1974, according to the Burlington Free Press. The case is set to begin Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

The suit states the abuse occurred at Christ the King Church in Rutland, and that the diocese hired Paquette in 1972 knowing he had previously molested parishioners in Indiana and eastern Massachusetts. The diocese counters that officials believed Paquette had been cured of his problem.

In 2010, the Vermont diocese agreed to pay nearly $18 million to dozens of former altar boys who said they had been abused by members of the clergy. Most of the complainants named Paquette as their abuser.

Paquette is not named in the lawsuit. He was barred from the diocese in 1978 and banished from the priesthood in 2009, according to Mark E. Dupont, spokesman for the Springfield, Mass., Roman Catholic Diocese.

Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday and opening statements are expected on Wednesday.