Sexual abuse scandal in Burlington diocese

The sexual abuse scandal in Burlington diocese is a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States. The court-documented cases covered abuse in the 1970s. The courts heard these cases from 2005 through 2010. In 2010, 26 cases remaining were settled for $17.6 million.

Records show that John Aloysius Marshall transferred Alfred Willis from a Montpelier parish to another in Milton after charges of sexual abuse surfaced against the priest.

In October 2009, the Associated Press reported that a Vermont jury awarded a former altar boy a record $2.2 million in compensatory damages in a priest sex-abuse case against the Burlington diocese.

Father Edward Paquette was accused in 23 lawsuits of molesting altar boys in Vermont during the 1970s. He abused several children there while Marshall was bishop.

In December 2008, bishop Salvatore Ronald Matano attended a trial in the city of Burlington in order to hear about unresolved clerical abuse affairs of Edward Paquette that occurred within the diocese in the 1970s.

The Vermont Supreme Court issued a ruling called Turner v. Roman Catholic Diocese, which ruled in favor of the plaintiff Turner with Edward Paquette as the accused priest.

During his tenure in Burlington, records show that Kenneth Anthony Angell allowed six accused priests to remain in active ministry within Vermont. He refused to identify them publicly, but then gave their names to the State Attorney General and placed them under suspension. At a news conference in March 2005, Angell described the sexual abuse scandals as the most difficult challenge he faced during his time as bishop.

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