Rhode Island Priests Sexually Abused Hundreds of Children, Report Finds
The New York Times • • general
Key Points:
- A report by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha details decades of child sexual abuse in the state's Catholic churches, documenting accusations against 75 priests and involving 300 victims over 75 years since 1950.
- The Diocese of Providence repeatedly failed to remove accused priests or report allegations to law enforcement, instead transferring at least 30 priests to new parishes multiple times to handle abuse claims internally.
- The 300-page report, based on a review of 250,000 pages of diocesan records and 150 interviews, reveals a systematic cover-up of abuse by church leaders, marking the most comprehensive accounting of these crimes to date.
- Neronha emphasized that much harm could have been prevented if the diocese
