#USA #MA – Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell released a report Wednesday that found evidence more than 270 Catholic clerics had sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across the Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester.
The investigation, which began in 2019, counted at least 275 members of the clergy accused of abusing 944 children. Officials said the totals were likely undercounts because of incomplete records and survivors who had not come forward. Most of the known abuse had occurred before 2002, with documented cases stretching back decades and, in some accounts, across roughly a century.
Campbell’s office reviewed more than 300,000 pages of records and interviewed more than 100 people, including survivors, advocates, attorneys, clergy, and diocesan employees. The attorney general called the report the first comparable public accounting of institutional failures in those three dioceses. Earlier investigations and reporting had focused largely on the Archdiocese of Boston.
The report found that diocesan leaders had repeatedly failed to protect children. In documented instances, leaders did not act on allegations and warning signs, transferred accused priests to other parishes without disclosing the reasons, returned priests to ministry after treatment without adequate supervision, failed to enforce restrictions, concealed why priests had been removed, and did not consistently report allegations to law enforcement.
The investigation identified illegal conduct but produced no indictments. Campbell’s office said the conduct either fell outside the relevant statutes of limitations or had taken place before 2002 legal reforms that strengthened criminal laws on the reckless endangerment of children and made clergy mandated reporters of child abuse.
Figures drawn from the report showed each diocese had roughly 90 accused clergy members. Survivor counts differed sharply: about 469 in Fall River, 259 in Springfield, and 216 in Worcester.
Campbell urged the dioceses to investigate allegations independently, improve supervision and record-keeping, and publish lists of credibly accused clergy. More than 90 percent of U.S. dioceses and archdioceses had already published such lists, including Boston, Fall River, and Springfield. Worcester remained the only Massachusetts diocese that had not, though it had shared names of credibly accused priests with the Worcester County district attorney’s office since 2002. Campbell also called for ending the statute of limitations on civil claims involving childhood sexual abuse, noting that survivors often disclose abuse years or decades later.
Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha apologized to survivors and said he was filled with sorrow over the historical account of incidents and practices that had failed to protect children. Springfield Bishop William D. Byrne called the report a humbling reminder of the need for continued vigilance. The Diocese of Worcester said it would study the findings to identify further improvements in responding to victims of past abuse and in keeping children safe.
“Behind every one of those numbers is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever, and a survivor who carried the trauma of that abuse for years and, in many cases, decades,” Campbell said at a news conference announcing the report.
Cover Image: The Massachusetts State Capitol building in Boston.
