BishopAccountability.org
	Vermont Diocese Settles Suit By Bill Zajac wzajac@repub.com The Republican [Vermont] April 25, 2006 http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf? /base/news-3/1145951239257540.xml&coll=1 The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vt., settled the first of 12 suits alleging abuse by a Westfield resident, the Rev. Edward O. Paquette Jr., for $965,000 - the largest single clergy abuse settlement in Vermont, according to the plaintiff's lawyer. "This is not the strongest case. We are presenting the cases in the chronological order in which the suits were filed," said the plaintiff's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill of O'Neill Kellner and Green of Burlington. Michael Gay of South Burlington was awarded the settlement for the abuse he alleges occurred at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the 1970s when Gay was an altar boy, according to court records and O'Neill. Diocesan lawyer David Cleary could not be reached for comment yesterday, but confirmed to The Burlington Free Press and other Vermont media last week that the settlement was reached Wednesday. Paquette, who still lives in Westfield, was severed as a co-defendant in the suit during settlement, O'Neill said. The lawyer said he has no intention of pursuing personal damages against Paquette in Massachusetts on any of the suits. Paquette, who lives on Belleview Drive, could not be reached for comment. The Westfield native was accused of sexually abusing minors in the dioceses of Fall River, Mass., and Fort Worth-South Bend, Ind., before receiving several parish assignments in the Diocese of Burlington, according to court records and statements by those dioceses. Although he never officially worked in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, he occasionally participated in religious services in Greater Springfield. O'Neill said compelling evidence against the diocese, including documents that indicate that Bishop John A. Marshall had tried to keep the abuse away from the public, helped his client's case. Marshall served as bishop in the Springfield diocese in the early 1990s before his death. Officials of the Diocese of Burlington were aware of previous allegations of abuse against Paquette when assigning him to parishes in Vermont, according to court records shared by O'Neill. Paquette was previously accused of abuse while serving in a Montpelier parish. In a summary for Marshall, Paquette's last pastor in Vermont wrote, "They (parents of victims) felt their pastor and their bishop had known all along of the Montpelier situation and (name redacted) could not understand why Father Paquette was put in charge of altar boys and had assignments with young people." Court documents included dozens of letters between diocesan officials in the three dioceses Paquette served and doctors regarding "medical treatment" Paquette received for his "problem," which is the way Paquette described his previous sexual abuse to Marshall when he was looking for an assignment there in 1972. Paquette was removed from his assignment in Vermont in 1978. In a letter to Marshall in 1974, the Rev. Dr. Thomas A. Kane of the House of Affirmation Inc., wrote, "The compulsivities in regard to immature sexual behavior is a constituency of this (frustration) neurosis. ... There is no reason why with maintenance therapy that Father Paquette cannot perform in his ministry ..."
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