RHODE ISLAND CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE LAWYERS
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The Case
What the 2026 Attorney General’s Report Found
The report identified 72 deacons and priests with credible accusations of abuse, with an additional 11 who lived in Rhode Island but committed alleged abuse in another location. Only 14 of the men listed are still alive. Catholic priests in Rhode Island preyed on hundreds of children for decades, getting away with sexual abuse largely due to a system where bishops prioritized minimizing scandal, as the diocese maintained a secret archive to conceal the revelation of more victims.
Of all the clergy identified in the report, only about 26% ever faced criminal charges and just 14 were convicted. Four criminal prosecutions resulted directly from the investigation, including three that are still awaiting trial as of the date of the report’s publication.
The Attorney General recommended the diocese establish an independent survivor compensation fund, a monitoring program for credibly accused clergy, a survivors’ rights policy, improved internal investigations policies, and nationwide background checks for all clergy. He also called for an expansion of the diocese’s credibly accused list, an online database for key diocesan records related to abuse, and mandatory reporting to law enforcement within 24 to 48 hours of receipt of any abuse complaint.
Rhode Island has one of the largest Catholic populations per capita in the country, with over 39% of Rhode Islanders self-identifying as Catholic — making the scope of the alleged abuse particularly significant.
Sources: Rhode Island AG’s Office — Full Report | Rhode Island Current (March 4, 2026) | NBC Boston (March 6, 2026) | WBUR (March 5, 2026) | America Magazine (March 5, 2026)
Legal Help For Survivors
WERE YOU OR A LOVED ONE ABUSED BY
CLERGY IN RHODE ISLAND?
Legal Claims
What Survivors May Be Able to Claim
Rhode Island’s revival window allows survivors to bring civil claims against the institutions that enabled clergy abuse — not just the individual abuser.
On June 3, 2026, the Rhode Island Senate voted 37-0 to approve legislation creating a temporary two-year revival window allowing survivors to file civil lawsuits against institutions and supervisors accused of enabling or covering up sexual abuse of children. Governor McKee signed the legislation into law on June 11, 2026. The revival window opens on July 1, 2026 and closes on June 30, 2028. Once it closes, previously expired claims may be permanently barred.
Before this legislation, survivors of childhood clergy abuse generally had 35 years after their 18th birthday — or until they reached age 53 — to file civil lawsuits. Once that deadline passed, most claims were permanently barred. For many survivors, particularly those who disclosed abuse years or decades after it occurred, prior statutes of limitation prevented legal action entirely.
Under the new law, civil claims may be brought against the Diocese of Providence and other institutions that were aware of abuse and failed to act, actively concealed it, or otherwise enabled it to continue. Attorney General Neronha publicly supported the legislation, stating the diocese could have established a voluntary compensation fund but refused.
Sources: National Catholic Reporter (April 1, 2026) | Brown Daily Herald (June 2026) | Office of the Governor — Press Release (June 11, 2026)
Potential claims include:
Negligent Supervision & Retention
The Diocese allegedly continued assigning credibly accused clergy to active ministry — in some cases transferring them to new parishes — despite repeated complaints of abuse.
Concealment & Failure to Report
The Diocese is alleged to have maintained a secret archive of abuse complaints and failed to report many allegations to law enforcement for decades.
Institutional Liability
Civil claims may extend beyond the individual clergy member to the Diocese and parishes that were aware of the abuse and failed to act.
Named Defendants
Who Is Being Sued
Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence
The diocese named in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s report as having concealed decades of clergy sexual abuse. Institutions that were aware of abuse and failed to act may be held civilly liable.
Parishes, Schools & Rectories
The specific parishes, schools, and rectories across Rhode Island where the alleged abuse occurred, in incidents dating back to 1950.
Diocesan Leadership & Supervisors
Bishops and supervisors who allegedly knew of abuse complaints, failed to report them to law enforcement, and in some cases transferred accused clergy to new assignments.
Credibly Accused Clergy (72 Individuals)
The 72 deacons and priests identified by the Attorney General’s report as credibly accused of child sexual abuse within the Diocese. See the full list below.
Prominent Alleged Abusers
Prominent Alleged Abusers Named in the Report
The following accounts are drawn directly from Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s March 2026 report, Appendix A — Credibly Accused Clergy, publicly available at riag.ri.gov. All details are allegations. All named subjects are entitled to a presumption of innocence.
