Campbell urges dioceses to adopt stronger child protections
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell released the findings of an eight-year investigation on Wednesday, documenting sexual abuse of nearly 1,000 children by more than 270 Catholic clergy in the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester. It is the first public accounting of comparable scope of institutional failures in those three dioceses.
The investigation did not result in new indictments. The attorney general’s office said that in some cases the conduct identified was not a crime under Massachusetts law at the time it occurred, and that in others the applicable statute of limitations had expired. Three cases were referred to district attorneys’ offices in other jurisdictions, and one of those resulted in criminal charges. The majority of the abuse occurred before 2002.
Campbell’s office said the report shows that church officials in all three dioceses “knew about the sexual abuse of children yet did not take effective action to prevent it or to examine the institutional failures of leadership that led to scores of children being victimized at the hands of abusive priests.”
Campbell said at a press conference that she “strongly urge[d] the dioceses and the broader church to take these recommendations seriously and implement greater, meaningful changes to strengthen child protection and improve responses to allegations of abuse.” Behind every number in the report, she said, “is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever and a survivor who carried that abuse for years, and in many cases decades.” She added: “I know many survivors have been waiting a long time to see these findings made public. I understand the frustration that comes with that wait. It is my hope that today is a meaningful step forward toward truth, accountability and healing that survivors deserve.”
The investigation is distinct from the long-documented abuses in the Archdiocese of Boston. The Boston Globe’s 2002 reporting on the Boston archdiocese drew international attention and prompted other investigations around the world. The Fall River, Springfield and Worcester dioceses had not previously faced a comparable public accounting.
Only the diocese of Worcester responded to the report on Wednesday. It said it would “study the attorney general’s report to identify any additional improvements that can be made to respond to victims of past abuse and to continue to strengthen efforts to keep children safe.” The diocese did not apologize in its Wednesday statement for its clerics’ behavior, but pointed to a 2022 apology by Bishop Robert J. McManus, who wrote that he was “profoundly sorry for the abuse of minors by priests” within his diocese and pledged to do “everything we can to ensure such abuse does not happen again.” The diocese also highlighted that no charges had been filed.
The report noted that many of the individuals identified are deceased. “Any legal limitations do not diminish the seriousness of what this investigation found,” the report stated. “The office believes that while criminal law cannot provide justice for all survivors today, the office still has a responsibility to tell the truth of what happened.”