WORCESTER (MA)
The Republican - MassLive [Springfield MA]
September 30, 2026
By Adam Bass
A total of 216 Catholic children of the Worcester Diocese were abused, according to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office.
The Attorney General’s office on Wednesday released a long-awaited report detailing how more than 270 religious leaders in the Worcester, Fall River and Springfield dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church abused more than 1,000 children over a span of about a century. Of those accused leaders, 90 of them served in the Worcester Diocese, according to the report.
Beginning in 2019, the investigation into the three dioceses involved interviewing more than 100 people and reviewing more than 300,000 pages of documents. New criminal charges, however, won’t be brought forward due to legal limitations, Campbell wrote in her report.
In the wake of the report, the attorney general says she supports scrapping a $20,000 charitable immunity cap for civil claims regarding child sexual abuse and changing other laws.
The report also criticizes the Worcester Diocese for not making a public list of credibly accused clergy — a practice both the Springfield and Fall River dioceses do.
In a statement provided to MassLive, the diocese says it welcomes the report, saying it validates the reforms it implemented since 2002. The statement also says that the diocese fully cooperated with the investigation and highlighted the fact that no criminal charges were brought.
“Our procedures over the past three decades, including the way we screen candidates for ordination, as well as the awareness and safety training which was implemented in all our parishes and ministries, have made an enormous difference,” the statement reads.
Here are 7 takeaways from the report regarding the investigation into the Worcester Diocese.
Worcester did not keep a public list of credible accused clergy
Throughout the report, the Worcester Diocese is repeatedly criticized for not having a public list of credibly accused clergy.
Other dioceses in Massachusetts, including in Springfield and Fall River have these lists. They are also published by other dioceses throughout the nation, including in Providence, Brooklyn and Sacramento.
The report says that not having such a list creates a lack of transparency and urges the diocese to create such a list. It says that despite implementing a charter in 2002 that calls for transparency.
“While it has, since 2002, shared the names of credibly accused priests with the Worcester County District Attorney’s office, and has made transitory disclosure of credibly accused priests on the diocesan website and in its diocesan newspaper, the diocese nevertheless refuses to share the names of these priests publicly in an accessible format,” the report reads.
In an additional statement to MassLive, the diocese cited a report it released in 2026 that says there is no other precedent to publishing a list of “the accused in society, even of those accused in other positions of trust such as medicine, education or law enforcement.”
In a press conference Wednesday, Campbell urged Worcester to release a list, saying that they had refused to do so in the past.
“The Worcester diocese has a tremendous opportunity to do something that would bring about justice,” she said. “Worcester is the only diocese in Massachusetts that does not have a public list of credibly accused clergy. Every other Massachusetts diocese has one. Worcester needs to create one and publicly maintain one too.”
Relevant records from a treatment center for accused priests were destroyed
The report found that records from a Whitinsville-based treatment center that handled clergy accused of sexual misconduct were destroyed between 1990 and 1997.
The treatment center, known as the House of Affirmation, was co-founded by Thomas Kane, a Worcester priest was later be accused of sexual abuse, according to the report.
There were many accusations of sexual malfeasance among staff of the House of Affirmation and those receiving treatment there, the report reads.
An employee who previously worked at the center testified in a deposition that Kane had sexual relationships with staff members of the House of Affirmation, including the witness, their spouses, patients, and minors from a nearby parish, according to the report
“A significant number of victims of child sexual abuse in the Worcester Diocese reported abuse by priests who had connections to the House of Affirmation,” the report reads.
When the Church was faced with allegations of the abuse, they did not address it directly, and decided to “look away,” the report reads.
“When red flags arose, inaction was often the first response,” the report reads. “Our investigation indicates that countless acts of abuse could have been prevented by further inquiry.”
Since 2002, the House of Affirmation is no longer a treatment center but has used its funds to pay other institutions for providing psychological counseling for priests and members of religious orders as well as for psychological evaluations of prospective seminarians, senior diocesan officials told investigators.