Father Joseph Abruzzese
Ordained: November 17, 1990 | Status: Alive, Suspended
Abruzzese allegedly sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy in Roger Williams Park in Providence in 1993 while assigned to St. Anthony Parish in North Providence. A Providence Police officer received the complaint on October 29, 1993. The complainant reported that a man unknown to him approached him in civilian clothes, offered him money, then grabbed him by the genitals and exposed himself. Police identified Abruzzese by his vehicle’s license plate number. He was charged with one count of second-degree sexual assault and one count of disorderly conduct, and pled nolo contendere. The Diocese suspended him following the assault but allowed him to continue living at diocesan rectories and receiving financial support during his suspension. He met with Rhode Island State Police in November 2025 and denied the allegations.
Monsignor John Allard
Ordained: September 19, 1975 | Deceased: April 27, 2018
Beginning in October 1981 and over the following two years, Allard allegedly sexually abused a teenage altar boy on numerous occasions. The abuse allegedly occurred at the rectory of Immaculate Conception Church in Cranston, at Allard’s personal residence in Chepachet, and at the victim’s family home. Allard went on to serve as Director of the Diocesan Office of Youth Ministry. When the survivor disclosed the abuse to the Diocese in February 2013, the Diocesan Review Board deemed the allegations credible after Allard admitted they were true. The Diocese placed him on administrative leave and ordered him to a “life of prayer and penance.”
Father Normand Demers
Ordained: May 31, 1958 | Deceased: July 21, 2018
Over a period of more than 30 years between 1965 and 1997, Demers allegedly sexually abused at least eleven boys and young men while serving as a priest. Members of the Diocesan hierarchy first received notice of possible misconduct as early as 1965, but Demers remained in active ministry until 2002. After learning he was accused of sexual misconduct with boys in Haiti, the Diocese sent him to Saint Luke Institute — a treatment facility — for approximately five months in 1989–1990, then returned him to a parish assignment at St. Martha Church in East Providence where he served for another dozen years. By the time he was finally suspended in 2002, the Diocese had received at least five separate reports of abuse against him. None resulted in a prosecutable criminal case.
Father Alfred Desrosiers
Ordained: June 25, 1961 | Deceased: February 15, 2001
Between 1972 and the mid-1980s, Desrosiers allegedly sexually abused three teenage girls and one boy while serving as a priest in the Diocese. The Diocese received its first complaint in March 1993 when a woman reported she had been in a sexually abusive relationship with Desrosiers as a teenager. In September 1995, a grand jury returned an indictment charging him with one count of raping the complainant when she was 15 years old in 1972. Desrosiers died in 2001 while the criminal case was still pending. In late 2002, the Diocese paid several hundred thousand dollars to settle civil lawsuits brought by survivors. The Diocese received additional complaints against Desrosiers in 2012 and 2019.
Father Philip Magaldi
Ordained: December 18, 1960 | Deceased: August 12, 2008
Magaldi allegedly sexually abused nine boys during his 38-year ministry. The allegations reveal a pattern of targeting at-risk youth, grooming them through lavish spending and gifts, and threatening retaliation if they reported the abuse. Most of the alleged sexual abuse took place while he was assigned to St. Anthony Church in North Providence and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Providence. In 1992, Magaldi was convicted of embezzling $120,000 from St. Anthony Church and sentenced to two years in prison, later reduced to eight months in a halfway house. Despite being aware of abuse allegations, Bishop Louis Gelineau transferred Magaldi to the Diocese of Fort Worth in 1993, where he was incardinated in 1995.
Father Edward Kelley
Ordained: June 8, 1968 | Deceased: September 26, 2022
Kelley allegedly sexually abused three victims during his more than 40 years in ministry. In 1982, Kelley became the legal guardian of a teenage boy who lived with him at the rectories of St. John the Evangelist in Slaterville and St. Agatha Church in Woonsocket. The Diocese received multiple complaints beginning in 1987 that Kelley was sleeping in the same room or bed with the boy. Bishop Louis Gelineau instructed Kelley to separate from the boy but the Diocese took no disciplinary action and did not report the complaints to law enforcement. The victim later reported to Rhode Island State Police that Kelley had sexually abused him on numerous occasions. In 2021, a Rhode Island grand jury indicted Kelley on three counts of first-degree sexual assault. He died while the case was pending in 2022.
Father Robert Marcantonio
Ordained: June 24, 1967 | Deceased: October 20, 1999
When the Diocese first received documented allegations of child sexual misconduct against Marcantonio, he had served as a priest for less than three years and was just 27 years old. The allegations related to his alleged abuse of “ten to fifteen” different boys. After being deemed “incurable” by two Diocesan-hired psychiatrists, Marcantonio left Rhode Island for Iowa in 1970 to receive “treatment.” In 1975, Bishop Gelineau — who had been made aware of the circumstances — rehired Marcantonio, first as a part-time pastor at St. John Vianney in Cumberland and later to work on the campuses of several Rhode Island colleges and universities. Beginning in 1989, Marcantonio and the Diocese were sued numerous times by survivors alleging abuse across multiple states and settings. The Diocese paid approximately $2.7 million to settle those claims.
