EXCLUSIVE: Catholic Church Abuse Probe Uncovers Hundreds of Victims

Nearly 1,000 children were sexually abused by Catholic clerics across three Massachusetts dioceses, according to a devastating new investigation that also found church leaders repeatedly failed to protect children and that serious gaps in oversight remain, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office said its seven-year investigation found evidence that 275 Catholic clerics abused 944 children in the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester over the course of a century.

Investigators reviewed more than 300,000 pages of records and interviewed more than 100 people, including survivors, advocates, attorneys, clergy and diocesan employees.

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the findings a long-overdue public accounting of what happened to children entrusted to the church.

"For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse... have carried the devastating consequences of abuse," Campbell said, adding that institutions entrusted with their care "too often failed to protect them."

The investigation found church leaders failed to act on allegations and warning signs, transferred accused priests without telling parishioners why, returned priests to ministry without adequate supervision, concealed reasons for removing priests and failed to consistently report allegations to law enforcement.

Paula Cardoza, 60, said she still is troubled by the sexual abuse she endured at age 11, when she was fondled by a parish priest at St. Patrick's Church in Wareham.

"I could never understand it," Paula said. "Too often they protected the reputation of the church, rather than protecting children."

And Campbell's office found the problem cannot simply be dismissed as ancient history.

Although the dioceses adopted reforms after a notorious 2002 Boston abuse scandal, investigators found written policies were not consistently followed, with continuing gaps in oversight, accountability and transparency.