A Thousand Children, a Hundred Pages, and a Reckoning at Last

There is a particular kind of reckoning that arrives not with a verdict but with a document—a 203-page accounting of what was known, what was concealed, and what was never done. On Wednesday, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell released the findings of a seven-year investigation into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester. The numbers are staggering: more than 270 clerics, nearly 1,000 children, and decades of institutional failure.

The investigation began in 2019 and reviewed more than 300,000 pages of records and interviewed over 100 individuals, including survivors, advocates, attorneys, clergy, and diocesan officials . What it found was a pattern that had been documented in the Archdiocese of Boston years earlier but never comprehensively examined in these three dioceses. Diocesan leaders failed to act on allegations, transferred accused priests to other parishes without disclosing why, returned some to ministry after treatment without adequate supervision, and failed to consistently report allegations to law enforcement .

The report includes the voices of survivors, and those voices are not abstract. One woman described being abused by a priest about 200 times over two years. “I struggled enormously with more terrifying nightmares, nausea, inability to focus at work, neglect of family and friends,” she wrote. “On several occasions I felt that survival no longer seemed desirable” . Another survivor, Skip Shea, wrote that the abuse pushed him to addiction, and that his daughter “only had a sober father for a year” before she died in a car accident . A third survivor said she lost her faith entirely: “God never listened” .

The investigation did not result in new indictments. Most of the abuse occurred before 2002, when Massachusetts strengthened its laws on child endangerment and made clergy mandated reporters. The conduct identified either fell outside the relevant statutes of limitations or took place before those legal reforms . Three cases were referred to district attorneys’ offices, and one, in Worcester County, resulted in criminal charges .

The report also calls for changes that go beyond the church. The Attorney General’s Office is urging the Massachusetts Legislature to eliminate the $20,000 charitable immunity cap for civil claims involving child sexual abuse, eliminate the statute of limitations for such claims, and create an indefinite lookback period for survivors whose claims have already expired . It also notes that the Worcester Diocese remains the only diocese in Massachusetts that does not maintain a publicly accessible list of credibly accused clergy .

Campbell, who described herself as a woman of deep faith, said the report is meant to honor survivors and serve as a catalyst for change. “No institution should ever put its own reputation and interest above the safety and wellbeing of its constituents, especially children,” she said . For nearly a thousand survivors, the report offers validation. What it cannot offer is the justice that time has placed beyond reach.

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Sources: Mass.gov, Boston Herald, Axios, Worcester Telegram, WHDH, Boston Globe