PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal [Providence RI]
October 23, 2026
By Katherine Gregg
[See also the text of the complaint.]
Key Points
- A new lawsuit alleges the late Bishop Louis E. Gelineau was one of three priests who sexually abused a man starting when he was a 10-year-old altar boy.
- This is the first time Gelineau, who died in 2024, has been publicly named as an alleged abuser, though he was previously cited for failing to stop abuse.
- The lawsuit claims the abuse occurred multiple times over several years at St. Luke’s Church in Barrington, Rhode Island.
While the late Bishop Louis E. Gelineau is named in the attorney general’s report on clergy sex abuse as one of the higher-ups in the Rhode Island Catholic Church who failed, over many decades, to stop the molestation of children, a newly filed suit publicly names Gelineau for the first time as one of the alleged abusers.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, Oct. 16, alleges that Gelineau, who died in 2024 at the age of 96, was one of three priests who molested a now 56-year-old man multiple times, over several years, starting when he was a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Luke’s Church in Barrington.
According to the lawsuit, the alleged victim – identified only as a John Doe – “was born into a devout Irish Catholic family and was taught to view priests with unquestioning respect and obedience.”
But “St. Luke’s was the center of a ring of pedophiles led by Bishop Gelineau himself” and “the Parish quickly changed from a place where [the alleged victim] felt safe and accepted to an environment where he suffered repeated, horrific abuse.”
Lawsuit alleges the altar boy was repeatedly abused by multiple priests
According to the lawsuit:
The alleged victim was groped, fondled and raped by the Rev. Oscar Ferland in the basement of St. Luke’s, the sacristy and the rectory over a period of time that spanned from 1982 to 1987.
“When Bishop Gelineau visited the Parish, Ferland brought [the boy] to the rectory where Bishop Gelineau joined in sexually assaulting and sodomizing him,” the suit alleges.
“As they walked up the stairs, Bishop Gelineau picked up a jar of Vaseline sitting on the small table outside Ferland’s room,” the lawsuit alleges. “Once in the bedroom, Bishop Gelineau violently sexually assaulted and sodomized” the alleged victim.
“A third priest, Rev. Clifford J. Cabral went so far as to abuse [the boy] on trips meant to reward the Parish’s altar boys, using the cover of darkness on amusement park rides to molest him.”
“After a lifetime of living in the shadows, filled with shame and stigma,” the lawsuit says the alleged victim “now seeks justice from the Diocese and the Parish, which turned a blind eye to obvious signs of abuse when they should have stepped up to protect the Catholic children in the most Catholic state in the nation.”
The allegations are among the 180 other lawsuits filed in the months since a two-year revival window opened on July 1 for the filing of civil suits that would otherwise have been barred by time limits in state law.
Of note: Ferland was among the 75 “credibly accused” priests in the report, years in the making, that the attorney general produced in March. The “credibly accused clergy” included 61 diocesan priests and deacons, 13 religious order members, and one extern priest, who reportedly abused more than 300 victims from 1950 to 2011.
Gelineau was a prominent figure in AG’s report on clergy abuse
Gelineau and Cabral were not on the “credibly accused” list, though Gelineau was mentioned prominently in Neronha’s report on his team’s years-long investigation which “found that the Diocese’s historical failures to properly respond to and report complaints of child sexual abuse by clergy led to the abuse of additional children.”
“Particularly under Bishops Russell McVinney and Louis Gelineau, accused priests were repeatedly returned to ministry, in positions where they had access to, and sexually abused, more children. Rather than report complaints of child sexual abuse to civil authorities, bishops and other senior officials withheld those complaints and instead sent accused priests to different parishes, or to ‘treatment,’ before ultimately returning them to active service,” the AG’s report said.
Though Gelineau was not one of the “credibly accused” priests, Rhode Island attorney Timothy Conlon on Thursday, Oct. 22, confirmed the substance of a report on the website of an organization known as BishopAccountability.org that says Conlon “asked Gelineau if he had had sexual contact in or around 1993 with an altar boy serving at the Providence cathedral; Gelineau said no.”
“I would acknowledge that to be consistent with my recollection of questioning that was put to Gelineau at the time,” Conlon told The Journal. As to where that questioning led, Conlon said: “I am not aware of an instance in which he was named as a defendant for misconduct that involved his contact with the child.”
Who was Bishop Louis Gelineau?
Gelineau served as the sixth bishop of Providence, from January 1972 until his retirement in June 1997. He was Providence’s second-longest-serving bishop.
When he died, the diocese hailed him as “the people’s bishop.”
“Gelineau’s style as bishop” was to show “up for everything, including radio talk-show interviews and even factories to greet workers,” The Journal’s Mark Patinkin wrote in a 2018 column marking Gelineau’s 90th birthday.
Patinkin wrote that he was “struck by [Gelineau’s] openness, even about difficult matters like the church sex-abuse scandal.” He asked Gelineau about the diocese paying $14 million to settle dozens of cases in 2002 and lawyers’ claiming a pattern of covering up abuse.
“As soon as I knew – we set up an office for handling that. And it’s still there to reveal the truth,” Gelineau said.
“It’s so contrary to what we stand for,” Gelineau said. “We believe we’re to bring people away from sin and live by the commandments. It was very painful that we ourselves would be involved in things so sinful and wrong.”
Gelineau was born in Burlington, Vermont, and was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1954.
The lawsuit was filed by Rhode Island lawyer Louise A. Herman in collaboration with Grant & Eisenhofer, an out-of-state law firm based in Delaware that had representatives in Rhode Island for hearings this past spring on the revival window legislation.
On Friday, Oct. 23, diocesan spokesman Michael Kieloch issued a now familiar response to the latest allegations: “Accounts of victim survivors stir emotions and anguish, remind us of real pain experienced, but also efforts over many decades for healing and reconciliation.
“Claims like those recently asserted, on average from 50 years ago, present many challenges for courts and litigants including lost evidence, unavailable witnesses, altered memories and the opportunity for spurious claims to enter the court system. Allegations contained in filed complaints are now in active litigation, and diocesan responses will be confined to that forum.”
This story has been updated with new information.