BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
September 30, 2026
By Anjali Huynh, Brian MacQuarrie andChris Serres
Seven-year investigation probes priest sex abuse in dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester
A scathing state report issued Wednesday chronicles a century-long nightmare of child abuse in Catholic parishes throughout Massachusetts, revealing how church leadership systematically concealed decades of predation by scores of priests, who victimized hundreds of children in nearly every corner of the state.
The report concludes an exhaustive, seven-year investigation by the state attorney general’s office, which found evidence that more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children over several decades in the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester. Church leaders enabled the abuse by shielding predators and concealing allegations, the report found.
Previous probes had revealed similar failures in the Archdiocese of Boston; this investigation, launched in 2019, offers the most comprehensive accounting yet of how Catholic dioceses in much of the rest of the state failed to protect children by not acting on credible allegations, quietly transferring abusive priests to other parishes, and consistently not reporting allegations to law enforcement.
These institutional failures allowed abuse to proliferate for more than half a century under the leadership of successive bishops, the report says.
In a news conference Wednesday, Attorney General Andrea Campbell called on church leaders to take responsibility, while also advocating for state laws that would make it easier for survivors to take legal action against their perpetrators.
“This investigation was not about demonizing a faith or a church,” said Campbell, who also disclosed for the first time that she is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. “Rather, it was about seeking justice, a value, and a promise our faith and the God I serve so deeply reflects.”
The 203-page report report portrays the coverup of child abuse in the three dioceses as a vast, coordinated, and decades-long endeavor. Church officials for decades not only knew about the sexual abuse of children, but they did not take “effective action to prevent it or to examine the institutional failures of leadership” that led to children being victimized at the hands of priests, the report said.
The report calls on the Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester dioceses to investigate each allegation of abuse independently, monitor accused clergy, and publish lists of those who have been credibly accused. While over 90 percent of US dioceses publish such lists, Worcester remains the sole diocese in Massachusetts that has not done so.
The Fall River diocese lists 50 credibly accused priests, 17 of whom are still alive, while Springfield lists 60, of whom eight are still alive.
The report detailed ways in which church officials looked the other way and quietly covered for abusers.
They’d often describe abuse using the language of adult romance, the report said, including such euphemisms as “misplaced affection” or “sentimental attachment.” Sexual misconduct by priests with young girls was characterized as “boundary violations” and the young girls were often characterized as adult women and willing participants, the report found. Well into the 1990s, the Fall River Diocese would describe priests who’d been removed from duties as being, euphemistically, on “sick leave.”
Although the report cited 270 clerics in the investigation, it only named a fraction.Those cases, Campbell said, were “crystal clear” and allowed to be shared under grand jury secrecy laws.
And while fewer now, allegations of abuse have continued well past 2002, said Campbell, who pointed to a case that emerged earlier this month in Springfield.
Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney who has represented hundreds of sexual-abuse victims over three decades, said Wednesday that he doubts the report itself will prompt diocesan officials to make substantive changes, such as identifying all credibly accused priests and releasing their internal investigations.
“You can’t rely on the Catholic Church to change its ways,” Garabedian said. “That’s like the fox guarding the henhouse.”
And even when the dioceses suspended accused priests, including forbidding them from publicly acting as priests, the men “generally remained largely unsupervised, and the suspensions, in many cases, occurred without parishioners or even fellow priests having any knowledge” of the allegations, according to the report.
In one case described in the report, the Fall River Diocese learned in 2006 that a priest had abused a minor during an overnight trip in the 1990s. Despite this accusation, the priest was allowed to chaperone other overnight trips in 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013, according to the report.
Priests were “deeply trusted in their communities,” Campbell said Wednesday, and “offending priests took advantage of that trust.” Some survivors told Campbell’s office that they believed their parents would believe a priest over them. Many waited decades to disclose their abuse, she said.
At a news conference Wednesday hosted by Garabedian, Paula Cardoza, 60, said she still is troubled by the sexual abuse she endured at age 11, when she was fondled by a parish priest at St. Patrick’s Church in Wareham.
