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	Bishop Apologizes after Being Scolded The Associated Press, carried in Bennington Banner [Vermont] May 22, 2006 http://www.benningtonbanner.com/localnews/ci_3851248 BURLINGTON (AP) — A South Burlington man who was abused by a Catholic priest as a boy is harshly criticizing a comment by Bishop Salvatore Matano, who said victims' lawsuits are an "unbridled, unjust and terribly unreasonable assault" on the church. "Those were just horrible words," said Michael Gay, 38, in response to the comments by the head of the Catholic Diocese for Vermont. "How does anyone dare to say it was us, the victims, who assaulted them? "How dare they do what they did to all of us kids and now they are trying to push us all back in a corner?" he asked. "That was a slap in our faces." Gay, who settled his suit against the diocese last month for $965,000, also said he was angry about court papers filed by the church's lawyers last week that brought up information about Gay's sexual history and marital issues. The diocese was seeking to have the judge in that case, Ben Joseph, removed from future cases involving sexual abuse by priests. Told of Gay's comments, Matano said he was very sorry if his comments had hurt Gay or other victims of sexual abuse by priests. He said that applied as well to the 19 who have filed suit against the diocese in Chittenden Superior Court. Matano would not comment on the church's court filing of last week. "I have the greatest sympathy and sorrow for those who have suffered at the hands of those they trusted the most," the bishop said. "There is not a day when I am not personally tortured by the tragic events of the past." The bishop's comment about the "unreasonable assault" came in a letter in which he said the diocese's 128 parishes would be placed in individual charitable trusts, to protect them from future settlements in abuse cases. Matano said he was speaking of his frustrations with the legal system, not about the victims themselves. Gay served as an alter boy in the 1970s at Christ the King Church in Burlington, where he was abused by now-retired priest Edward Paquette. He said he tried for years to kill the emotional pain with alcohol, an addiction from which he is now in recovery. "I don't like who I am because I was abused," he said. "The person I could have been we will never know. I'm doing the best I can. But I know I look at life differently. I can't look at it the way I want to look at it."
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