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Thursday, August 29, 2019
‘Sins of our past’ Church report names 39 priests ‘credibly’ accused of child sex abuse in Vermont By COLIN FLANDERS
More space brings an opportunity to better serve patients, Leffler said, noting the new building will make room for services like mental health providers, dietitians, social workers and wellness coaches that have become a common pillar of the teambased primary care approach. The medical center has also assigned an additional physician and physician’s assistant to the practice, which Leffler said will increase its capacity up to 3,000 patients a year. And the Essex location has long been
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington last week released a report naming 39 priests who dating back to 1950 have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children in Vermont. Five of the accused served in Essex for at least a portion of their careers. A seven-person lay committee wrote the report after months of combing through thousands of clergy personnel files at the request of Bishop Christopher J. Coyne, who at a press conference called the extent of the Church’s sex abuse crisis in Vermont “staggering.” “The victims of these priests are still bearing the wounds of what happened to them,” Coyne said last Thursday, reading from a prepared statement. “Until now, the scope of all of this has been our ‘family secret.’” “If only a list of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor had been released 15 years ago, perhaps we would be farther along our collective path of healing,” he later added. “But for many reasons, this was not able to happen.” The committee, led by former state prosecutor Robert Simpson and Spectrum Youth & Family Services executive director Mark Redmond, found that the statewide diocese allowed abuse allegations to go unreported for decades. In some instances, priests were transferred to other parishes, or sent to treatment before being returned to duty, the committee wrote. The 39 priests named in the report represent 9.3 percent of the 419 or so
See PRIMARY CARE, page 15
See REPORT, page 5
PHOTO BY COLIN FLANDERS
Selectboard chairwoman Elaine Haney, left, joins officials from the University of Vermont Medical Center for a ground-breaking ceremony marking the start of construction on a new primary care facility along Route 15.
UVMMC ‘breaks ground’ on Essex Primary Care project By COLIN FLANDERS Officials from the University of Vermont Medical Center and the town of Essex threw on hard hats and moved around a bit of dirt last week to celebrate breaking ground on a new primary care facility along Route 15 and Essex Way. The event commemorated the start of construction on a building that will soon become the new home of the Essex Primary Care, relocating the practice from its current home inside a squat brick facade along Main
Street that hospital officials describe as antiquated and undersized. “The previous space didn’t meet the current needs for the population that we’re serving, and didn’t meet our promise of keeping people in Vermont as healthy as possible,” said Dr. Stephen Leffler, interim president of the medical center. At nearly twice the size of the practice’s current location, which UVMMC has leased since 1985, the new building will have 14 exam rooms and enough space to add up to eight more, if needed.
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EssEx REpoRtER | THURSDAY, AUgUST 29, 2019
Essex Jct. | (802) 857-5994 www.julesvt.com
Vol. 18 No. 35