Fr. Edmund H. Fitzgerald

Named publicly as credibly accused by the Diocese on its list 7/1/2019, which notes that Fitzgerald was removed from ministry 8/27/1998. A man told the Diocese in 1998 that Fitzgerald sexually abused him over several years in 1961-1968, beginning when the man was an 8-year-old altar boy. The abuse was said to have included forced oral sex and attempted anal rape. Fitzgerald was sent for a psychological examination then reinstated. Years later, in the 2010s, the man’s brother also alleged sexual abuse as a boy by Fitzgerald, at age 9. Included in the 3/4/2026 RI Attorney General’s Report, which shows that Fitzgerald allegedly sexually abused at least eight children, boys and girls, from the beginning of his priesthood in the late 1950s until the early 1980s. The Diocese’s records show that it first received a report in 1993 that Fitzgerald sexually abused a girl, age 11 or 12, sixteen years prior, and that he also abused her sister. The Diocesan investigator, Robert McCarthy, decided that the girl had lied, based on polygraph tests given to her and to Fitzgerald. In 1/1998 a man told the Diocese that in the early 1960s Fitzgerald told his son to “drop his pants.” His other son said that when he was 13-14 the priest would and ask him to remove his clothes so that he could see how he was developing. Fitzgerald was kept in ministry. After the allegation in 8/1998, in 11/1998 Fitzgerald requested retirement due to “health reasons and the traumatic experiences of the last 9 months.” McCarthy said in 11/1998 that there was “no evidence that is even reportedly reliable that Father Fitzgerald molested anyone.” In early 1999 Fitzgerald was again sent for an evaluation, then allowed to resume ministry. In 4/2002 a man reported that Fitzgerald molested him when he was 8-years-old in 1961 or 1962, in the basement of St. Teresa in Pawtucket. In 6/2002 another man alleged that Fitzgerald sexually abused him when he was age 12 in about 1961. Fitzgerald’s faculties were removed. Another man came forward in 3/2017, alleging sexual abuse by Fitzgerald in the late 1960s at St. Teresa’s, when the man was an altar boy, age 8 or 9. A seventh accuser came forward in 7/2019, claiming Fitzgerald sexually abused him when he was age 12 or 13 in the late 1950s, at St. Teresa’s. A woman alleged in 10/2019 that she was sexually abused by Fitzgerald in 1983 at St. Mary of the Bay in Warren, when she was age 12 or 13. None of the cases could be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations. Fitzgerald died 8/7/2020.