Edward Paquette

Father Edward Paquette (born 1928) is a former Catholic priest who was laicized for the numerous clerical child abuse affairs he was involved in within several dioceses of the United States. He was ordained in the year 1957.

Abuse affairs

Abuse in Fall River

Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in Fall River diocese

Father Edward Paquette, who was kicked out of the Diocese of Fall River and stripped of his priestly faculties in 1963 after accusations of "improper behavior" with young boys, only to resurface a year later as a priest in Indiana and then in Vermont.

Abuse in Springfield in Massachusetts

Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in Springfield in Massachusetts diocese

Although he established the Diocesan Misconduct Commission in response to sexual abuse among the clergy, bishop John Aloysius Marshall accepted Rev. Edward Paquette despite the repeated allegations of child molestation against him. Marshall even said that he was "determined to take the risk of leaving [Paquette] in his present assignment" despite "the demands of...irate parents that 'something be done about this.'"

Abuse in Fort Wayne-South Bend

A lawsuit filed in 2006 alleged that Paquette molested boys in Indiana parishes affiliated to the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

Abuse in Rutland Vermont

Paquette was assigned to Christ the King Church in Rutland, by the Vermont diocese, on June 9, 1972.

July 28, 1972 Dan (Danny) Gilman was a 15 year old teenager, broke his neck diving into a swimming pool, and was completely paralyzed after the spinal cord injury to his neck. Rev. Edward Paquette began sexually abusing Dan Gilman in August 1972 during routine hospital visits in the Rutland Hospital. After Dan Gilman was discharged from the Rutland Hospital Rev. Edward Paquette, made routine visits at Dan Gilman's residence. The sex abuses by Paquette were described to Dan as "healing sessions". These sex abuses during these healing sessions escalated with Dan Gilman as Rev. Edward Paquette continued leading Dan to believe the claims that Paquette's healing sessions, and the Lord, will make Dan walk again. These sex abuses continued until October 21,1974 when Paquette was immediately reassigned as described in the letter written Father Engle of Christ The King.

• Engle wrote in a letter Oct. 21, 1974

"Dear Bishop Marshall, I am greatly disappointed and very saddened over the report I received from the hospital that Father Paquette sexually molested two young men while on communion calls in the hospital, As you readily understand, it is imperative that Fr. Paquette be removed from the Rutland area immediately but I do hope he will be able to be reassigned after proper psychiatric treatment."

• January 2, 2014 Dan Gilman wrote The Blue Hole : a memoir.

A story of how faith can blind and how faith can heal. Dan Gilman’s trust in the Church and his strong bond with his staunchly Catholic family lead him to believe a priest’s claim that he will make Dan walk again when he is paralyzed in a 1972 diving accident. The priest, father Edward Paquette, is not a miracle worker, but a pedophile who had been dismissed from numerous churches in Massachusetts and Indiana for molesting young boys.

Abuse in Burlington

Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in Burlington diocese

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

Laicization and retirement

Paquette was later removed from the priesthood several decades later on the order of Pope Benedict XVI. He apologized in 2009 for the crimes he had committed against his victims and their families.