A week after the Massachusetts attorney general documented 944 survivors of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy outside Boston, the bill that would let most of them sue has not moved. The Legislature’s records show no action on it since July 31.
That bill is now the main route left. The attorney general’s 203-page report, released Sept. 30, concludes that leaders of the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester “actively sought to cover up the child sexual abuse to protect the reputation of the Church.” The attorney general’s office says no one will be prosecuted for that concealment. The conduct either predates legal reforms in 2002 or falls outside the statute of limitations.
The one diocese that still won’t name its accused priests is also holding firm. On Oct. 5, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said her office is “not taking our foot off the pedal” in pushing the Diocese of Worcester to publish a list, GBH reported. A diocesan spokesman replied that lists should not include priests not found guilty under church law.
What the report found
The three dioceses cover most of Massachusetts outside greater Boston:
- Fall River serves the former textile-mill cities of Fall River and New Bedford on the South Coast, near the Rhode Island line, plus Cape Cod and the islands.
- Springfield covers the four counties of Western Massachusetts.
- Worcester covers the center of the state.
Over roughly 70 years, the report counts:
- Fall River: 469 survivors and 92 accused clergy.
- Springfield: 259 survivors and 93 accused clergy.
- Worcester: 216 survivors and 90 accused clergy.
The report says the counts are “not filtered by any assessment of credibility.” They include order priests, bishops, deacons, brothers and nuns, and investigators believe they are incomplete.
The investigation opened in 2019 under then-Attorney General Maura Healey, now governor. A grand jury was used only to subpoena records, not to hear testimony, the report says.
Why it lasted
The report describes a culture in which a priest’s attention to a family was “an honor and even a status symbol.” Families let priests take children to rectories and on overnight trips. According to the report, offenders clustered in Boy Scouts, Catholic Youth Organization sports and altar service. They often targeted children from large or struggling families, or homes where the father was absent, violent or impaired by substance use.
The deference reached police, the report says. In 1963, officers found a Fall River priest in a parked car with a teenage boy. They held him until his pastor arrived and never booked him. In the 1960s, 12 families of children allegedly abused by one Fall River priest worked to keep him from being prosecuted. One mother asked a New Bedford officer, “Do you know how lonely the life of a priest is?”
Inside the church, the report found, abuse was recast as “misplaced affection.” Accused priests were put on “sick leave,” moved or sent out of state. One Worcester priest was transferred 12 times in about 15 years by two bishops who knew of allegations, the report says.
When Worcester helped move Thomas Teczar to a Texas diocese in the 1980s, its lawyer recommended it “in order to lessen the potential for future liability.” Teczar was later convicted in Texas and died in prison in 2015.
Until the early 2000s, survivors had to sign nondisclosure agreements to settle, according to the report. Worcester Bishop Timothy Harrington, who led the diocese from 1983 to 1994, “made no secret of his policy to never report allegations to law enforcement,” the report says.
The safeguards after 2002
After the Boston Archdiocese scandal broke in 2002, the dioceses created lay review boards, background checks and safety training. The attorney general found no case after 2002 in which officials failed to report ongoing abuse of a minor.
The report also documents where the safeguards failed:
- Fall River’s review board. From 1993 through July 2020, the diocese sent fewer than a third of the allegations it received to the board, MassLive reported, citing the report.
- A known abuser as chaperone. In 2006, Fall River learned a priest had abused a minor on a 1990s overnight trip. It later let him chaperone overnight trips in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2013, The Boston Globe reported.
- Benefits without supervision. Priests found to have abused children still receive church housing, retirement and health benefits and are “largely unsupervised,” the report says. It calls the church’s annual audits “self-policing.”
The record leaves two questions open. How many of those priests still draw benefits, and where do they live? And after 2002, did the dioceses pass adult survivors’ reports of past abuse to police? The report’s finding covers only ongoing abuse of minors.
Worcester’s numbers
Worcester is the only Massachusetts diocese without a public list of credibly accused clergy, the attorney general’s office said. The diocese’s own report, with figures updated March 31, 2026, counts 59 clerics with credible allegations. Of those, it says, 42 have died, seven have been removed from the priesthood, and seven are barred from acting as priests but remain clergy. It does not say whether those seven receive pay or housing.
The attorney general counted 90 accused clergy in Worcester, without judging credibility. Terence McKiernan, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, told GBH his group had identified 43 and guessed the true number is “well over 90.” Neither the state nor the diocese has said which people account for the gap between 59 and 90.
Raymond L. Delisle, the diocese’s chancellor and director of communications, said the report “validates” its practices since 2002. The diocese says it has reported every allegation to the district attorney since then. On Oct. 5, a woman told GBH she was abused as a child by a nun at a now-closed Worcester orphanage.
Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha of Fall River said in a statement, “We as a Church failed you when you were most vulnerable.” Bishop William D. Byrne of Springfield called the report “a humbling reminder of the need for continued vigilance.” The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts called the investigation a “cheap shot,” Boston 25 reported.
Why no one will be charged
According to the report, Massachusetts made clergy mandated reporters on May 3, 2002. Reckless endangerment of a child became a crime on Dec. 11, 2002. Neither law applies to earlier conduct. “We cannot apply a criminal law retroactively,” Campbell said, The Globe reported. The state ended the criminal time limit for most child sexual abuse felonies in 2006, but that did not revive expired cases.
Boston saw the same outcome. Attorney General Thomas Reilly’s 2003 report found at least 789 victims and brought no charges against church leaders, VOA reported.
This investigation sent three cases against individual priests to district attorneys, the attorney general’s release says. Prosecutors in Hampden County, which includes Springfield, and Bristol County, which includes Fall River and New Bedford, declined, Campbell said, Boston.com reported. The Worcester County referral led to charges. The case was brought in East Brookfield District Court, about 20 miles west of Worcester, and sealed after it was resolved, a spokesperson for the Worcester district attorney said, MassLive reported. The defendant has not been identified.
