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   Rhode Island Priests Abused Hundreds of Children Over Decades, Report Finds   
      
   The report from the state's attorney general, covering 75 years, faulted   
   the Diocese of Providence for not removing accused priests and not   
   contacting the police enough.   
   Listen to this article · 5:59 min Learn more   
      
   Peter F. Neronha, standing at a podium in front of a bank of microphones.   
   Several officials stand behind him.   
   Peter F. Neronha, Rhode Island's attorney general, at a news conference in   
   December. Credit... Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times   
   Jenna Russell   
      
   By Jenna Russell   
   March 4, 2026Updated 3:57 p. m. ET   
      
   A blistering report issued Wednesday describes decades of child sexual   
   abuse in Rhode Island's Catholic churches, documenting accusations against   
   dozens of priests involving hundreds of victims.   
      
   The report from Peter F. Neronha, the state's attorney general, also lays   
   out repeated failures by the Diocese of Providence to remove priests or   
   bring in law enforcement in response to accusations. Instead, investigators   
   working for Mr. Neronha found, the diocese chose to handle reports of abuse   
   internally, primarily by moving offending priests to new parishes.   
      
   The diocese transferred at least 30 accused priests to new jobs at least   
   five times each, Mr. Neronha said in a news conference on Wednesday.   
      
   "So much hurt and harm could have been avoided" had the diocese removed the   
   priests from their duties, he said. "Nothing explains it, nothing justifies   
   it. "   
      
   Many of the abuses in the church have been previously reported, but the new   
   report represents the most thorough accounting to date of both the crimes   
   and their cover-up by church leaders.   
      
   The product of a review that began in 2019, aimed at giving abuse survivors   
   a more complete picture of the scope of crimes committed in the state, the   
   300-page report covers 75 years, dating back to 1950. Its findings,   
   involving 75 accused priests and 300 child victims, were based on the   
   review of 250,000 pages of records provided by the diocese and 150   
   interviews.   
      
   The roster of abusive priests in the report includes 20 names that the   
   diocese had not previously included on its own list of credibly accused   
   priests, the attorney general said. Even before the report came out, the   
   state investigation resulted in four prosecutions of current or former   
   priests, three of whom were awaiting trial, he added.   
      
   In a statement responding to the report, the Diocese of Providence   
   acknowledged "serious missteps" in its handling earlier cases of abuse, but   
   it said that longstanding protections instituted since then have proven   
   "overwhelmingly effective. "   
      
   "The report presents this 75-year history in ways that might lead the   
   reader to conclude these issues are an ongoing diocesan problem or that   
   these are new revelations, " the statement said. "They are not. "   
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   The diocese also credited its own "unprecedented and voluntary agreement to   
   extraordinary transparency" for making the state's work possible. It   
   stressed that it had no obligation to cooperate with the recent inquiry,   
   but did so anyway.   
      
   "Despite how the attorney general now frames this as an 'investigation, '   
   the report did not result from legal compulsion, criminal or civil   
   administrative proceedings, or coercion by governmental power, " the   
   diocese's statement said. "This voluntary records review was made possible   
   only because the diocese freely granted access to the attorney general   
   through a 2019 memorandum of understanding, set aside its valid legal   
   objections and willingly endured six and a half years of persistent   
   requests for over seventy-five years of material. "   
      
   The diocese further asserted that it was primarily its own reporting, and   
   not Mr. Neronha's efforts, that resulted in the prosecutions of James   
   Silva, Kevin Fisette and John Petrocelli, current or former priests whose   
   recent prosecutions were noted in the report. A fourth priest, Edward   
   Kelley, was indicted in 2021 but was found incompetent to stand trial   
   because he had dementia. He died shortly after the finding.   
      
   The report found that most victims were boys between the ages of 11 and 14,   
   many of whom served as altar boys and in other church roles. The largest   
   share of victims were abused in the 1970s. On average, it took 26 years for   
   victims to report the abuse.   
      
   Mr. Neronha, a Democrat who took office in 2019, said the findings will be   
   painful for many in Rhode Island, where as many as 40 percent of residents   
   identify as Catholic. Some of his own friends "aren't crazy about the fact   
   that we're issuing this report, " he said.   
      
   His parents, now in their 90s, "revered some of the people in this report,   
   " said Mr. Neronha, who was raised as a Catholic.   
      
   The report includes a separate appendix with details of what the attorney   
   general's office said were each accused priest's offenses. It also   
   recommends reforms to prevent abuse and address past harms, including that   
   the diocese create a financial compensation program for victims. The report   
   also endorses updating state law to extend the statute of limitations for   
   second degree sexual assault, and to explicitly include clergy in the   
   existing statute outlining mandatory abuse reporting.   
      
   The state review found progress had been made in the diocese's willingness   
   to involve law enforcement. Between 1990 and 1999, it found, the diocese   
   received 65 complaints about priest abuse, and referred only five to law   
   enforcement. By contrast, 55 such reports were received from 2010 to 2019,   
   and most — 47 — were referred to the police.   
      
   But Mr. Neronha said his office's efforts were hampered by the refusal of   
   the diocese to make its personnel available for interviews. "This report is   
   limited by what they gave us, " he said, "and I have no way of knowing if   
   they produced everything we asked for. "   
      
   Ann Hagan Webb, a survivor of childhood abuse by a priest at her home   
   parish in Rhode Island, said at the news conference that the report had   
   profoundly affected her by finally declaring her allegations "credible. "   
      
   "You have no idea how important this is to me, " she said. "To be called   
   'noncredible' by the diocese has haunted me. "   
      
   She credited the state for showing how church leaders "enabled pedophiles   
   while silencing their victims. "   
      
   "This report should make Rhode Island Catholics gasp in horror, " she said.   
   "Read it. Please read it. By reading it, you honor the children who were   
   hurt. "   
   A correction was made on March 4, 2026   
   :   
      
      
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