WEST WARWICK (RI)
Providence Journal [Providence RI]
September 4, 2026
By Katherine Gregg
Key Points:
- A West Warwick housing complex was renamed after its namesake, Monsignor Anthony DeAngelis, was accused of child sexual abuse.
- The buildings, formerly “Monsignor DeAngelis Manor I and II,” are now named “Wakefield Manors.”
- The name change followed the RI attorney general’s report detailing decades of abuse by clergy members in the Diocese of Providence.
- Abuse survivor Ann Hagan Webb, who was molested by DeAngelis, witnessed the removal of his name from the facade.
Ann Hagan Webb thought she was meeting a friend for an early morning coffee in West Warwick, the town where she grew up and lost her innocence.
What she did not expect to see when she arrived on Monday, Aug. 31, was the removal, from the brick facade of what until that day had been known as “Monsignor DeAngelis Manor I and II,” of the name of the clergyman who had sexually molested her over a seven-year period that began when she was in kindergarten at the Sacred Heart School in West Warwick.
The two buildings are now called: Wakefield Manors, after the street on which they sit.
A letter that went out to the residents of the federally subsidized housing complex from Kyle Gauvin, president of the board of the nonprofit that runs it, explained the name change this way:
What did the letter say?
The board of “Sacred Heart Housing was recently informed of something you may or may not know. … Horrific accusations have been made against Monsignor [Anthony] DeAngelis, namesake of the property you live in.
“We understand this new information may be disturbing for you, as it is for us,” the letter said.
“Manors were named decades ago, before this information came to light. However now that it has, it is important to our board members that our residents, as part of the community we serve, are at ease and able to enjoy the place they call home. … For this reason, a new name for the manors has been chosen.
“As of this letter, the Monsignor DeAngelis Manors will be known as Wakefield Manors.”
Ann Webb watched as the name came down
DeAngelis’ name came down as Webb and Dr. Herbert “Hub” Brennan, her fellow warrior in the years-long fight for legal remedies for clergy abuse victims, and Webb’s sister, state Rep. Carol McEntee, watched from the sidewalk.
“I was totally surprised by this gift of validation!” Webb wrote later on Facebook.
“I was speechless and cried happy tears,” said Webb, who was the impetus for the legislation McEntee introduced year after year that finally led to the passage this year of a law giving long-ago child sex abuse victims two years to sue the institutions that had failed to protect them – including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence – for damages..
Passage of the long-sought new law followed the release in March of Attorney General Peter Neronha’s long-in-the-works report on the lengths the diocese went to to conceal the decades-long abuse of as many as 300 children by at least 75 members of the clergy, including Monsignor DeAngelis.
DeAngelis died Jan. 23, 1990, after serving at St. Bartholomew Church in Providence from 1935 to 1936, at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Providence in 1936, and at Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick from 1936 to 1979. He retired in 1979, having never been defrocked.
How and why the late Monsignor DeAngelis’ name came down
West Warwick Councilwoman Maribeth Williamson said the town had no control over the building, but she and Brennan are longtime friends, and “years ago, he said someday, assuming that the town had some control over those buildings, which we do not, we’ve got to get that taken care of.”
“Anybody who read Ann’s account of her experience as a 6- or 7-year-old and didn’t feel moved … I can’t imagine,” she said as the grandmother of a 4-year-old.
Williamson said she approached one of the members of the housing board, who told her: “Maribeth, we’ve had those discussions already. We’re continuing to have them.”
She said they talked regularly, but she didn’t get word until Saturday, Aug. 29, that the name was coming down between 7 and 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 31.
Kyle Gauvin, the president of the board of Sacred Heart Housing, filled in the blanks.
Responding to questions from The Journal, he said: “On March 5th, the first quarterly scheduled board meeting of 2026 occurred the day after the ProJo released [the] AG report of credibly accused individuals. That brought the issue front and center to the board, which voted unanimously to start a naming committee.”
“In April the committee worked outside the normal quarterly meeting schedule to propose an acceptable name, begin the sign company search,” solicit bids and ultimately, award the contract to AA Sign and Awning “and schedule it as soon as possible.”
At the complex’s Aug. 13 board meeting, he said, the board unanimously approved up to $25,000 for website design, the name change process, marketing and advertising and the hiring of “a PR firm to assist in fully completing the name change” with Rhode Island Housing, HUD “and any organizations integral to the manor’s operations, (insurance, local banks, government agencies and their respective web portals, email and IT systems, etc.).”
That process continues. “It did not all occur instantly when the signs were changed but is happening as fast as is manageable with the organization’s dedicated but limited staff,” he said.
He singled out Carol Hoxie, the executive director of the Wakefield Manors, for the “tremendous job” she has done assuring residents and other “concerned individuals … that the name change does not mean they will face any changes or new corporate owners and that the Manors’ mission of providing safe affordable housing for seniors in our community will continue as it has for decades.”
“Change takes time,” he said on Facebook, under Ann Webb’s post.
“But the board members who are all volunteer and local residents of West Warwick, are happy to be able to do the right thing and try to bring some closure to our fellow community members.”
Dig Deeper
Our full coverage of ‘blockbuster’ clergy sex abuse report:
RI clergy sex abuse and cover-up laid out in explosive report. What it says.
This RI priest reportedly abused over a dozen boys in two states. Here’s his story.
‘Aghast at the horror of it’: RI victim of clergy sex abuse reacts to AG’s report
Here’s the full, updated list of credibly accused priests in RI
AG’s office finds 20 more credibly accused priests in RI. Here’s the list.
These RI priests have been charged with sexually abusing children. What to know.
These RI bills could help the victims of clergy sex abuse. Here’s how.
Neronha says RI Catholic church needs to change these things to protect children