Massachusetts AG report finds nearly 1,000 children abused by clergy in three dioceses over decades

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced on Wednesday that an investigative report reveals over 270 Catholic clerics sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across three dioceses in Massachusetts over decades. The report, released by the state attorney general, marks the first comprehensive public accounting of the abuse and institutional failures that enabled such abuse for more than half a century at the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester.

Most of the abuse detailed in the report occurred before 2002, the year the clergy sex abuse scandal gained international attention following a Pulitzer Prize-winning report by the Boston Globe. The report highlights years of similar issues at the three dioceses, which were aware of children being abused by priests and other clerics. “Too often they protected the reputation of the church rather than protecting children,” Campbell stated.

The investigation documented at least 275 clergy members accused of abusing 944 children. “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 during a press conference.

The Diocese of Worcester expressed its commitment to studying the report to identify additional improvements for responding to past abuse victims and strengthening child safety measures. Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha issued an apology to survivors, expressing sorrow over the historical account of incidents and practices that reflected the tragic failings to protect the vulnerable. Springfield Bishop William Byrne called the report “humbling,” noting his diocese had been “busy correcting our past failures” and implementing new, trauma-informed policies.

The 2002 Boston Globe report, later featured in the 2015 film “Spotlight,” sparked a global wave of investigations that uncovered similar patterns worldwide. It also prompted Massachusetts to enact a series of reforms. In 2019, then-Attorney General Maura Healey, now governor, initiated a criminal probe into the three dioceses to assess potential responsibility for their leadership in connection with the abuse.

Source: Read the original report