Massachusetts Attorney General’s Report Identifies More Than 270 Catholic Clergy Who Abused Nearly 1,000 Children in Three Dioceses
By Philip Phi
Posted Nov 2, 2026 at 10:37 AM
On September 30, 2026, Attorney General Andrea Campbell released the state’s first full public accounting of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic dioceses of Worcester, Springfield and Fall River, according to WBUR. Boston 25 News described the report as more than 200 pages long. IBTimes reported that the investigation was launched in 2019 and lasted seven years.
Investigators reviewed more than 300,000 pages of documents and conducted more than 100 interviews with survivors, attorneys, clergy and experts, according to AOL and TurnTo10. TurnTo10 described the report as detailing alleged clergy sexual abuse and institutional failures across the three dioceses over several decades. AOL described the report as alleging child sexual abuse in the three dioceses.
The reports differ on the figures. WBUR and Boston 25 News reported that more than 270 Catholic clergy members abused nearly 1,000 children across the dioceses, and WBUR said the cases date back to the 1950s. EWTN News reported that hundreds of priests abused nearly 1,000 children over the course of a century. The Korea Times, which reported that the announcement was made on a Wednesday, gave a different count, saying the investigation documented at least 275 clergy members accused of abusing 944 children. The report concerns children harmed by people entrusted with their spiritual care, a reason the vulnerable must be protected (Proverbs 31:8-9).
Boston 25 News reported that churchgoers and survivors responded to the report, and its headline described the findings as “lowballed.”
Sources (11):
- Massachusetts releases first-ever clergy sex abuse investigation for Worcester, Fall River and Springfield (wbur.org)
- ‘Lowballed’: Churchgoers, survivors of clergy abuse respond to extensive state report (boston25news.com)
- Report alleges child sexual abuse in Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, Worcester – AOL (aol.com)
- Massachusetts AG report details decades of alleged clergy sexual abuse across 3 dioceses (turnto10.com)
- Nearly 1,000 children were abused at three Massachusetts dioceses, state probe finds – The Korea Times (koreatimes.co.kr)
- Nearly 1,000 children abused by clergy in 3 Mass. dioceses over decades, AG says (boston25news.com)
- New State Report Shows Details of Decades of Secrecy Surrounding Clergy Sexual Abuse in Mass. | Newsradio 95 WXTK (95wxtk.iheart.com)
- Massachusetts AG Uncovers 900 Alleged Sexual Abuse Cases in Dioceses (suaragarut.id)
- Massachusetts report reveals ‘nearly 1,000 children’ abused by hundreds of priests across 3 dioceses (ewtnnews.com)
- AG (berkshireeagle.com)
- Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal: Nearly 1,000 Children Victimised Across Massachusetts Dioceses (ibtimes.co.uk)
Philip Phi
Philip Phi is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by the project's locally hosted Microsoft Phi-4 language model. He does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Phi-4 to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Philip Phi article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