“I could never understand it,” she said. “Too often they protected the reputation of the church, rather than protecting children.”
The dioceses at the center of the investigation said they would closely review the report, and had fully cooperated with state investigators.
“I am filled with sorrow over the historical account of incidents and practices reflecting the tragic failings to protect our most vulnerable,” said Fall River Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, who has served in that role since 2014.
Raymond Delisle, a spokesperson for the Worcester Diocese, said the organization “welcomes” the attorney general’s report. He noted that the “vast majority of cases occurred 40 to 60 years ago.”
Delisle also said that the diocese has passed a compliance audit each year since adopting a 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Minors.
“We will study the AG’s report to identify any additional improvements that can be made to respond to victims of past abuse and to continue to strengthen efforts to keep children safe,” Delisle said.
Criminal charges appear unlikely. Despite evidence uncovered by the investigation, Campbell said, her office cannot indict or prosecute the crimes it found, citing statutes of limitations and “other legal constraints.” In some cases, Campbell said, the alleged conduct was not a crime under state law at the time.
“We cannot apply a criminal law retroactively,” she said, but added that “we view this investigation as just the first.”
The attorney general, who noted that the state’s law “continues to create significant barriers,” endorsed changes that would better allow survivors to “seek relief or accountability” going forward.
Those included creating an “indefinite lookback period” for civil claims of childhood sexual abuse and removing the state’s charitable immunity cap of $20,000, which limits the damages that nonprofit organizations can be ordered to pay.
She also backed an amendment, currently stalled on Beacon Hill, that would eliminate the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse. The amendment was included in a primary-care bill the House passed in July, and sponsored by Representative John Lawn, a Watertown Democrat who has publicly spoken about being a survivor of child sexual abuse.
Lawn, who attended the attorney general’s news conference, said that the church has always opposed such changes, but that he hopes the report will help spur action on Beacon Hill.
“This report shows what we already knew — that for far too long, these institutions and people have got away with harming children,” Lawn said. “Massachusetts, of all places, should be a leader in making sure that we protect children and hold those accountable who don’t.”
Officials said that the dioceses cooperated by providing records in response to grand jury subpoenas and by answering questions. Campbell’s office said no substantive testimony was taken before the grand jury. But advocates for victims said they want to see more of the accused priests be publicly identified.
“The secrecy that sparked this conflagration back in 2002 is still happening,” said Terence McKiernan, codirector of BishopAccountability.org, which maintains a public database of clerics accused of abuse. “Surely, it’s the responsibility of the chief law enforcement officer of the state to make sure that those children are safe, and naming names is the way you do that.”
Some survivors and advocates said the report was underwhelming. Jim Saviano, whose late brother Phil had been sexually abused and later helped spark the Globe’s Spotlight investigation, said he was deeply disappointed in it.
“There’s nothing new there,” said Saviano, whose brother died in 2021. “We knew this was going on, and there’s nothing new revealed, no one held accountable.”
But for Skip Shea, a 66-year-old filmmaker from Uxbridge, Wednesday’s report brought a long-overdue sense of vindication.
Shea still attends weekly therapy sessions to cope with six years of childhood sexual abuse he endured in the early 1970s while doing landscaping and other work at the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, a treatment facility for priests run by the Diocese of Worcester.
Operating from 1973 to 1989, the center treated clergy from across the country — including those suspected of sexual abuse — and was cofounded by Thomas Kane, a Worcester priest later accused of abuse himself. From its inception, according to the attorney general’s report, the facility was plagued by allegations of sexual misconduct among staff and residents.
Because of Massachusetts’ charitable immunity cap, Shea received just $10,000 in a settlement from the diocese — a sum he considers “ridiculous” after six years of trauma.
“When the highest law enforcement agency in the state says this is what happened, it’s hard to argue against it,” Shea said. “It validates everything we’ve been saying for years. It validates our stories.”
Mike Damiano and Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Anjali Huynh can be reached at anjali.huynh@globe.com. Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@globe.com. Chris Serres can be reached at chris.serres@globe.com. Follow him @ChrisSerres.