Fr. Richard L. Meglio
Removed from ministry 4/22/1988 due to allegations of misconduct, including stealing about $80,000 from his parish. A man filed a civil lawsuit in 1994 accusing Meglio of molesting him as a minor in the 1970s, when Meglio was assigned to Our Lady of Grace in Johnston. The abuse allegedly began when the accuser was hospitalized for “psychological problems” at age 12 and continued after he was released from the hospital. The plaintiff died of a drug overdose in 1997; the lawsuit settled with his estate in 2003. Included on the Diocese’s list 7/1/2019. Included in the 3/4/2026 RI Attorney General’s Report, which shows allegations against Meglio of the sexual abuse of three boys. In addition to the 1994 allegation, in 3/2000 a man told the Diocese that Meglio sexually abused him when he was homeless at age 16 in 1977. Meglio allegedly gave the boy jewelry in exchange for sex. In 2009 third man reported sexual abuse by Meglio “hundreds of times” at ages 13-16, during 1983-1986. The first incident occurred during a CYO trip while the boy was sleeping. Meglio had been sent to the Servants’ of the Paraclete treatment center in Jemez Springs NM in 1983 for his “excessively worldly lifestyle” and other issues, per Bishop Gelineau. The third accuser died of a drug overdose in 2020. Meglio was living by 8/2003 in FL, where he presented himself to the Ecumenical Catholic Church as a Catholic priest; in 2003 and 2004 the ECC asked and received from the Providence diocese information about Meglio’s status, including that he was a defendent in a sexual assault case. In 2005, when it became known that Meglio was actively ministering for the ECC in FL, the ECC was again informed of the allegations against Meglio and that his faculties were revoked in 1988. In 2014 it was discovered that Meglio had celebrated mass at a parish in the Diocese of St. Petersburg FL; the Providence diocese informed St. Petersburg of Meglio’s history and status who, in turn, alerted its pastors. Meglio remains on leave of absence in 3/2026. He appears to be living in Cranston, RI.
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