PROVIDENCE (RI)
Rhode Island Current [Rhode Island]
March 4, 2026
By Christopher Shea
Diocese of Providence shared personnel files but declined interviews with State Police and AG officials during nearly seven-year investigation
For more than seven decades, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence concealed the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by over six dozen clergy members, according to a long-awaited report released Wednesday by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
A total of 72 deacons and priests faced credible accusations of abuse dating as far back as 1950, the 282-page report states. Only 14 of the men listed are still alive.
Systemic sexual abuse by New England Catholic clergy was exposed over two decades ago. But the AG’s report, which took nearly seven years to complete, pieces together as complete a picture as possible of what happened in Rhode Island, home to the largest per capita Catholic population in the nation.
“The numbers are staggering, shocking, astounding,” Neronha told reporters during a more than two-hour press conference at his downtown Providence office. “And we know we didn’t get it all.”
State Police and the AG’s office found at least 315 victims of abuse, most of which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. The most recent known incident of misconduct cited was in 2011, when the principal of St. Joseph School in West Warwick alleged a deacon who taught in the school “had pulled down the pants of several sixth-grade boys.”
Most accused priests avoided disciplinary action or criminal charges because the diocese would often transfer them to new parishes without warning those congregations — a practice the report called “priest shuffling.” Neronha said 31 Rhode Island priests were transferred at least five times during their careers, promoting a “culture of secrecy.”
“That went on for decades,” Neronha said.
Only 20, or about 26% of the clergy identified in the report, ever faced criminal charges. Just 14 clergy were convicted.
Neronha’s office has charged four current and former priests with sexual abuse for allegations over the course of the investigation between 2020 and 2022.
Three of them are still awaiting trial, while the fourth died after being deemed incompetent to stand trial in 2022.
Diocese shared records but was unwilling to authorize interviews
The state’s investigation began in July 2019, when then-Bishop Thomas Tobin signed a memorandum of understanding with Neronha to review diocesan records of complaints of child sexual abuse dating back to 1950. Tobin retired in May 2023.
Diocese officials mostly cooperated, providing investigators access to more than 250,000 files including treatment records of the accused priests, financial records from civil settlements in clergy sexual abuse cases, and victims’ records.
But there were limits to the church’s partnership.
Neronha said there was evidence that the diocese had a practice of destroying confidential files when the priests died, according to state investigators.
Diocese officials also repeatedly refused requests for interviews with the church personnel who were responsible for overseeing the investigations and responses to child sexual abuse by clergy, according to the report.
“I don’t know why they didn’t do it, I think they should have,” Neronha said of diocese officials. “It would have helped us move faster.”
The review found that historically, the diocese did not report any complaints of sexual abuse of children to law enforcement. Even in the 1990s, when reporting began to improve, the diocese still withheld complaints about priests who were still living.
No representatives from the Diocese of Providence spoke at the AG’s press conference. As the press conference began, the diocese posted a video of The Most Rev. Bruce A. Lewandowski responding to the AG’s report. Lewandowski took over as bishop last May, replacing Richard Henning who took the top job in Boston in 2024
“Extreme sadness and feelings of intense shame weighed heavily on me as I read the report,” Lewandowski said.
The bishop apologized to abuse survivors.
“The church failed them,” Lewandowski said. “Their abusers betrayed their trust and robbed them of their innocence and, in some cases, destroyed their lives. Their faith in God and this church has been shaken and even lost.”
But the diocese was quick to defend itself with an accompanying statement published online, framing the state’s report as a “needless” revisit of historical cases that masks decades of institutional reform and a zero-tolerance policy established in 2002.
“Beginning more than 30 years ago, and improved throughout the following years, the diocese can confidently say that our protections for children have proven to be overwhelmingly effective,” the statement notes. “The report itself 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.”
Neronha did credit Rhode Island’s Catholic Church for its recent reforms such as prohibiting accused clergy from ministry while a complaint was investigated and ceasing the practice of constantly transferring problematic priests.
