Throughout the past 75 years, six Catholic priests allegedly committed various acts of criminal sexual abuse and misconduct against children and young men and women while assigned to churches in East Providence, according to a comprehensive report released by the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office earlier this year.

The report, which the AG’s office began working on in 2019, concluded in March that 72 priests active in the Diocese of Providence throughout the state since 1950 were “credibly accused” of various acts of sexual misconduct and/or sexual abuse against as many as 300 children and young adults.

The Post has since reviewed the expansive, 371-page appendix outlining each accused clergy member to ascertain which priests were active in East Providence at the time credible accusations were made against them.

Inclusion on or omission from this list, the AG’s office explains in the report, is not an indication of guilt or innocence, but rather the best assessment of facts available through internal documents provided to the AG’s office via the Diocese of Providence, and through interviews with alleged victims and perpetrators; sometimes spanning multiple decades.

“Importantly, unless otherwise noted, the details in this Appendix are only allegations, not facts proven in a courtroom or otherwise admitted by the accused individuals, and so the named subjects in this Appendix (and as referenced throughout the Report) are generally entitled to a presumption of innocence,” the report summary states.

Below we will summarize the accusations against former priests who were active in East Providence at the time of their alleged crimes. Please be mindful that the material included within the report is graphic in nature and may be triggering to those who have experienced sexual abuse or violence.

Father Edward Kelley

Included as one of four priests from the report who were criminally prosecuted as a result of the AG’s investigation, Father Edward Kelley allegedly sexually abused three victims during his more than 40-year career in ministry.

Kelley, ordained in 1968, was re-assigned five times in his early career before being assigned to St. Matthew Church in Cranston, where he remained from 1976 to 1978. Kelley was re-assigned to St. Margaret’s in East Providence in 1978 after concerns arose around nondescript “moral problems” at St. Matthew.

The first allegation outlined in the report allegedly took place shortly after Kelley left St. Margaret, between 1982 and 1986, and involved Kelley becoming the legal guardian to a teenage boy (Complainant A) who lived with him at the rectories of St. John the Evangelist in Slaterville and St. Agatha Church in Woonsocket. The Diocese reportedly knew of the relationship and received multiple complaints, beginning in 1987, that Kelley was “sleeping in the same room or bed with the boy.”

Years later, in 2019, Complainant A reported to the Rhode Island State Police that Kelley had sexually abused him on numerous occasions, which ultimately led to Kelley’s indictment for three counts of first-degree sexual assault.

According to the report, that victim only came forward to tell their story because of an earlier assault that allegedly occurred during Kelley’s previous assignment, at St. Margaret.

According to the report, the alleged victim (Complainant B), came forward in November of 1994 to report to the Diocese that he had been abused over a six-year period by Kelley, starting when he was about 14 years old; including multiple acts of rape. He said the abuse started shortly after meeting Kelley at St. Margaret School in 1976, where Kelley was the chaplain of his Boy Scout troop.

“He reported that Kelley would pinch his buttocks and talk about masturbation with him, show the complainant how to masturbate, and eventually have sex with him on multiple occasions,” the report states. “The complainant also described sexual assaults that occurred during Boy Scout events,” including a time where the boy claimed to have woken up to find Kelley lying on top of him, naked, and trying to touch him inappropriately.

In December of 1994, Director of the Diocese Office of Education and Compliance, Robert McCarthy, reached out to East Providence Police regarding the allegations. McCarthy reportedly sent a report to the Archbishop of the Military Archdiocese, as Kelley was apparently out of the country on an Army chaplaincy assignment at the time. That report indicated McCarthy “felt something was wrong” with the complaint, buoyed in that belief after a letter was submitted by the complainant’s friend “presumably requesting financial compensation for the complainant” and which McCarthy described as “a shake down letter and at worst an extortion letter”.

This report led then-Bishop Louis Gelineau to conclude that he believed the allegations against Kelley were false, and the complainant reportedly stopped communicating with the Diocese and with East Providence police, who stated that because the complainant had not filed a formal report with them, they could not investigate.

Complainant B was found dead in 1997. The cause of death appeared to be suicide.

The report indicates that Complainant A decided to disclose his abuse in 2019, which had occurred over 30 years prior, “because he knew an individual who had committed suicide due to abuse by Father Kelley.”

