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	Vt. Diocese Faces Another Sex Abuse Trial Case Follows Pope's Call for Healing By Kevin O'Connor Rutland Herald April 27, 2008 http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS04/804270374/1024/NEWS04 Pope Benedict XVI, visiting the United States this month, told Catholic bishops dealing with a clergy sex abuse scandal: "It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged." Vermont Bishop Salvatore Matano, whose diocese faces two dozen priest misconduct lawsuits, is finding that easier said than done. Matano, who returned last week from seeing the pope in New York and Washington, could find himself in Burlington's Chittenden Superior Court next month as the state's largest religious denomination defends itself in the second recent clergy sex abuse case to reach a Vermont jury. "I think the faithful in Vermont realize we still are working toward resolution," Matano says. That's an understatement. The statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, having spent six years and more than $1.57 million to resolve eight cases, still must tackle 24 more lawsuits involving nine past priests. It also faces the possible court disclosure of more incriminating church documents, following the recent revelation of letters that accuse Matano of threatening to sue another diocese to pay for one problematic priest. Latest lawsuit Perry Babel, a 40-year-old Burlington native now of Denver, Colo., is set to appear in court May 5 to allege the diocese was negligent in its hiring and supervision of former priest Edward Paquette. In a civil lawsuit, Babel claims the diocese didn't stop Paquette from repeatedly fondling him 30 years ago when he was an altar boy at Burlington's Christ the King Church. His case is based on personnel records that show the diocese had transferred Paquette to the state's largest city without telling anyone it knew the priest had molested boys in Indiana and Massachusetts and the Vermont cities of Montpelier and Rutland. Babel is just one of 19 Vermonters who have filed lawsuits involving Paquette. When the first reached court two years ago, the diocese settled for a record $965,000. So why, just weeks after the pope's call for healing, are both sides preparing to argue before a jury? Matano says he understands the need for resolution, having sat through a similar trial last year. "That's a painful, painful experience for both sides," the bishop says. "That's really a situation where we should be coming together as one." But the diocese, unable to find a copy of a liability insurance policy it says it held from 1972 to 1978, is fearful of paying too much more in settlements. "I'm obliged to serve all the faithful," Matano says. "I have to seek solutions that are reasonable and charitable for the whole diocesan family." As a result, the diocese is suing its former insurer, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co., in federal court in hopes the company will unearth a copy of the policy and pay for church legal fees and settlement costs. In the meantime, Matano is asking abuse accusers to join him in seeking forgiveness (and, with diocesan lawyers, affordable financial settlements) through mediation. "I've had the opportunity to meet with several victims," the bishop says, "and always found those meetings very encouraging." But Jerome O'Neill, the Burlington lawyer for all the church's 24 current accusers, disagrees. "The diocese in our experience," O'Neill says, "does not mediate in good faith." Neither side will say how much they're seeking to settle for. But the first accuser, ready to take the witness stand in 2006, received the record $965,000, while the most recent plaintiff, not wanting to face the trial spotlight last February, accepted a church offer of $170,000. Both sides have reason to argue the latest lawsuit in court. The diocese knows that in the only Vermont verdict so far, a jury found negligence last December but awarded the plaintiff a seemingly small $15,000 in compensatory damages. Babel and his lawyer, for their part, know a new case will bring a new jury — and a new set of problems for the defense. Private letters Just this winter, O'Neill filed court papers that not only reported Paquette's history of pedophilia but also included an Indiana bishop's accusation that Matano threatened to sue his Midwest diocese to force it to help pay for the $965,000 settlement. According to records, Paquette worked as a priest in Indiana for most of the 1960s before asking the Vermont diocese for an assignment. On March 30, 1972, then Bishop Leo Pursley of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., wrote Vermont's church about the priest's misbehavior: "The dossier is large and the history is long." Noting "three homosexual episodes involving young boys," the Indiana bishop suggested Paquette be assigned to an "institutional chaplaincy" rather than a community church so he could minister "with less likelihood of relapse." But the Vermont diocese placed Paquette in several local parishes where he repeatedly abused children. Three decades later, Matano agreed to the $965,000 settlement in the first case against