Rhode Island’s attorney general released a report on clerical sexual abuse in the Diocese of Providence, the state’s sole diocese.
The attorney general “identified 75 credibly accused clergy, including 61 Diocesan priests and deacons, 13 religious order members, and one extern priest, who reportedly abused over 300 victims from 1950 to 2011,” according to the report. “Particularly under Bishops Russell McVinney and Louis Gelineau, accused priests were repeatedly returned to ministry, in positions where they had access to, and sexually abused, more children.”
Bishop McVinney was diocesan bishop from 1948 to 1971; Bishop Gelineau, from 1971 to 1997, when he resigned at the age of 69.