Priest accused of asking inappropriate questions removed from reassignment

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. (WPRI) — The Diocese of Providence says it’s rescinding Father Eric Silva’s appointment to a Narragansett parish after a controversial reassignment.

The Diocese said Friday that Silva submitted a written request to Bishop Thomas Tobin asking to be removed. Silva, who had been placed on administrative leave earlier this year, was named assistant pastor of St. Thomas More Parish on Monday. He was set to start serving August 15, according to the Diocese.

“It is with a heavy heart that I realize my presence there will only hurt the parish and cause division amongst the good people of God,” Silva said in the statement.

Silva was placed on leave in February after he was accused of asking “completely inappropriate” questions to students during confession at the Immaculate Conception Regional Catholic School in Cranston. He was the assistant pastor of St. Luke’s Parish in Barrington at the time, but was later stripped of that role.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) claimed on Monday that Silva had already been conducting mass in Narragansett for weeks.

The Diocese declined to comment on SNAP’s statement on Monday, but said Silva was prepared for a more stable assignment after coming back from leave and assisting parishes across the Diocese.

“Father Eric Silva is a fine priest and I am confident that he will serve his parish community very well,” Tobin said in a statement about the new assignment. “Father Silva has done everything we have asked him to do, I trust him completely, and it’s time for him to get back to work.”

Despite being removed from his Narragansett assignment, Silva will retain the “priestly faculties of the Diocese of Providence” but will not be reassigned at the moment, according to the Diocese.