The law today
Clergy must report to the state Department of Children and Families when they have reasonable cause to believe a child “is suffering” abuse. Failing to report carries a fine of up to $1,000. The law exempts what a priest learns solely in confession.
The budget Healey signed July 9 makes it a crime for adults in positions of authority, including “other mandated reporters,” to have sexual contact with 16- and 17-year-olds, her office said. Clergy are mandated reporters. As a new crime, it cannot reach past conduct.
Civil suits face two limits:
- The deadline. Survivors can sue abusers until age 53, or seven years after connecting an injury to the abuse. For institutions, that 35-year window covers only abuse after June 26, 2014, under the 2014 law.
- The cap. A 1971 law caps most damages against charities, including dioceses, at $20,000. One survivor told The Globe the Worcester Diocese paid him $10,000, an amount he called “ridiculous.”
What happens next
Campbell wants lawmakers to end the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, remove the cap for those claims, and revive expired claims with no time limit.
A narrower version is pending. Rep. John Lawn, a Watertown Democrat, added it to a primary-care bill that the House passed 158-0 on July 30, according to the Legislature’s records. It would end the deadline, lift the cap and open a two-year window for expired claims. The Senate’s version does not include it.
Six lawmakers are negotiating behind closed doors:
- House: Reps. Aaron Michlewitz, Meghan Kilcoyne and Hannah Kane.
- Senate: Sens. Cindy Friedman, John Cronin and Bruce Tarr.
Lawn was passed over, State House News Service reported. Michlewitz declined to say whether the provision will survive, WBUR reported. The deadline is Jan. 4 or Jan. 5; Friedman told State House News Service the first date, and WBUR reported the second.
The opposition has two parts:
- The church. Lawn said the Archdiocese of Boston has fought these changes “for decades,” GBH reported. Lobbyists for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference have worked against similar bills, according to public filings cited by WBUR.
- Insurers. The Massachusetts Insurance Federation also opposes the change. Its director, Christopher Stark, told WBUR that lifting the limit retroactively could “send shock signals” to the insurance market.
The Senate passed a similar bill unanimously in 2024, and the House did not take it up, NEPM reported.
In Worcester County, the one prosecution tied to the investigation is sealed, with no public court date. Campbell has called this investigation “just the first.”
Sources
Court records
- No public docket. The Worcester County case from the attorney general’s referral was brought in East Brookfield District Court and sealed, according to the Worcester district attorney’s office, as reported by MassLive (see News coverage).
Officials’ releases and statements
- Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, AG Campbell Releases Report On Child Sexual Abuse In Fall River, Springfield, And Worcester Dioceses, Sept. 30, 2026
- Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, report landing page
- Office of Gov. Maura Healey, Governor Healey Signs New Protections for Sexual Assault Survivors into Law, July 24, 2026
- Diocese of Worcester statement by Raymond L. Delisle, as published by The Catholic Free Press, Sept. 30, 2026
- Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, statement, as published by Fall River Reporter, Sept. 30, 2026
- Bishop William D. Byrne, statement, as published by BishopAccountability.org, October 2026
Laws
- G.L. c. 265, § 13L (reckless endangerment of a child), effective Dec. 11, 2002
- G.L. c. 119, § 51A (mandated reporters), clergy added May 3, 2002
- G.L. c. 277, § 63 (criminal statute of limitations)
- G.L. c. 260, § 4C and § 4C½ (civil statute of limitations)
- Acts of 2014, Chapter 145 (2014 civil limit extension)
- G.L. c. 231, § 85K (charitable immunity cap), effective Sept. 16, 1971
- Fiscal 2027 state budget, position-of-trust provision, signed July 9, 2026
- S.3141 bill history, primary-care bill, including Lawn Amendment 110, checked Oct. 8, 2026
Reports and data
- Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, report on child sexual abuse in the Fall River, Springfield and Worcester dioceses, Sept. 30, 2026
- Diocese of Worcester, Maintaining Safe Environments: updated report on clerical sexual abuse of minors, statistics as of March 31, 2026
News coverage
- GBH, AG Campbell steps up calls for Worcester diocese to release names of priests accused of abuse, Oct. 5, 2026
- WBUR, After report on clergy sex abuse, attention turns to Beacon Hill, Oct. 5, 2026
- GBH, Report on abuse in Mass. Catholic churches puts new focus on legal limits for survivors, Oct. 2, 2026
- MassLive via BishopAccountability.org, With the AG investigation concluded, survivors of Worcester Diocese abusers call for change, Oct. 1, 2026
- The Boston Globe, With clergy sex abuse report, AG puts ball in lawmakers’ court, Oct. 1, 2026
- The Boston Globe, ‘It validates our stories.’ Sprawling new report unearths hundreds of priest sex abuse cases across Mass., Sept. 30, 2026
- Boston.com, Nearly 950 children victimized by Catholic clergy in dioceses across the state, AG report finds, Sept. 30, 2026
- MassLive via Yahoo, Fall River Diocese received hundreds of child sex abuse complaints, but didn’t send most to review board, AG says, Sept. 30, 2026
- Boston 25, Nearly 1,000 children abused by clergy in 3 Mass. dioceses over decades, AG says, Sept. 30, 2026
- State House News Service, House health care chair bypassed for major healthcare talks, July 31, 2026
- State House News Service via Athol Daily News, Primary care fix may wait until after November election, Sept. 21, 2026
- NEPM, Lawmaker: Catholic Church lobbied against Mass. bill that would end cap on nonprofit liability, Aug. 13, 2024
- VOA, Investigation Concludes Boston Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal ‘Staggering’, July 23, 2003
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