The Sexual Abuse of Children in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston: A Report by the Attorney General

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly opened the investigation in January 2002 and published this report on 23 July 2003. His office obtained the archdiocese’s files, issued subpoenas and used a grand jury. The report covers the years from 1940, with most attention to 1984–2002, when Bernard Law was archbishop.

Its figures are counts of complaints and allegations found in the records, and the report says that the true number of victims is higher. It makes three findings: that there was no evidence of recent or continuing abuse, though it was too soon to say that abuse had stopped; that the evidence was not enough to charge the archdiocese or its senior managers under the state law then in force; and that the abuse was due to an institutional acceptance of abuse and a failure of leadership. It is the report of a prosecutor who brought no charges against the archdiocese, and it is written in strong terms.