Diocese of Providence criticizes state’s abuse report, claims it’s meant to ‘sway’ legislators

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha on March 4 released a long-awaited report on child abuse in the Diocese of Providence, one that the diocese says reveals little new and is meant to function instead as a political document. The investigation, which began in 2019 and culminated in January when Neronha announced its completion, reveals what the prosecutor calls a “scourge of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Rhode Island,” one that has “plagued [the] state for decades, if…