Confronting sex abuse priest tested mettle of RI governor candidate before his political years

RI gov candidate confronted sex abuse priest

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Years before he entered politics, a current candidate for Rhode Island governor ran a very different kind of campaign — a quest to confront an abusive Roman Catholic priest.

Republican John Robitaille (ROH’-bih-teye) was among a core group of survivors who helped jail James Porter, sought compensation from the church and secured reforms to crack down on abusive clergy.

Robitaille was sexually assaulted by Porter as a child in North Attleborough, Mass. In 1992, he and other Porter victims went public.

Porter left the priesthood in 1974. He later pleaded guilty to molesting 28 children in southeastern Massachusetts. The Diocese of Fall River, Mass., settled 131 claims over abuse allegedly committed by Porter, who died in prison in 2005.