Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Monsignor: No background check done on accused priest's Massachusetts misdeeds

Opening arguments were presented this morning in Chittenden County Superior Court in the latest priest-abuse trial.

The trial revolves around a former Burlington altar boy's claims that former Rev. Edward Paquette fondled him repeatedly during the late 1970s.

The Burlington Free Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual crimes without their consent.

The case is the second of the 32 priest-abuse lawsuits filed against former priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vermont in Chittenden County Superior Court since 2002 to reach trial. Five others were settled out of court.

Of the 32 suits, 19 involve claims that Paquette molested altar boys during a six-year stint as a parish priest in Rutland, Montpelier and Burlington.

Jerome O'Neill, attorney for the plaintiff, stated in opening arguments today that five Catholic dioceses in three states looked at Paquette's history of alleged abuse in Massachusetts and Indiana and chose not to hire him prior to Burlington's hiring of the priest.

A monsignor who was a high-ranking official in the state’s diocese when Paquette was hired in 1972 said he had no idea Paquette had molested boys in one of two other dioceses before coming to Vermont.

“Not to my knowledge,” Monsignor John McSweeney told the jury of eight men and four women. McSweeney, now 77, served as the Vermont diocese’s chancellor under then Bishop John Marshall when Paquette was hired and said he helped do the background check on Paquette prior to the hiring.

Later, McSweeney was shown diocesan letters addressed to him describing how Paquette had molested youths in the Fall River, Mass., diocese in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He conceded no background check was done to find out more about what happened in Massachusetts.

The diocese did review similar misconduct by Paquette at an Indiana diocese but decided to hire him after concluded he had been successfully treated for issues that doctors said caused him to engage in “immoral conduct” with boys.
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