Father Peter Scagnelli
Ordained: August 6, 1976 | Deceased: July 12, 2017
Scagnelli was accused of sexually abusing six boys and two young men from 1977 to 1994, and was also accused of grooming a teenage boy in 2000. The alleged abuse occurred at St. Timothy Parish in Warwick, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Bristol, Sacred Heart Parish in Woonsocket, and St. Anselm Abbey in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Diocese received the first complaint against Scagnelli in 1993 and placed him on indefinite leave in 1994, from which he never returned to full-time ministry. Between 2000 and 2004, the Diocese received multiple notifications that Scagnelli was saying Mass in Massachusetts despite his suspension. The Diocese ultimately reported the allegations to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which recommended voluntary laicization — a recommendation Scagnelli did not follow.
Source for all entries: Rhode Island AG’s Office — Appendix A: Credibly Accused Clergy (March 4, 2026)
Full List
All 72 Credibly Accused Clergy — Diocese of Providence
The following names appear in Appendix A of the Rhode Island Attorney General’s March 2026 report on the Diocese of Providence, publicly available at riag.ri.gov/diocese-report. All individuals listed were determined by the Attorney General to have been credibly accused of child sexual misconduct in the Diocese of Providence based on the totality of information in the Office’s possession. These are allegations. All named individuals are presumed innocent unless convicted.
- Father Joseph Abruzzese
- Monsignor John Allard
- Brother Roger C. Argencourt
- Father Daniel Azzarone
- Brother Robert (aka Peter) Barnes
- Father Francis Xavier Battel
- Father Roger Belhumeur
- Father Mario Bordignon
- Father Dennis Brodeur
- Father James Campbell
- Father Robert Carpentier
- Brother Vincent Cavanaugh
- Father Paul Charland
- Father Eugene Corbesero
- Father John Crafton
- Father Joseph D’Angelo
- Monsignor Anthony DeAngelis
- Father Normand Demers
- Father Alfred Desrosiers
- Father Paul Desrosiers
- Father Louis Diogo
- Father Charles Dolan
- Father John Doran
- Monsignor Louis Dunn
- Monsignor Michael W. Dziob
- Brother Raphael Edes
- Father John Joseph Keough Feeney
- Father Oscar Ferland
- Father John Ferry
- Father Edmund Fitzgerald
- Father John H. Flanagan
- Deacon Laurence Gagnon
- Father William Gillooly
- Father Timothy Gorton
- Father Rene Guertin
- Father Richard Holden
- Father James Jackson
- Father Edward Kelley
- Father Joseph Gerard Raymond Lacasse
- Father Michael LaMountain
- Father Norman Leboeuf
- Father Paul Henry Leech
- Father Roland Lepire
- Father Alfred Lonardo
- Father Philip Magaldi
- Father Thomas Dente Kofi Manu
- Father Robert Marcantonio
- Father Joseph McCra
- Father Robert McIntyre
- Father Barry Meehan
- Father Richard Meglio
- Father Adrien Menard
- Father Edmond Micarelli
- Father William O’Connell
- Father John Francis O’Neil
- Father William O’Neill
- Father John Powers
- Father Hugh Rafferty
- Father William Raiche
- Father Paul F. Reynolds
- Father Joseph Rocha
- Deacon Edward Sadowski
- Father Alfred Santagata
- Father Francis Santilli
- Father Peter Scagnelli
- Father John Gerard Brendan Smyth
- Father William Tanguay
- Father Peter L. Tedeschi
- Father John Tormey
- Father Paul Tousignant
- Father Biagio Samuel Turillo
- Father Armand Ventre
Source for all entries: Rhode Island AG’s Office — Appendix A: Credibly Accused Clergy (March 4, 2026)
Your Attorneys
GGH Is Fighting for Families Like Yours
If you or someone you love was harmed due to negligence at a Catholic parish, school, or other Diocese-affiliated institution in Rhode Island, you may have legal options. GGH Law represents survivors in civil cases involving negligence, failure to supervise, and failure to disclose incidents of alleged abuse or harm.
Institutions have a legal duty to protect those in their care. When they fail to properly screen clergy, ignore warning signs, or conceal incidents of harm, they can be held accountable. The same applies to the Diocese itself — when a central authority oversees a network of parishes and schools, it also shares responsibility for ensuring those locations are safe.
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