Rhode Island AG releases report on clerical abuse in Diocese of Providence

Rhode Island’s attorney general has published a 284-page report on sexual abuse in the Diocese of Providence, capping a six-year investigation that began in 2019 through a voluntary agreement with the diocese to survey records stretching back to 1950.

Released March 4, the report identified 75 credibly accused clergy — 61 diocesan priests and deacons, 13 religious order members and one extern priest — who allegedly abused more than 300 victims between 1950 to 2011.

Criminal charges have been brought against four current and former priests, with three awaiting trial amid presumed innocence pending a final verdict.

Also included in the report were specific calls for diocesan and legal reforms to prevent and address clergy sexual abuse.

Responding to the report in a video message provided through the diocesan website, Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski of Providence acknowledged, “What I share with you today is far from new, but each time we hear about it, the trauma and pain are made real once again for victims-survivors and their loved ones.”

“I take this opportunity to apologize to the victim-survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy for the failures of Church personnel and others in past decades to protect them and keep them safe,” he said.

Separately, the diocese posted a detailed response to the report March 4, stressing that the analysis was the product of voluntary cooperation between Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and the diocese, as outlined in a 2019 memorandum of understanding initiated under Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, who retired in 2023.

The diocese also clarified that the report documents “historical cases of abuse from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and which have been previously documented, already subject to civil and criminal litigation, and well-publicized in the media.”

In a press statement that accompanied the report, Neronha said, “The Diocese would have you believe that this report is historical; that child sexual abuse by clergy members is a thing of the past and not worth drudging up. To that I say: the pain that survivors and their families suffer knows no statute of limitations, and history always has something to teach us.”

He said clergy sexual abuse “in the Diocese of Providence occurred on an abhorrent, staggering scale” and that the “Diocese of Providence engaged in a well-worn pattern of protecting the reputation of the Church and its priests over the welfare of children.”

In its statement, the diocese stressed that the report shows no “evidence of any recent child sexual abuse by clergy,” and that “longstanding” diocesan policies to ensure child safety, which predate by almost a decade those adopted in 2002 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are working.

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