AG Campbell issues report on child clergy sex abuse across 3 Massachusetts dioceses

Tim Dunn, Boston Herald on Sep 30, 2026

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BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has released a new report detailing nearly 1,000 cases of child sex abuse allegedly committed by 270 clergy across the Fall River, Worcester and Springfield dioceses, first publicly exposed in 2002, and the institutional failures that allowed the abuse to occur and continue.

The report highlighted several institutional failures within the three Catholic dioceses as well as the Boston Archdiocese that allowed “widespread abuse” to occur. It also identifies remaining gaps in oversight, accountability, and transparency across the three dioceses.

“For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including those who are no longer alive, have carried the devastating consequences of abuse, while the institutions entrusted with their care too often failed to protect them. This report provides for the first time a public accounting of the unimaginable harms afflicted on children in the Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester dioceses,” Campbell said.

“While important reforms have been made, the report documents decades of failures by diocesan leaders to adequately respond to allegations of child sexual abuse and protect children from further harm,” she said.

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