BishopAccountability.org
	A Scandal Deferred Rutland Herald [Vermont] April 28, 2006 http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060428/NEWS/604280319/1038 An extraordinary series of letters has come to light in the sexual abuse case against a former priest, revealing the failure of the Catholic clergy in Vermont to face squarely the crimes committed and the damage inflicted by one of their number. The Rev. Edward Paquette served as a priest in Rutland, Montpelier, and Burlington after serving in Massachusetts and Indiana during the 1960s and 1970s. In each place he was found to have sexually abused boys, and the church responded by sending him to treatment programs and providing him with the pastoral counseling it believed would help him keep his abusive behavior under control. In the end Bishop John Marshall of the diocese of Burlington was forced to dismiss him. The Paquette story mirrors many of the abuse cases that have come to light in recent years, most famously in the Boston area. It involves a priest given to criminal exploitation of children and a church shifting him from church to church in the hope of averting scandal. Church leaders were far from oblivious to the damage that Paquette was doing. In a letter to Christ the King Church in Burlington, written in 1978, Marshall wrote: "As I am sure that you understand the tension that can sometimes develop between the concern that we should have for one of God's chosen priests and the equally great concern that we should have for the spiritual welfare of His people can be great indeed and not easily resolved." Concern for Paquette manifested itself in the treatment he received and the bishop's willingness to give him another chance. It was a concern growing out of faith in the grace of penance and forgiveness and a belief in a person's ability to grow. But the church clearly was concerned about itself as well. In one letter, Marshall explained that he meant to keep Paquette at Christ the King in the belief that fear of exposure would keep Paquette from offending again. But Marshall was also mindful of the possibility of scandal. "Do you think the danger of scandal is already too risky?" he wrote. In a later memo Marshall acknowledged that it was no longer possible to "keep the lid on things at Christ the King." Times have changed. Public awareness of child sexual abuse and the long-term damage it does have made society less willing to give abusers a second chance. The balance between looking after the priest and looking after his potential victims has shifted dramatically against the criminal priests. Today, any abusive priest, like any teacher or other adult entrusted with the welfare of children, must stand accountable before the law. The efforts in the diocese of Boston to protect the church from scandal have been widely denounced as shameful. Now we see that the diocese of Burlington was engaged in the same pattern of self-protective behavior. But heightened social awareness of child sexual abuse has changed public attitudes. We no longer countenance abuse by people in authority. We are all fallible beings, but the church has learned it exists in the secular world, too, and can no longer provide haven for criminals. It has been a difficult and necessary lesson.
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