Paquette — and soon after, in private correspondence, sought reimbursement from his counterpart in Indiana. In a 2006 letter, Matano told current Indiana Bishop John D'Arcy that the Vermont diocese had projected a "negative verdict" of up to $5 million and added the plaintiff "would have been successful had they pursued a claim for damages against your diocese in this matter." As Matano saw it, the Indiana church's 1972 correspondence, although noting the priest's problems in the Midwest, "apparently did not share Father Paquette's history" in a prior assignment in Massachusetts. D'Arcy disagreed. The Indiana bishop wrote Matano that "the media report that you enclosed" confirmed that the Vermont church, according to its own records, knew about Paquette's earlier problems from the start. "I do not see how we are assisted by imputing words or creating lapses of words in the fashion which supports the cause of your diocese," D'Arcy wrote Matano. "I regret deeply and take very seriously your threat to bring this diocese into civil court. I pray that will not occur." Matano since has said he can't comment on such legal matters upon advice of counsel. But O'Neill concluded in court papers that the exchange "illustrates that this diocese to this day seeks to avoid responsibility for its conduct and will resort to falsehoods in order to unjustly push the blame on someone else." Public criticism The incident isn't the first time the Vermont church's talk of reconciliation has run counter to its actions. After the diocese agreed to the $965,000 settlement, it filed unsuccessful motions to bar the judge who presided over the agreement to consider any other of its cases. As part of its argument, church lawyers complained the judge wouldn't let them address the child abuse victim's adult "sexual activity." Last June, in the first and so far only lawsuit to go to trial — Northeast Kingdom native James Turner v. the former Rev. Alfred Willis — church lawyer David Cleary sparked a mistrial when he repeatedly asked the accuser a question banned under a pretrial order. At the retrial late last year, Cleary said "the diocese has clearly conceded that Mr. Turner was abused" but then proceeded to interrogate the plaintiff to the point where the judge questioned the motivation. Shortly after, Cleary's contention that Turner didn't file his lawsuit within Vermont's statutes of limitations sparked an angry statement from the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which chastised the diocese "for being so heartless and vicious in exploiting this legal technicality for their own benefit, even in a case in which the abuse is undisputed." (Cleary won't be representing the diocese in the latest case. Instead, his Rutland law partner Kaveh Shahi will join Burlington attorney Thomas McCormick.) Matano, for his part, drew the ire of the national Survivors Network in 2006 for what he said upon placing Vermont's 124 parishes in charitable trusts: "In such litigious times, it would be a gross act of mismanagement if I did not do everything possible to protect our parishes and the interests of the faithful from unbridled, unjust and terribly unreasonable assault." (The bishop later said he wasn't referring to accusers but to "a legal system that sometimes places us in a position where we can't really reach out in justice to all parties.") The Survivors Network again blasted Matano last August after he spoke about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People but failed to mention that the Vermont diocese was one of the last two in the nation to fully comply, even though it received repeated warnings over five years. And just last week, Matano initially resisted commenting on the pope's words about the national scandal and spoke to this newspaper only after a reporter said a story would be written with or without the bishop's response. The latest trial promises to bring the diocese more public relations headaches. The plaintiff wants to call the Rev. Thomas Doyle — an outspoken national advocate of abuse victims — to the witness stand. "We think his testimony will be effective in communicating how dioceses have handled this crisis and what victims go through," O'Neill says. "Being sexually abused by a priest — someone you trust — is particularly difficult." Vermont's diocese isn't the only one that has wrestled with the problem. The Archdiocese of Boston, with nearly 1,500 alleged victims, has paid out more than $125 million in the past six years — including a 2003 global settlement of $84 million to 541 accusers. The Vermont diocese, uncertain what insurance will cover, hasn't sought a similar group solution. "We've said we'd be happy to do it," O'Neill says for the accusers, "but the diocese said it has no interest." The only thing both sides agree on: All want the issue resolved. "I pray for these victims every, every day," the bishop says. "While some may question that comment, I can tell you that intention is there. Reconciliation is truly necessary. I pray that any barriers are removed." Contact Kevin O'Connor at kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com.
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