Kelley retied on Jan. 31, 2013. His faculties were revoked by Bishop Tobin in March of 2015 for “reasons apparently unrelated” to the alleged sexual misconduct. He died on Sept. 25, 2022 while the case against him brought upon by Complainant A’s allegations was pending. He had pled not guilty to those charges.

Father Joseph D’Angelo

D’Angelo was assigned to St. Margaret Church from 1981 to 1983, during which he was credibly accused of sexual abuse of two boys, both between the age of 11 and 12 when the abuse reportedly occurred.

Prior to his time at St. Margaret, D’Angelo allegedly assaulted two young boys at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Providence during his assignment there from 1980 to 1981. Neither of those alleged victims — both who claimed D’Angelo inappropriately touched them, and one who claimed he sexually assaulted them — wished to cooperate with the investigation or make further statements.

The first act at St. Margaret allegedly occurred in 1981, with the complainant (identified as Complainant C) eventually suing D’Angelo in 1996 and accusing him of touching his genitals multiple times within the church and the rectory.

“Father D’Angelo reportedly told Complainant C that sexual behavior was normal between and a priest and a child and repeatedly instructed him not to tell anyone about the alleged abuse,” the report states.

Although Diocesan officials indicated belief that Complainant C had filed the suit and made the accusation as a retaliation following being denied entry into seminary, and D’Angelo said he had many letters from between 1987 and 1995 showing the complainant’s “admiration, emulation, gratitude, friendship, and filial affection towards him”, the alleged victim was awarded $750,000 in 2002 as part of a widespread settlement involving 36 plaintiffs.

The second alleged victim (Complainant D) was a student at St. Margaret’s School between 1981 and 1983. The report indicated that D’Angelo removed him from class regularly to see him, and at one point allegedly told the boy he wanted to “tie [him] up and whip him with whips and chains.”

Complainant D came forward to talk about his alleged abuse in 2018, sharing that he and his mother had confronted D’Angelo after the alleged abuse had happened in the 80s, but nothing happened besides D’Angelo eventually being re-assigned elsewhere.

“The police were not called,” Complainant D wrote. “No other discussion ever happened. It was just swept under the rug.” No charges were brought against D’Angelo in 2018 because the alleged acts of second-degree sexual assault described in the complaint were outside of the statute of limitations.

Bishop Gelineau, according to the report, placed D’Angelo on suspension following accusations made at St. Margaret, and mandated he receive treatment at a facility in New Mexico. D’Angelo refused to do so, ultimately fleeing to Italy to appeal to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

After many back-and-forth reports from Diocesan officials, while D’Angelo was able to resume priestly duties to a degree while abroad, D’Angelo was ultimately laicized on Sept. 22, 2006. Diocesan officials did not reportedly refer any of the complaints against D’Angelo to law enforcement until 2007. D’Angelo continuously denied all accusations against him, claiming to be the victim of a targeted conspiracy. He died in January of 2026.

Father John Ferry

Assigned to St. Margaret from 1965 to 1967, Ferry is the subject of four allegations of crimes against boys and young men between the age of 15 and 18. Each accusation includes a similar circumstance where Ferry allegedly provided the teenagers with alcohol before touching them inappropriately.

One of those complaints came from an alleged victim during Ferry’s time at St. Margaret in 1967. Ferry allegedly offered the teen a a job at “The Providence Visitor”, a newspaper where he was employed. He asked him to help move items from the church one day and, while doing so, allegedly pushed the complainant down onto a couch and grabbed his genitals.

Ferry pre-deceased all four of the complaints made against him, dying on April 11, 1988.

Father John Tormey

Tormey was accused of sexually abusing twin sisters in the late 1960s while assigned to St. Margaret Church. Both sisters reported the abuse to the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office in 2002 but declined to press formal charges because they wanted to remain anonymous. They also reported the acts to the Diocese in 2003, but since Tormey had long since exited the priesthood in 1979, the Diocese said they had no canonical authority to pursue it.

The complainants reported in 2002 that they had both been the victim of second degree sexual assault/child molestation by Tormey, including an instance of forced oral sex when they were around 14 years old. They said the abuse began in the late 1960s when they were in 7th or 8th grade, and continued for several years, amounting to “hundreds of occasions” of sexual abuse at various locations. They said that Tormey was a family friend, particularly of their mother, who they said permitted Tormey to share a room with them while on a family vacation in Florida when they were 13-14 years old.

