Massachusetts Report Finds 270 Clerics Abused Nearly 1,000 Children Across 3 Dioceses
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 30
Massachusetts Report Finds 270 Clerics Abused Nearly 1,000 Children Across 3 Dioceses
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 30
Summary
More than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children over a century in the Fall River, Springfield and Worcester dioceses, according to a report released Wednesday by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
The report says church officials knew priests and other personnel were sexually abusing children but failed to stop it or confront institutional breakdowns in training, investigations, supervision and record-keeping.
Even after reforms that followed the Boston abuse scandal in the early 2000s, the three dioceses still let some priests remain in ministry for years after abuse reports and sometimes suspended them without telling parishioners why.
The findings add Massachusetts' non-Boston dioceses to a long list of U.S. Catholic abuse investigations that have documented widespread misconduct but produced few criminal cases, often because accused priests had died or allegations surfaced too late.