Fr. Roland M. Lepire

Included 7/1/2019 on the Diocese’s list of credibly accused. Included in the 3/4/2026 RI Attorney General’s report, which shows that Lepire is the subject of allegations of the sexual abuse of at least six boys, ages 8-14, occurring 1975-1980. In 1979 the mother of an 8-year-old boy who had disclosed to her abuse by Lepire, took the boy to the Woonsocket Police Department to report the abuse. A a detective later told her that Bishop Gelineau offered to removed Lepire from the parish and send him to counseling if she refrained from pressing charges. Lepire was soon moved to another parish and continued to abuse. Lepire in 2003 said that he told Gelineau in 1980 that he had molested four boys at his new parish, so he was sent that summer to a community of Brothers as chaplain. He was assigned in 9/1980 to another parish, and abused two more boys. He remained in active ministry until being placed on leave in 2/1996 by Gelineau, who wrote to Lepire that the leave was because of “the nature of the publicity that has arisen as a result of the accusations… .” In 2/1996 a 29-year-old man filed suit, accusing Lepire of sexually abusing him as a boy on several occasions in 1978. Lepire was sent in 5/1996 to St. John Vianney in PA for a psychiatric evaluation, where he admitted to sexually abusing boys. Claims against Lepire were settled in 9/2002 as part of a $13.5M mass settlement involving 36 victims of priest abuse in the Providence diocese. Another suit filed in 2003 alleged abuse in the early 1980s. Lepire was laicized in 2004. The 2003 lawsuit settled in 8/2008 as part of $1.326M settlement by Providence diocese. Lepire died 2/26/2025.