Catholic clergy members abused 1,000 children over decades in Worcester, Springfield and Fall River, AG finds

Hundreds of clergy members of the Worcester, Springfield and Fall River Catholic dioceses abused nearly 1,000 children over the course of decades, an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general's office found. 

The investigation, beginning in 2019, detailed evidence that 270 clergy members abused nearly 1,000 children across all three dioceses for around 70 years, with some cases dating as far back as the 1950s, Attorney General Andrea Campbell said at a press conference Wednesday. 

"For years, the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester knew that children were being abused by priests, and they did not do what they should have done to stop it," Campbell said during the press conference. "Instead, too often they protected the reputation of the church, rather than protecting children." 

The report demonstrated repeated failure by church leadership to properly respond to allegations of child sexual abuse by their priests, in some cases transferring accused priests to other parishes and dioceses without disclosing the reason and failing to report allegations to police. 

"Priests were deeply trusted in their communities, and offending priests took advantage of that trust," Campbell said. "They used their authority and their access to children to abuse them." 

All three dioceses established offices dedicated to child protection and victim assistance and adopted new procedures for investigating allegations, following the exposure of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Diocese by The Boston Globe in 2002. According to the attorney general's office, those procedures have not been consistently followed.

The attorney general's office referred three of the cases to Worcester County, Hampden County and Bristol County district attorney's offices for criminal prosecution. In the Worcester referral, criminal charges were filed in the district court, according to Campbell.

The remaining cases will not bring criminal charges due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, and, in some cases, the conduct identified was not illegal in Massachusetts at the time, Campbell said. 

Campbell's office is calling on the dioceses of Worcester, Springfield and Fall River to take additional steps to protect children and improve their response to survivors. 

The attorney general's office also called for the Worcester Diocese to create and maintain a publicly accessible list of credibly accused clergy members, a practice followed in every other diocese in Massachusetts. 

Additionally, Campbell shared that she is a victim of child sex abuse. 

"I would be remiss, if I didn't share personally, that I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. And it's the first time I've ever shared that publicly, and I think that's important," she said. "It's an opportunity for us to finally lead in Massachusetts in such a way that no child will ever be abused ever again." 

"It would be absolutely inauthentic, and inauthentic to my faith to not share that I am a survivor of childhood abuse, not at the hands of the church, but in the hands of a relative," she continued. 

Campbell also said that her office supports legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations and charitable immunity cap for civil claims involving childhood sexual abuse, and the establishment of an indefinite lookback period for such claims.