The sisters reportedly confronted Tormey shortly after he resigned and sought laicization in 1979 — just 12 years after being ordained because he, according to the report, could not “honestly live the call of celibacy” — at his home in Rumford to inform his then-fiancee of their allegations against him.

Tormey, who is still alive, has vehemently denied the allegations against him. He said that during the aforementioned family trip it was the girls who tried to inappropriately touch him, and that they were being “vindictive” and trying to humiliate and “blackmail” him ever since, because he told their parents about their illicit behavior on the trip.

He sued the Diocese of Providence for defamation in 2019 after it placed him on its List of Credibly Accused Clergy; that case is still pending. He said he was never given a chance to defend himself when the allegations were first made in 2002 and 2003, nor was he made aware of the accusations by any authority, and now his most ardent witnesses (the alleged victims’ parents) are dead. He argued his inclusion on the list led to him losing his job at Bristol Community College.

Tormey was interviewed by Director of the Diocese Office of Education and Compliance, Kevin O’Brien, in April of 2019. According to the report, O’Brien concluded from that interview that Tormey’s claims from the Florida trip painting the girls as the instigators was “unlikely” and that “Tormey’s recollections and explanations did not seem to be very credible at all.”

The Attorney General’s report said it invited Tormey to an interview with state police as a part of this investigation, which he declined through his attorney. Both of the alleged victims have since passed away.

Father Louis Diogo

First ordained in 1946, Father Louis Diogo started a seven-year assignment at St. Francis Xavier Church in East Providence from 1957 to 1964. During this time he allegedly sexually abused two pairs of young sisters.

The first pair of sisters (Complainants A and B) claimed the abuse occurred outside of the church setting, one at the victim’s own home, the other at the victim’s aunt’s house after Diogo allegedly took her out of school. Both involved incidents of kissing and inappropriate touching when they were 13-15 years old and 10 years old, respectively.

The third victim (Complainant C) stated her abuse began when she visited Diogo at St. Francis Xavier Church in 1958 when she was 14 years old. She claimed she went to discuss her interest in potentially becoming a nun.

“Diogo told her to stay in school and kissed her on the mouth,” the report states. “Other instances of alleged kissing, fondling, and Diogo masturbating in Complainant C’s presence reportedly continued into her 20s and stopped when she left the country for work.”

The fourth victim (Complainant D) said she was abused by Diogo when she was 10 or 11 years old, also occurring in the St. Francis Xavier Church. She claimed he kissed her on the lips, pressed himself against her, and grabbed her hand and placed it on his genitals. She claimed similar behavior happened over the next several years.

Diocese investigator, Robert McCarthy, interviewed Diogo about these allegations in 2006 but, according to the report, never disclosed them to law enforcement officials.

Diogo, who denied all the allegations against him “except for maybe an affectionate kiss”, was eventually barred from holding public mass services but was never suspended or laicized. He died on April 4, 2015.

Father Normand Demers

The report indicates that over a more than 30-year period between 1965 and 1997, Father Normand Demers allegedly abused at least 11 boys and young men. This includes alleged claims while Demers was assigned to St. Martha Church in East Providence from 1990 to 2002.

Demers came to St. Martha as a temporary assistant pastor on Aug. 10, 1990. The reports notes there were no restrictions placed on him by the Diocese, despite him at this time being in a “continuing care” program with St. Luke Institute (a Diocesan treatment facility) following at least four complaints stemming from Demers’ behavior with young boys up to this point.

While the report does not indicate that any alleged acts of abuse occurred at St. Martha, two complainants (both international exchange students) alleged Demers assaulted them while he was providing them room and board; one in 1991 when he was 18 or 19, and the other for a period between 1995 and 1997 when he was 19-21 years old. Both accusers claim Demers touched them inappropriately in an unwanted fashion.

One of the complainants told Diocesan investigator Kevin O’Brien that he suspected there were other victims like them, because Demers had hosted other international students and that “Demers chose to prey on them because he knew they relied on him to come to and remain in the United States.”

The other complainant, after refusing to cooperate with the new investigation in 2026, said he was living with chronic depression, that “reliving those horrific memories won’t do any good to me”, and that “Father Demers destroyed his life, he has seen numerous therapists, and to this day he has not recovered.”

Diocesan officials received a report of possible misconduct from Demers as early as 1965, the report states, but he remained in ministry until 2002, when he was suspended. He retired in 2004 and died on July 21, 2018.