“There’s no question that the risk to children today is much lower than it was,” the AG said.
But he still sees plenty of room for improvement.
Neronha used the report’s release to renew his perennial call for the state to allow a grand jury, with court oversight, to issue a report with findings and recommendations — even when it decides no one should be charged with a crime. Neronha has requested this legislation for the past six years.
He also wants the General Assembly to extend the statute of limitations in cases of sexual assault involving the Catholic Church and other institutions. It’s a policy the diocese has opposed.
“Other states have tried this approach, and it has led dozens of other dioceses to bankruptcy,” the church’s statement said.
‘It’s not new news to anybody’
Neronha, a former Catholic, told reporters he’s unsure what impact the report will have, if any, on the diocese’s reputation.
“It’s kind of hard to read this and not come away with a story,” he said.
Jim Keating, a professor of theology at the Catholic-run Providence College, has his doubts the state’s report will cause any damage at all to the diocese.
“It’s already factored into what people think about the Catholic Church — it’s not new news to anybody. No one’s going to be shocked by this,” he said in an interview.
Keating said most parishioners these days are younger and have little to no memory of past abuse scandals and don’t have the same reverence for priests that Catholics had in the middle of the 20th century. About 39% of Rhode Islanders identify as Catholic, according to Pew Research.
“It just doesn’t pack the same punch for these young people,” Keating said. “It’s a different world now — a better world.”
The church failed them. Their abusers betrayed their trust and robbed them of their innocence and, in some cases, destroyed their lives. Their faith in God and this church has been shaken and even lost.
– The Most Rev. Bruce A. Lewandowski, Bishop of the Diocese of Providence
But Neronha said the public deserves to know the full story of what happened in Rhode Island.
“In some sense, it’s a history, but it’s a living history — survivors out there are still alive,” he said.
Two survivors were present for the AG’s report release.
Dr. Ann Hagan Webb accused Monsignor Anthony DeAngelis of abusing her from 1957 to 1965 while she attended Sacred Heart School in West Warwick — beginning when she was in kindergarten. Webb reported her abuse to the Diocese in 1994, only for church officials to question the veracity of her claims and mental health treatment. DeAngelis died in 1990 at the age of 80.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Webb thanked the AG’s office for declaring her as “credible.”
“You have no idea how important this is to me,” she said. “To be deemed ‘not credible’ by the diocese for the last 32 years has haunted me in ways I cannot begin to describe.”
Webb, now a psychologist, is the sister of state Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, a South Kingstown Democrat who has long pushed for legislation that would allow the victims of childhood sex abuse to sue institutions such as the Catholic Church.
McEntee attended the press conference to support her sister.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi commended McEntee, who is now chair of the House Committee on Judiciary, for her steadfast support of victims.
“Due to the magnitude of this issue, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduling public hearings as soon as next week to once again review bills that Attorney General Neronha thoroughly outlined today in his devastating report,” Shekarchi said in a statement.
Hub Brennan said he was repeatedly molested while serving as an altar boy at Our Lady of Mercy in East Greenwich starting when he was 8 years old by the Most Rev. Brendan Smyth. The report says Smyth allegedly abused at least 17 children between 1965 and 1968 at the parish before he was transferred to Holy Trinity Abbey in Kilnacrott, Ireland. He returned to the United States during the years 1979 to 1983 to minister at St. Alphonsus Church in Langdon, North Dakota, before returning to Ireland. Smyth died in an Irish prison in 1997 after pleading guilty to 74 charges of child sex abuse.
“Abuse can occur in a moment,” Brennan said. “Its effects last a lifetime.”
Neronha said he’s hopeful the report’s release could encourage other victims to come forward, promising that the document would be updated regardless of who is in office. Neronha’s term ends after 2026.
“Survivors deserve justice,” he said.
The Office of the Attorney General and the Rhode Island State Police urge victims and any other persons with information regarding possible child sexual abuse or related crimes to call the State Police Special Victims Unit’s dedicated clergy abuse hotline at (401) 764-0142.