Massachusetts AG Report: 275 Clergy Accused in Three Catholic Dioceses, More Than 1,000 Victims
BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell's office released an investigative report on October 1. According to Law.com and legal-press reporting, the inquiry, begun in 2019, found that across the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester, some 275 clergy members were accused of sexually abusing children over roughly a century, with the estimated number of child victims exceeding 1,000. Investigators identified 944 survivors, reviewed more than 300,000 pages of documents and interviewed more than 100 people.
The report says diocesan leaders for decades transferred accused clergy to new parishes without warning parishioners or notifying law enforcement, and that some returned to ministry after treatment without adequate supervision. It also finds continuing shortcomings in training, investigations, supervision of accused clergy and recordkeeping.
The attorney general's office described the report as the first public accounting of institutional failures in the three dioceses. Its recommendations include survivor-centered, trauma-informed practices and greater transparency around accused clergy. On October 7, Jenner Law, which represents survivors, publicly urged the Massachusetts Legislature to remove legal barriers to accountability, including the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims.
The report cautions that its counts include allegations not filtered by credibility assessments, and that underreporting and incomplete diocesan records mean the full scope cannot be determined. Responses from the three dioceses and any follow-up reforms are the next steps in one of Massachusetts' most closely watched public stories of the period.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Massachusetts State House)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0（马萨诸塞州议会大厦）
