Massachusetts was the place where the biggest crisis of abuse in the Catholic Church in the United States erupted. In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe uncovered how the Archdiocese of Boston had covered up pedophile priests for decades. That same year, in direct response to the crisis, the state passed a law that made it a crime to recklessly endanger minors.
More than twenty years later, attention is focused on three other dioceses in the state: Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester. The Attorney General's Office began investigating them in 2019, and since then, it has reviewed more than 300,000 pages of documents and interviewed more than a hundred people, including survivors, lawyers, clergy members, and diocesan officials and employees. The result is what Campbell calls the first complete public account of the abuses and the institutional failures that made them possible.
Nearly a thousand victims in more than fifty years
The report's figures are devastating: 275 Catholic clerics sexually abused 944 children in the three dioceses. The cases date back to the 1950s and continued for more than half a century. Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell wanted to focus on the victims: "We deeply understand that behind every number is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed, and a survivor who has carried the trauma of that abuse for years and, in many cases, decades."
The investigation also reveals a recurring pattern in the three dioceses: ecclesiastical authorities knew that priests and other clergy members were abusing minors. Even so, their responses to the complaints were insufficient, which allowed the abuses to continue and spread for generations.
Despite the magnitude of what has been documented, the report does not bring new criminal charges. Many of the events occurred decades ago, and several of those responsible have already died.
Spain was not left out either
In 2014, the Romanones case brought to light child abuse within the Church in Spain. It all began when a young man from Granada recounted the abuses he had suffered, and his complaint reached Pope Francis, who called him personally and apologized. Several priests were investigated, although ultimately only one, Father Román Martínez, was sentenced in 2017 to nine years in prison for abusing a minor. The other accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The Romanones case reflects the difficulties that victims of sexual abuse can encounter in obtaining a judicial conviction. Father Román Martínez was acquitted in 2017 due to lack of sufficient evidence, after the Prosecutor's Office withdrew the accusation. Although he was not legally convicted, the case leaves an uncomfortable question: what happens when a victim reports facts and justice does not find sufficient evidence to convict the accused?
From a critical stance, it is concerning that victims may feel unprotected during the judicial process. However, it is important to distinguish between the lack of sufficient evidence to convict and proving that a complaint is false. The priest's acquittal does not mean that the courts accredited that the reported abuses did not occur. After his acquittal in 2017, the Vatican had lifted the precautionary measures that prevented him from exercising as a priest and he went on to work as a chaplain in a center for people with disabilities in Granada.
The case did not end there. In 2023, the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, published a report on sexual abuse within the Spanish Church after listening to hundreds of victims. The report showed that the problem had been much broader than had been recognized for years and called for more support and reparation for people who suffered these abuses. The cases of Massachusetts and Spain show that abuses within the Church were not isolated incidents. For years, many victims had to remain silent while institutions decided how to act on the complaints. Investigations carried out over time have allowed for a better understanding of what happened, but for those who suffered the abuses, the consequences are still present.
