PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal [Providence RI]
January 8, 2026
By Katherine Gregg
PROVIDENCE – Six-and-a-half years after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence agreed to turn over records dating back to 1950 of alleged sexual molestation of children by priests, Attorney General Peter Neronha has finalized his investigators’ report.
Among the findings and conclusions:
The Catholic Church in Rhode Island, in a determined effort to “hide scandal,” allowed “dozens of priests” to abuse “hundreds of children,” unstopped even in the face of credible reports, Neronha told The Providence Journal on Wednesday, Jan. 7, in an exclusive interview on the day he conveyed the long-awaited report to the diocese.
Neronha said what stood out again and again was the “inadequacy” of the church’s response to allegations and the refusal of church higher-ups in Rhode Island – including then-Bishop Thomas J. Tobin – to meet with and talk to his investigators.
Summarizing his own response to the findings, Neronha said:
“Look, I was raised a Catholic [and] I find it horrible and sad in so many ways. It’s obviously horrible and sad for the children who are victimized. … You don’t unwind sexual abuse. There’s no healing from it.”
And, it’s “sad for the church” that has been a beacon of faith for so many Rhode Islanders, including his own parents, he said.
“This report will not do anything to cause Catholics to think well about their religion and may shake their faith,” Neronha said. “I know that I don’t walk into a Catholic church and look at what I see there the same way as I once did. It certainly has shaken my faith.”
The diocese had no immediate comment.
“It’s incredibly difficult to comment on what we haven’t been able to read yet, and incredibly disappointing that someone would taint a cooperative and confidential review process with media leaks,” said Michael Kieloch, spokesman for the Diocese of Providence. “Once a final report is published, we will have public comments.”
The 192-page report, with hundreds more pages of backup materials, is not yet public and will not be for at least 10 days, to give the diocese a chance to absorb it, respond to it and take any legal action it might deem necessary.
“This report will not do anything to cause Catholics to think well about their religion and may shake their faith,” Neronha said. “I know that I don’t walk into a Catholic church and look at what I see there the same way as I once did. It certainly has shaken my faith.”
The diocese had no immediate comment.
“It’s incredibly difficult to comment on what we haven’t been able to read yet, and incredibly disappointing that someone would taint a cooperative and confidential review process with media leaks,” said Michael Kieloch, spokesman for the Diocese of Providence. “Once a final report is published, we will have public comments.”
The 192-page report, with hundreds more pages of backup materials, is not yet public and will not be for at least 10 days, to give the diocese a chance to absorb it, respond to it and take any legal action it might deem necessary.
How did we get here? Background on the report
Backing up: In July 2019, Tobin, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, agreed to provide the attorney general with access to diocesan records dating back to 1950 of the alleged rape and molestation of children by pedophile priests.
The stated goal of the inquiry: to identify any prosecutable cases and make sure that no credibly accused clergy members were still in active ministry, according to a statement at the time from the attorney general’s office.
Another aim: to determine “how the Diocese responded to past reports of child sexual abuse.”
Then-Bishop Tobin said in a statement that the memorandum of understanding with the attorney general shows that the diocese is cooperating with law enforcement.
“I welcome this opportunity to continue our cooperation with the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General and the Rhode Island State Police,” the statement says. “It also affirms our longstanding commitment to transparency and accountability in dealing with clergy sexual abuse of minors.”
The files the diocese promised to provide included, but were not limited to, those involving a “list of 50 credibly and publicly accused clergy” that the diocese had made public several weeks earlier.
Victims and advocates alleged that the list was not by any means exhaustive, that it omitted names and failed to fully document the assignment histories of each clergy member, show when they had come into contact with children during their careers, and reveal who knew what about each allegation – and when.
The response that day from the diocese: “Monday’s disclosures were the result of a complete and thorough review of seventy years of diocesan files by a veteran law enforcement expert of unquestionable integrity and experience who was allowed to exercise his independent and skilled judgement without interference or review,” the statement says.
“It is our complete list. Additionally, for over twenty years every allegation received – regardless of credibility – has been reported to law enforcement.”
The name of at least one former priest – who was bounced from one parish to another – was subsequently added by the diocese.
A year earlier, then-Pope Francis felt compelled to issue a letter to Catholics around the world that said: “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”
What did the report find?
The attorney general said the report names the accused priests and the list is longer – by at least 10 names – than the list of “credibly accused” priests made public by the diocese in the summer of 2019.
Asked if the investigation had, indeed, found any accused priests still serving in the ministry, Neronha said yes, there was one. When “we brought it to the diocese’s attention, they removed him from the ministry and added his name to the list.”
Neronha said it is not clear how that priest had escaped removal earlier by the current church leadership, but there are a number of ways it could have happened, including a fresh witness to an old allegation.
Since the start of the deep dive back to 1950, the attorney general said his office had won indictments of four priests. One has since died. The cases of the others are pending.
Asked to describe the patterns his office uncovered, Neronha said: “Going back in time, I think there was a failure to appreciate that somebody who would prey on a child can’t be fixed in that regard. So I think there was at best, a naive, maybe worse, belief that someone could be counseled or through prayerful reflection could reach a place where they were not sexually attracted to children or if they were, be able to prevent themselves from acting on that attraction.
“As a result, rather than removing priests from the ministry and/or reporting them to law enforcement, in many instances, they were allowed to continue in the ministry, transferred to other parishes after a period of time … without the old parish or the new parish being aware of the allegations.
“As a result, other children were victimized. That is plainly, plainly what happened. And that is a massive failure to serve, obviously, to serve the church’s own parishioners. And some of it may have been motivated by an effort to hide scandal, which makes it even worse.”
“I think they’ve come a long way … and we lay that out in the report,” Neronha said. “This is not the diocese of 10 or 15 or 20, let alone 30 or 40 years ago. But nevertheless, there are some things that could be improved … [that] are outlined in one of the chapters of this report.”
He gave one example: He said that the diocese, to his knowledge, still subjects victims seeking to report abuse to polygraph tests, which can’t be used in court but convey “more skepticism than it should.”
What might come of the report?
The imminent release of the report was cheered by state Rep. Carol McEntee, the South County Democrat who has pushed for years for passage of legislation allowing the victims of childhood sex abuse to sue institutions, such as the Catholic Church, that enabled – or concealed – the abuse of generations of children.
McEntee’s sister, Ann Hagan Webb, 73, was one of the first Rhode Island victims to go public with what her family’s parish priest did to her over a seven-year period that began when she was in kindergarten at the Sacred Heart elementary school in West Warwick.
In June 2025, the House passed the latest version of McEntee’s bill on a party-line 67-to-5 vote.
It would have opened a two-year window for the now adult victims to file lawsuits, even if the statute of limitations had expired. Opponents, including the Catholic Church, contended that it would be nearly impossible for them to defend against decades-old lawsuits due to lost evidence and unreliable memories.
The Senate was unwilling to take up the bill, but McEntee told The Journal on the opening day of the 2026 session that she intends to reintroduce the bill, and hopes and believes that the attorney general’s report will open the eyes of resistant legislators.
“It shows a pattern. … So if [that] doesn’t upset this body,” she said of the House, “or the body across the hall enough to pass, then I don’t know what will,” McEntee said.