By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Sept 30 – More than 270 Catholic clerics sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across three Massachusetts dioceses over decades, according to an investigative report the state’s attorney general released on Wednesday.
In 2019, then-Attorney General Maura Healey, now Massachusetts’ governor, launched a criminal probe into the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester to determine if they or their leadership bore responsibility in connection to their supervision of clergy who abused children.
“Behind every one of those numbers is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever, and a survivor who carried the trauma of that abuse for years and, in many cases, decades,” Campbell told reporters. The Diocese of Worcester, in a statement, said it would study the report “to identify any additional improvements that can be made to respond to victims of past abuse and to continue to strengthen efforts to keep children safe. Campbell, who said she herself was a victim of child abuse at the hands of a relative, said her office made three referrals to local district attorneys during the probe, leading to charges in one case in Worcester.
The state attorney general’s investigation documented years of similar issues at the three dioceses in other parts of Massachusetts, which Campbell said knew children were being abused by priests. “Too often they protected the reputation of the church rather than protecting children,” Campbell said.
