Bishop Salvatore Matano told the jury it was wrong for the state's Roman Catholic diocese to hire the Rev. Edward Paquette, the priest who molested a number of altar boys at a Burlington church in the 1970s."The decision that was made would not have been my decision," Matano said under questioning by Jerome O'Neill, a lawyer representing a former altar boy who has said Paquette fondled him between 20 and 25 times at Christ the King Church.The Free Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent.
Church records show Paquette molested altar boys in three states, including Vermont, prior to being assigned to the Burlington church in 1976.
The trial is the fourth involving alleged Paquette victims who were altar boys in Burlington.
Diocesan lawyers do not dispute the abuse occurred, but allege the diocese relied on the advise of psychiatrists and counselors who believed Paquette was cured of his sexual deviancy.
"He put children at risk," Matano acknowledged at one point in an emotional exchange with O'Neill. "What was in the mind of Bishop (John) Marshall, I simply don't know."
Marshall was bishop of the Vermont diocese at the time Paquette was hired. Marshall died in 1994.
Paquette, who was suspended from the diocese in 1978 after parents at the Burlington church complained he was molesting their sons, is retired and lives in Westfield, Mass. Paquette is not a defendant in the case.
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