More than 270 priests in Massachusetts abused children over decades, state probe finds

Boston — An investigation by the state's attorney general has revealed that more than 270 Catholic clergy sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across three Massachusetts dioceses over many decades, according to a report released on Wednesday. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called it the first comprehensive public accounting of the abuse and institutional failings that allowed it to continue for over half a century at the Catholic dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester.

The majority of the abuse detailed in the report took place before 2002, the year the clergy sex abuse scandal captured international attention following a Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe report that exposed how officials at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston had routinely covered up sex abuse by priests.

The state attorney general's investigation uncovered similar patterns of abuse and institutional cover-ups in other parts of Massachusetts, which Campbell stated were aware of children being sexually abused by priests and other clerics. In too many instances, the report found, they prioritized protecting the reputation of the church over safeguarding the welfare of the children.