After 50 years of keeping a secret about a priest, they’re suing the Catholic Church
He was around 10 years old, his brother was 13, and their friends were between 9 and 11 when the abuse began. They remembered how, at the cabin, the priest insisted on giving each of them sponge baths, during which he fondled their genitals, they said in a newly filed lawsuit against the diocese. How he crawled into bed with them at night and felt their bodies.
The report made them realize that other boys had similar experiences at Virgin Wood. They also realized the diocese had known for years that Ventre was dangerous.
The five men, now in their 60s, allege in their lawsuit, filed in Providence County Superior Court, that the diocese and the parish violated their trust, “robbed [them] of their childhood and left them with a lifetime of struggle.”
They are among 70 alleged survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Rhode Island being represented by the Grant & Eisenhofer law firm in lawsuits being filed in Rhode Island state court and federal court, said lawyer Steven Kelly.
“There’s a degree of shame. There’s a degree of fear that they’re going to be alienated from family members. They all feel guilty. They all feel like that they let these other boys down, because this continued for a long time,” Kelly said.
Their lawsuit is one of dozens that have been filed since July 1 under Rhode Island’s new law granting a two-year window for alleged victims of child sexual abuse to sue the institutions that enabled the abuse years ago. The diocese has not yet responded to any of the lawsuits.
Neronha has said the true scope of abuse was likely greater than the investigators knew, and there were probably survivors who had never come forward. That was the case with these five men from Prospect Heights.
According to the attorney general’s report, Ventre was reported to have sexually abused six boys and a man with mental disabilities, including some at the Virgin Wood cottage, going back to 1973.
The diocese was alerted repeatedly about Ventre, including in a psychological assessment from the St. Luke Institute, in Silver Spring, Md., where he was sent for “rehabilitation.” But the attorney general’s report said neither Bishop Louis Gelineau nor his successor, Bishop Robert Mulvee, did anything to prevent Ventre’s access to children.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/26/m...est-abuse/
He was around 10 years old, his brother was 13, and their friends were between 9 and 11 when the abuse began. They remembered how, at the cabin, the priest insisted on giving each of them sponge baths, during which he fondled their genitals, they said in a newly filed lawsuit against the diocese. How he crawled into bed with them at night and felt their bodies.
The report made them realize that other boys had similar experiences at Virgin Wood. They also realized the diocese had known for years that Ventre was dangerous.
The five men, now in their 60s, allege in their lawsuit, filed in Providence County Superior Court, that the diocese and the parish violated their trust, “robbed [them] of their childhood and left them with a lifetime of struggle.”
They are among 70 alleged survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Rhode Island being represented by the Grant & Eisenhofer law firm in lawsuits being filed in Rhode Island state court and federal court, said lawyer Steven Kelly.
“There’s a degree of shame. There’s a degree of fear that they’re going to be alienated from family members. They all feel guilty. They all feel like that they let these other boys down, because this continued for a long time,” Kelly said.
Their lawsuit is one of dozens that have been filed since July 1 under Rhode Island’s new law granting a two-year window for alleged victims of child sexual abuse to sue the institutions that enabled the abuse years ago. The diocese has not yet responded to any of the lawsuits.
Neronha has said the true scope of abuse was likely greater than the investigators knew, and there were probably survivors who had never come forward. That was the case with these five men from Prospect Heights.
According to the attorney general’s report, Ventre was reported to have sexually abused six boys and a man with mental disabilities, including some at the Virgin Wood cottage, going back to 1973.
The diocese was alerted repeatedly about Ventre, including in a psychological assessment from the St. Luke Institute, in Silver Spring, Md., where he was sent for “rehabilitation.” But the attorney general’s report said neither Bishop Louis Gelineau nor his successor, Bishop Robert Mulvee, did anything to prevent Ventre’s access to children.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/26/m...est-abuse/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