A Worcester Bishop had a policy to never report allegations to law enforcement
Worcester Bishop Timothy Harrington, who led the Worcester Diocese from 1983 to 1994, had a policy to never report allegations to law enforcement authorities, even if he believed the allegations, according to the report.
Before he would take steps against a priest, Harrington required victims to face their abusers, the report reads. He then made his own credibility determinations based on that interaction and whether accused priests categorically denied the allegations.
It was Harrington’s assessments that decided whether a priest was removed from the ministry and sent for treatment. Additionally, Harrington would only offer help to the victim if he determined that the allegations were substantiated, according to the report.
“Moreover, Harrington discouraged some people from coming forward with their allegations because the matters are ‘like a divorce… everybody gets hurt,’“ the report reads. ”Harrington removed priests only ‘when they admitted their misbehavior, or when their case became public.’”
Worcester diocese kept supporting accused priests with benefits and compensation
The report lays out multiple examples where the diocese kept financially supporting a priest accused of sexual assault.
In one example, the priest, Raymond Messier, was accused in the early 1980s of sexually abusing a minor at a camp in Charlton.
The victim’s mother reported that when she disclosed the sexual abuse to Bishop Harrington, he promised her that the priest would never be in a position to have contact with children again and would receive treatment at the House of Affirmation.
Messier, however, was reassigned to three other parishes where he continued to minister.
In 2002, when the Church adopted the Dallas Charter, a set of procedures implemented to address the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, the Worcester Diocese removed Messier from his parish assignments, according to the report. The diocese assured the public in a statement that he would not be engaging in any public ministry in the diocese or anywhere else, the report reads.
Despite the statement and suspension, the priest continued to receive wages from the Worcester Diocese — even after he retired, the report reads.
Worcester diocese failed to monitor accused priests
The report found that all three dioceses, including Worcester, had no written policies for supervising priests who were accused.
After 2002, the Dioceses of Springfield and Worcester created positions for “clergy monitors” or “priest monitors.”
The Attorney General’s office, however, learned that the duties of these positions included supervising priests on leave due to sexual abuse allegations.
In practice, however, the monitors only kept sporadic contact with the accused priests and could not account for their whereabouts, status or compliance with the terms of ministry, according to the report.
Suspended or restricted priests were not required to provide written reports of their activities, the report reads.
“Notably, the Worcester Diocese has no policy regarding how frequently accused priests should interact with their monitors, how accused priests should be contacted or supervised, whether accused priests are required to stay away from minors, how to protect children who attend parish or school activities from these priests, or establishing clear repercussions for failing to abide by the restrictions on their ministry would be,” the report reads.
Worcester’s review board lacks independence and transparency
The Attorney General’s report found that the Worcester diocese’s internal review board for abuse lacks transparency and independence.
The report found that the bishop attends review committee meetings, has the ability to participate in discussions about credibility and is the ultimate decision-maker regardless of the committee’s recommendations.
Investigators also found that committee members often rely on oral summaries of allegations and investigations rather than reviewing complete files themselves.
“The bishops’ repeated failure to consult the Review Boards on cases or fully share information with their members has limited the ability to adequately deal with sexual abuse complaints,” the report reads. “Ultimately, Review Boards assessing sexual abuse allegations are only as effective as the information the bishops give to them.”
The number of abusers and victims is likely incomplete
Though the Attorney General’s report says there were 216 survivors and 90 accused clergy in the Worcester Diocese, these numbers may be an undercount.
The report states that this is due to several factors, including underreporting by victims and the failure of the dioceses to keep accurate or organized records of abuse complaints. This assessment is also true of the Springfield and Fall River dioceses. The report listed 93 accused leaders in Springfield and 92 accused leaders in Fall River. As for victims, the report listed 259 in Springfield and 469 in Fall River.
“These numbers are not filtered by any assessment of credibility and include allegations made against priests who were members of religious orders,” the report reads. “Because of the difficulty in counting allegations, we present these numbers not as an exact accounting of sexual abuse in the three dioceses, but to document just how widespread the abuse was.”
Adam Bass | abass@masslive.com