PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Attorney General Peter Neronha released a sweeping report Wednesday detailing decades of child sexual abuse and systemic coverup within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, identifying 72 clergy members as “credibly accused” of misconduct.
The report is the culmination of a yearslong investigation stemming from a 2019 agreement between the state’s top prosecutor and former Bishop Thomas Tobin. The agreement granted state investigators unprecedented access to the church’s “secret archives,” personnel files and internal records dating back to 1950.
“Generations of Rhode Island victims, their families and others who have suffered the impacts of this trauma deserve to know the truth of what occurred,” Neronha wrote in the report, describing the abuse as a “sordid and shameful history” spanning decades in communities across the state.
The investigation did not produce evidence of any recent child sexual misconduct by clergy, and no new criminal charges were announced Wednesday. The most recent known incident of misconduct in the diocese was in 2011, according to the report.
https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/providence/neronha-releases-report-on-child-sexual-abuse-in-diocese-of-providence/