Rhode Island AG report finds 75 priests abused more than 300 children since 1950

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A multiyear investigation by Rhode Island’s attorney general found that at least 75 Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Providence sexually abused more than 300 children since 1950, with church leaders shielding accused priests from accountability rather than protecting victims, according to a report released Wednesday. Attorney General Peter Neronha said the true scope of abuse is likely far greater than what records document. “If you’re the Diocese of Providence and you’re listening, this is a scandal you need to own and you need to fix,” Neronha told reporters. “We can’t slow walk solutions, and we can’t slow walk justice.”

The findings place Rhode Island — the smallest U.S. state and the one with the highest Catholic population per capita, at nearly 40% — within a pattern of institutional child sexual abuse and cover-up documented in dioceses from Boston to Philadelphia. Neronha said the report should spur legal reforms to expand investigative powers and help victims seek justice, while the diocese disputed his characterization of the problems as ongoing.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Diocese of Providence transferred accused priests to new assignments without investigating complaints or alerting law enforcement, opened a retreat facility for offending clergy as early as the 1950s, and had church leaders advocate on behalf of accused priests rather than victims — a pattern documented in 70 years of diocesan records turned over under a 2019 agreement with the state, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Wednesday.

The report, which Neronha called the most comprehensive account of clergy abuse in Rhode Island’s history, identified 75 priests as abusers and said officials believe the actual number of victims and perpetrators is substantially higher than the more than 300 victims documented.

Accountability was the exception

Of the clergy identified in the report, only 20 faced criminal charges and just 14 were convicted, the report found. A dozen others were laicized or otherwise dismissed from the priesthood.

Neronha’s office has separately charged four current and former priests with sexual abuse for conduct alleged to have occurred between 2020 and 2022. Three of them are still awaiting trial. The fourth died after a court deemed him incompetent to stand trial in 2022.

The investigation, launched in 2019, was triggered in part by a landmark Pennsylvania grand jury report the previous year that found approximately 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children in that state since the 1940s. Rhode Island law does not permit grand jury reports to be made public, which led Neronha to forge a records-access agreement directly with the diocese.

The church turned over roughly 70 years of material, including complaints from its internal archives, civil settlement records, and treatment costs. Neronha said the diocese’s cooperation was limited at times, noting it declined to make diocesan personnel available for interviews.

Bishop advocated for accused priests

The report specifically criticizes former Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin, who retired in 2023, for advocating on behalf of several accused priests. In at least one case, Tobin urged the Vatican to allow Monsignor John Allard to retire rather than be defrocked after a diocesan review board found credible an abuse allegation against him.

One survivor described being groomed for more than a year before the late Allard, then pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Cranston, began sexually abusing him in his bedroom in 1981. The survivor said Allard would tell him, “You need a hug.”

“I just don’t know how you square it. If he’s got an answer, then he’s free to send it in,” Neronha said of Tobin’s advocacy for accused priests.

The diocese, in a statement Wednesday, praised Tobin’s willingness to cooperate with Neronha during his tenure.

Review board member was himself accused

The report also found that the Rev. Francis Santilli, who served on the diocesan review board responsible for evaluating abuse complaints, was himself accused of abuse. Santilli stepped down from the board after a complaint was filed but remained in active ministry even after additional complaints surfaced in 2014 and 2021. He was not removed until 2022.

Neronha criticized the diocese for continuing to require victims to submit to polygraph tests and for refusing to investigate third-party complaints about priests. He called on the diocese to establish clear investigative timelines and guidelines and said “ongoing concerns” about abuse remained unaddressed.

Diocese disputes ongoing-problem framing

Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, in a video statement released Wednesday, pushed back on the characterization of the report’s findings as reflecting current conditions.

“There are no credibly accused clergy in active ministry,” Lewandowski said. “Today’s Catholic clergy here in Rhode Island are good and holy men serving Christ and his people with devotion and out of genuine pastoral concern.”

The diocese also argued in a written statement that the report would not have been possible without the church’s cooperation and that the findings reflected documented history rather than present circumstances. “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. They are not,” the statement said.

Neronha, who said he was raised Catholic, disputed that framing and called on the diocese to take greater ownership of the harm documented.

For Herbert Brennan, who said he was repeatedly abused by a Rhode Island priest in the 1960s, the response was unsurprising. “If one wants to learn the teachings of Jesus Christ, they should read the Bible,” Brennan said. “If one wishes to understand the Catholic church, read this report.”