BURLINGTON (VT)
VTDigger [Montpelier VT]
September 13, 2024
By Kevin O'Connor
The state’s largest religious denomination, having already paid out more than $30 million in settlements, is the subject of at least 16 more cases alleging sexual misconduct by since-defrocked priests.
Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese, having spent more than $30 million to settle some 40 priest misconduct lawsuits dating as far back as 1950, faces another wave of court cases alleging more past child sexual abuse.
The state’s largest religious denomination is the subject of at least 16 more civil actions, records show. Collectively, they could prove even more costly for the diocese, whose $12.5 million budget for the 2023 fiscal year included more than $1 million for ongoing settlements and $691,000 in legal fees, according to its most recent public financial statement.
“Management cannot reasonably estimate the amount of the liability that may result,” the statement noted about the newest cases. “However, the settlement of these additional lawsuits could have a material impact on (the church’s) financial position, results of operations, and liquidity.”
The first case was expected to be heard this week in Chittenden County Superior Court. It involved the state’s most problematic priest, the since-defrocked former Rev. Edward Paquette, who has sparked more than three dozen civil actions based on his tenure in Burlington, Montpelier and Rutland from 1972 to 1978.
Before Monday’s scheduled start, however, Judge Helen Toor released the jurors and called off the trial. Court records said the proceedings “may be continued” at an unspecified date but offered no other information — an unusual instance, as most hearings are canceled because the parties reach a settlement, which, in this case, lawyers say hasn’t happened.
Asked to respond, church counsel Nicole Andreson said, “The diocese does not have any comment at this time.”
Speaking for the plaintiff, attorney Celeste Laramie simply noted that while she has heard church leaders express regret for the misconduct, “at the same time, the diocese continues to try to avoid liability and protect its assets from survivors of priest abuse,” she said. “When will the diocese practice what it preaches?”
Vermont Catholics first learned of the decades-long sex abuse scandal in 2002, when the state’s attorney general’s office reviewed allegations against 10 then-practicing and 30 past priests. The office didn’t charge anyone because the claims found credible were too old to prosecute under criminal statutes of limitations.
Accusers, however, were free to file civil lawsuits. The diocese spent at least $2 million to end nine of the first cases before reaching a $20 million settlement to cap almost 30 more in 2010 and, three years later, another $6.75 million to resolve what was thought to be a final 12 cases in 2013.
State statutes at the time set a 2012 deadline for filing any related actions. Since then, the Vermont Legislature adopted laws in 2019 and 2021 repealing deadlines for civil claims.
Burlington attorney Jerome O’Neill, who represented a majority of past plaintiffs, died in 2023, but not before receiving more cases. His former colleague Laramie has nine pending, she said, while fellow lawyer John Evers has seven with “probably 3-4 more to come,” he said. Others are reported to be handling at least two other cases, although VTDigger has yet to confirm that.
To pay for past civil actions, the diocese sold its historic 32-acre Burlington headquarters overlooking Lake Champlain for $10 million in 2010 and 26-acre Camp Holy Cross in Colchester for $4 million in 2012.
To protect the rest of their properties, church leaders placed each of their local parishes into separate trusts in 2006 so that the estimated $500 million in collective assets could only be tapped for “pious, charitable or educational purposes” and not jury verdicts, according to the “deed into trust” documents.
That has left the diocese with total assets of $30 million, its 2023 financial statement shows, although only about $10 million of that is categorized as available “without donor restrictions.”
The latest lawsuits come as the diocese has seen its numbers decline from some 150,000 members, 130 parishes and nearly 200 fellow priests when new Vermont Catholic Bishop John McDermott was ordained as a priest in 1989 to nearly one-third fewer members, half as many parishes and only 36 active priests today, its website reports.
“I’ve been dealing with the abuse crisis for now almost 20 years,” McDermott told reporters at a spring press conference announcing his summer promotion. “Seeking just resolutions for those who have been hurt, I think we have an obligation to help them. It’s just a question of how much we can afford.”