What the Rhode Island Attorney General's Diocese of Providence Report Found

In March 2026, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha released a report on child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Providence. This article summarizes what the report says. Every finding described here is the Attorney General's, and is attributed to that office.

How the investigation came about

The Attorney General's office states that the review followed a memorandum of understanding entered into with the Diocese of Providence in July 2019, which itself followed an earlier letter of understanding in 2016. Under it, the office reviewed diocesan records.

What the report found

As the Attorney General reports it:

• 75 clergy were identified as credibly accused of child sexual abuse.
• Of those, 55 were already named on a list previously published by the diocese, 4 more were added to that list, and 20 were newly identified by the Attorney General's office.
• 14 of the 75 were still living at the time of the report.
• The investigation was associated with four criminal prosecutions.

The full report and its landing page are published by the Attorney General's office, and we link to both below.

What "credibly accused" means

The report uses the term to mean an allegation with a reasonable basis to believe that the conduct more likely than not occurred, as determined by the Attorney General's office. That is a lower standard than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, which is what a criminal conviction requires.

The report is careful on this point, and so are we: individuals named in it are accused, not convicted, and retain the presumption of innocence. Where we describe a person, we use "alleged", "accused" or "credibly accused", following the source.

What the report is not

• It is not a court judgment. No civil or criminal case is decided by it.
• It does not determine whether any survivor has a valid civil claim.
• It is not a complete list of everyone who may have been abused or everyone who may have abused. It reflects the records reviewed and the allegations reported.
• Being absent from it does not mean a survivor's account is doubted. Many survivors never reported to the diocese or to the state.

Survivor privacy in the report

The Attorney General's office states that survivor names were omitted except where a survivor consented to being identified. Privacy in a civil case works differently: Rhode Island does not give survivors an automatic right to sue anonymously, and a lawyer has to ask the court for permission to proceed under a pseudonym.

What it can mean for a claim

For a survivor, an official report can matter in practical ways. It puts on the public record what a state authority concluded about how allegations were handled, and it can help a law firm identify records worth requesting. It does not replace the legal analysis of your own dates, defendants and facts.

Those questions are covered in Diocese of Providence sexual abuse claims, Who may qualify? and Rhode Island's 2026 revival window explained.

Graystone Legal is not a law firm and does not represent claimants. We can connect you with a participating law firm for a free, no-obligation case review.

[Check If I Qualify](/free-case-review?tort=ri-clergy)