- A six-year investigation found that 75 Catholic clergy members sexually abused more than 300 children. Church leaders frequently reassigned accused priests and concealed evidence.
- The true scale of abuse is likely far greater, as many victims never came forward, and only 20 of the identified clergy ever faced criminal charges, resulting in just 14 convictions.
Catholic priests in Rhode Island preyed on hundreds of children over the course of decades, escaping accountability for sexual abuse through a system in which bishops prioritised limiting scandal. At the same time, the Diocese of Providence maintained a secret archive that concealed evidence and hindered the discovery of additional victims.
Those findings were among the many sobering revelations released in March 2026 as part of a multiyear investigation into the Catholic Diocese of Providence led by Attorney General Peter Neronha. The report was intended to prompt a full reckoning of abuse that had long evaded comprehensive scrutiny in the nation’s smallest state. Rhode Island is home to the highest per-capita Catholic population in the United States, with nearly 40% of residents identifying as Catholic.
Neronha, himself a Catholic, aligned with survivors who argue that far more remains to be done to address the crisis, more than two decades after widespread abuse was exposed in the neighbouring Archdiocese of Boston.
“Not until now has there been a comprehensive review of this painful chapter in our state’s history, with a view toward offering transparency, accountability, and systemic reforms that will, I hope, lessen the likelihood of future child sexual abuse, not just within the Diocese of Providence, but in our community as a whole,” Neronha wrote in the report.
The investigation determined that 75 Catholic clergy members abused more than 300 victims since 1950. Officials emphasised, however, that the true number of abused children and offending clergy is likely significantly higher.
Neronha said his office has charged four current or former priests with sexual abuse allegedly committed while serving in the diocese between 2020 and 2022. Three of those priests are still awaiting trial. The fourth died after being found incompetent to stand trial in 2022.
In total, only 20 clergy members, about 26% of those identified in the report, ever faced criminal charges. Just 14 were convicted. A dozen accused clergy were laicised or dismissed from the clerical state.
Abusive priests were able to avoid scrutiny and move between assignments
According to diocesan records described in the report as “damning,” church officials frequently reassigned accused priests without conducting thorough investigations or notifying law enforcement.
One example was the Diocese of Providence’s creation of a “spiritual retreat-style facility” in the early 1950s. Several accused priests were sent there for treatment with the expectation that they would eventually return to ministry. Over time, that approach evolved into sending accused clergy to more formal “treatment centres” after church leaders concluded that clergy abuse might be a mental health issue.
The report characterised the diocese’s “overreliance and misplaced faith” in such treatment programs as, at best, “absurdly pollyannaish.”
By the 1990s, accused priests were sometimes placed on sabbatical leave instead.
The report cites the case of priest Robert Carpentier, who was accused in 1992 by the family of a 13-year-old victim. Carpentier acknowledged that the abuse had occurred in the 1970s and subsequently resigned.
He was sent to a treatment centre in Connecticut and later placed on sabbatical at Boston College. Carpentier remained on a “leave of absence” until his official retirement in 2006 and continued receiving support from the diocese until his death in 2012.
Overall, most cases involving accused priests never resulted in accountability from either church authorities or law enforcement.
Some survivors were groomed before the abuse occurred
One survivor described being groomed before he was sexually abused by Monsignor John Allard, who served at Immaculate Conception Church in Cranston in 1981.
“He never asked me for a hug, he never asked me if I wanted a hug, his comment to me was always, ‘You need a hug,’ and that’s something that I can hear him saying very clearly to this very day,” the survivor told officials in 2013.
Although a diocesan review board found the allegation credible, then-Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin intervened and asked the Vatican’s powerful doctrine office to allow Allard to retire without being removed from the priesthood. The Vatican agreed.
In some cases, individuals responsible for reviewing abuse allegations were themselves accused abusers.
In 2021, priest Francis Santilli received a child sexual abuse complaint after having served on the Rhode Island diocesan review board. Santilli stepped down from the board but remained in active ministry despite additional abuse complaints received in 2014 and 2021. He was not removed until 2022.
“Only the Diocese can explain why this plainly necessary action took so long,” the report states.
The full extent of the abuse may never be known
Neronha launched the investigation in 2019, nearly a year after a Pennsylvania grand jury report concluded that more than 1,000 children had been abused by an estimated 300 priests in that state since the 1940s. That 2018 report is widely regarded as one of the most expansive investigations into child sexual abuse in U.S. history.
Unlike Pennsylvania, however, Rhode Island law does not permit grand jury reports to be released publicly, a restriction Neronha has long sought to change.
As a result, his office entered into an agreement with the Diocese of Providence to obtain access to hundreds of thousands of records documenting decades of abuse.
Neronha said the church cooperated by providing roughly 70 years’ worth of materials from what became known as the “secret archive.” Those files included records of internal investigations, civil settlements related to sexual abuse claims, treatment expenses, and other documentation.
Even so, Neronha said the arrangement “was not without important limits, or without delays.”
“It repeatedly refused my team’s requests for interviews of Diocesan personnel responsible for overseeing the Diocese’s investigations and response to child sexual abuse allegations,” Neronha wrote.
The report also notes that the true scope of abuse may never be fully known. An unknown number of victims likely died before they could come forward. Some church records relating to potentially abusive priests have been lost or destroyed. In addition, it is common for survivors of child sexual abuse to wait decades before disclosing their experiences.
