BOSTON (WHDH) - Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s Office (AGO) released a report Tuesday detailing decades of child sexual abuse in the Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester Dioceses of the Catholic Church.
The investigation, which began in 2019, “…examined the dioceses’ institutional responses to allegations of child sexual abuse; determined whether there was prosecutable conduct by members of the diocesan leadership; evaluated the dioceses’ compliance with Massachusetts law, including statutes passed in response to the 2002 clergy sex abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston; and assessed whether current diocesan practices leave children vulnerable to abuse,” the AGO said.
The investigation found that more than 270 clergy members abused nearly 1,000 children over the course of a century, and the abuse was intentionally concealed for decades.
“The findings of this investigation are difficult to hear, and certainly difficult to read,” Campbell said. “For years, the dioceses of Fall River, Worcester, and Springfield knew that children were being abused by priests, and they did not do what they should have done to stop it. Too often they protected the reputation of the church rather than protecting children. Priests were deeply trusted in their communities, and offending priests took advantage of that trust.”
The investigation ended without any indictments issued.
According to the AGO, “Though the investigation identified illegal conduct, the conduct either falls outside the relevant statutes of limitations, or took place before legal reforms in 2002 strengthened criminal laws protecting against the reckless endangerment of children and made priests and other clergy mandated reporters of child abuse.”
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