{"id":62673,"date":"2026-05-04T22:45:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62673"},"modified":"2026-05-04T22:45:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:45:56","slug":"rhode-island-diocese-abuse-report-seven-years-for-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2026\/05\/04\/rhode-island-diocese-abuse-report-seven-years-for-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhode Island Diocese Abuse Report: Seven Years for Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rhode<\/p>\n

Despite the media hype, the Report<\/strong> on abuse in the Diocese of Providence<\/strong> (Rhode Island) uncovered only old allegations<\/strong> and no priests currently under investigation.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

A full 284 pages<\/strong> and 7 years of investigations, yet nobody is talking about it.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General of Rhode Island<\/strong><\/mark> (United States) cannot be very pleased after drawing the conclusions of a report that the Boston Globe<\/strong><\/em> had previously described as explosive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Rhode Island report<\/h2>\n

Attorney General Peter Neronha<\/strong> had hoped to replicate the media success achieved in 2018 by his Pennsylvania counterpart, Josh Shapiro<\/strong>, with his sensational \u201cgrand jury report\u201d that attracted international attention.<\/p>\n

At the time, UCCR<\/strong> also covered it<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, while also pointing out what the media had ignored: the abuses dated back more than 20 years<\/strong>, many of the accused priests were homosexual<\/strong>, and most of the victims were young seminarians<\/strong> (not children).<\/p>\n

Some of these issues also emerged in the report<\/a><\/em><\/strong> of 284 pages recently produced by the Rhode Island Attorney General, in which he claims to document abuses committed by priests in the state.<\/p>\n

Describing Neronha\u2019s report as \u201cdisappointing\u201d<\/strong> compared to expectations would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

However<\/b><\/u>, a single abuse<\/strong> is already far too many, and we do not intend in any way to downplay its seriousness. Our criticism is directed at media sensationalism, false narratives<\/strong>, and the use of these crimes to broadly attack the Church in a generalized<\/strong> way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

97% of the abuse dates back to the 1970s<\/h2>\n

The main finding in the Rhode Island report mirrors what was highlighted in Pennsylvania: the alleged abuses, as admitted by Attorney General Neronha himself, date back to \u201cthree-quarters of a century ago<\/strong>\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

He also stated that he \u201cfound no evidence<\/strong> of recent sexual abuse of minors by clergy\u201d<\/i> and that \u201csexual abuse in Rhode Island appears to have peaked in the 1960s and 1970s<\/strong> and then declined\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

And further: \u201cNo priest<\/strong> credibly accused of abuse is currently in active ministry in the Diocese of Providence\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

In particular, nearly 97%<\/strong> of the 300 alleged abuses occurred between 1950 and 1997, and 42%<\/strong> before 1972. These are described as alleged<\/strong> facts because the accusations have not been verified.<\/p>\n

Why does this peak of abusers appear precisely in that period?<\/p>\n

Another finding presented by the Rhode Island Attorney General is that of the 75 priests accused<\/strong> in the report, 64 (i.e. 85%) are deceased and therefore unable to defend themselves.<\/p>\n

\"rhode<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The prosecutor’s accusations<\/h2>\n

Despite this, Neronha still accused the Diocese of Providence of failing to investigate<\/strong> allegations against priests who had long been deceased, and of \u201cdestroying confidential files<\/strong> after the priests\u2019 deaths, unless there were ongoing legal proceedings involving them\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Both accusations are false, first of all because the investigation was made possible precisely thanks to the handover of files<\/strong> to the authorities by the Diocese of Providence.<\/p>\n

And it is not true that the diocese failed to investigate the allegations.<\/p>\n

This is demonstrated by a case emphasized by the Boston Globe<\/strong><\/i>, involving the priest Francis Santilli<\/strong>, highlighting the presence of \u201ccredible accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision to focus on a single case among 75 already suggests they did not find much else. In any case, regarding Santilli, the Diocese of Providence conducted an investigation<\/a><\/em><\/strong> and deemed the accusations not credible<\/strong>, even under the broadly permissive standards adopted by the diocese itself.<\/p>\n

\n

Stay updated by subscribing<\/strong> to our new channels:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

The bishop: “The Report finds no evidence”<\/h2>\n

All this led the Bishop of Providence, Bruce Lewandowski<\/strong>, to respond<\/a><\/em><\/strong> to the report presented by Attorney General Neronha.<\/p>\n

After noting that the investigation was made possible precisely because the diocese provided Neronha with all personnel files, including \u201cmaterial dating back more than seventy-five years<\/strong>\u201d<\/i>, he acknowledged \u201cserious errors\u201d<\/strong> in the \u201cinitial recognition and handling of this terrible period\u201d<\/i>, while emphasizing efforts made to improve transparency and prevention.<\/p>\n

The bishop then noted that \u201cany suggestion that there is an ongoing crisis within this diocese requiring urgent intervention is contradicted by the fact that the Report took nearly seven years<\/strong> to be published\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Bishop Lewandowski<\/strong> further observed that \u201cthe Report itself reveals no evidence<\/strong> of recent sexual abuse of minors by clergy, no credible allegations<\/strong> against those currently in ministry, and no failure<\/strong> by the diocese to meet its legal reporting obligations\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Yet these 75 years are presented \u201cin such a way as to lead the reader to conclude that these issues are still unresolved or represent new revelations. This is not the case\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Applying today’s sensibilities to the past<\/h2>\n

Finally, the Bishop of Providence also criticized the Report for its stigmatization<\/strong> of the diocese\u2019s initial response to the allegations, applying \u201ccontemporary standards, practices, and awareness to conduct that occurred almost half a century ago, when the world was very different\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n

This is a key point<\/strong>, often poorly understood.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General, in fact, repeatedly notes that abusive priests were at the time sent to medical treatment centers<\/strong>, implying this was an insufficient or hypocritical response.<\/p>\n

But at the time, today\u2019s awareness did not exist<\/strong>, and the belief that pedophiles suffered from psychological conditions treatable medically was widespread in society.<\/p>\n

In the same period, Lewandowski also recalled, \u201cjudges and prosecutors in Rhode Island themselves approved and ordered similar treatments<\/strong> for those under criminal proceedings\u201d<\/i>, citing several well-known cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the media hype, the report on abuse in the Diocese of Providence (Rhode Island) uncovered only old allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":88,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2198,2199],"class_list":["post-62673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-abuses-church","tag-rhode-island"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRhode Island Diocese Abuse Report: Seven Years for Nothing - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite the media hype, the report on abuse in the Diocese of Providence (Rhode Island) uncovered only old allegations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2026\/05\/04\/rhode-island-diocese-abuse-report-seven-years-for-nothing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rhode Island Diocese Abuse Report: Seven Years for Nothing - 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We addressed this in our commentary<\/a><\/em><\/strong> on the Georgetown University report: the \u201cmoral collapse\u201d of the 1968 era<\/strong>, when leading intellectuals signed appeals for the \u201csexual liberation of children,\u201d unfortunately also affected many men of the Church.<\/p>\n