Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha on March 4 released a long-awaited report on child abuse in the Diocese of Providence, one that the diocese says reveals little new and is meant to function instead as a political document.
The investigation, which began in 2019 and culminated in January when Neronha announced its completion, reveals what the prosecutor calls a “scourge of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Rhode Island,” one that has “plagued [the] state for decades, if not longer.”
“Not until now has there been a comprehensive review of this painful chapter in our state’s history, with a view towards offering transparency, accountability, and systemic reforms,” the attorney general said.
The report, published on March 4, includes a review of diocesan child abuse allegations beginning decades ago as well as diocesan responses to those allegations, including “transferring accused clergy to new assignments” and the use of “spiritual retreats” and “sabbaticals” for priests accused of abuse.
The report identifies “75 clergy, including 61 diocesan priests and deacons, 13 religious order members, and one extern priest” it says have been credibly accused of abuse.
The list includes what the attorney general’s office said were 20 individuals whom the diocese “failed to publicly identify” prior to the report’s publication.
‘Untested perspectives’
In a largely blistering response to the report, the Diocese of Providence acknowledged that “any abuse of children is an abhorrent sin and a terrible crime” and that the diocese committed “serious missteps” in its past response to abuse allegations.
Yet the diocese argued that the report “does not have the force of law but rather offers untested perspectives of the attorney general” and that the document “reveals no evidence of recent child sexual abuse by clergy, no credible accusations against those in ministry today, and no instances of the diocese’s failure to meet its legal reporting obligations.”
The diocese’s response is notable among Church communications regarding abuse reports. Many U.S. diocesan responses to such reports are usually brief, often contrite, and noncontroversial, issued mostly to acknowledge the report and apologize for past abuse.
The Providence Diocese, however, sharply criticized the attorney general’s investigation and conclusions as it offered a lengthy rundown of the ways in which the diocese itself has moved to address abuse allegations over the last few decades.
Noting the “additional names” identified by the diocese as credibly accused, the statement argued that “were these [individuals] still living, their average age would be over 104 years old.”
“This statistic alone confirms that none of these individuals pose a present-day threat to safe environments,” the diocese said, arguing further that many of the new allegations involved individuals “not under the direct jurisdiction of the bishop of Providence.”
The diocese “willingly endured six and a half years of persistent requests for over 75 years of material,” the statement said, arguing that the inquiry “did not result from legal compulsion, criminal or civil administrative proceedings, or coercion by governmental power.”
The attorney general’s office presents the history of abuse in the diocese “in ways that might lead the reader to conclude these issues are an ongoing diocesan problem or that these are new revelations,” the diocese said. “They are not.”
Perhaps most notably, the diocese alleged in its statement that the report is meant to be used as a political tool more than a spotlight for abusive clergy and a call for more safety measures.
“[T]he report and the timing of its release is intended to sway legislative debate,” the diocese said, arguing that its intent is “to bolster proposed and previously-rejected legislation that seeks to suspend long-standing statute of limitations laws for civil suits.”
In the report itself, Nerhona did call for “further necessary and lasting change” and “targeted legislative reforms” including “expanding the criminal statute of limitations for second-degree sexual assault” and “expanding the civil statute of limitations for bringing claims arising from child sexual abuse against institutional defendants.”
Such measures “are crucial to protecting the safety of our children and expanding legal accountability for perpetrators and their enablers,” the prosecutor said.
It its statement, meanwhile, the diocese called attention to what it said were “the efforts of thousands of people who have stood together and responded effectively” to the crisis of abuse in the state.
“That cooperation and singular focus have been the reality in the Diocese of Providence for decades, and those accomplishments should be recognized,” the diocese argued.
The Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island’s lone Catholic diocese, oversees what is by one metric the most Catholic state in the U.S.: Approximately 40% of Rhode Island residents are Catholic, or nearly 450,000 people.
Its current prelate is Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, appointed to the post in April 2025 by Pope Francis just weeks before the pontiff passed away.
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