PROVIDENCE — Most Reverend Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., Bishop of Providence, has appointed Major Kenneth Buonaiuto as the Diocese of Providence’s Safe Environments Coordinator in the Office of Compliance. Major Buonaiuto retired in December 2024 as the Commanding Officer of the Rhode Island Department of Public Safety.
“Major Buonaiuto brings to our diocese’s safe environments programs extensive law enforcement experience as a top leader in the Rhode Island State Police,” said Bishop Lewandowski about the appointment.
“We welcome him to this important role where he will continue to develop and implement our diocese’s longstanding programs and practices for protecting children and vulnerable people across our ministries and institutions.”
As diocesan Safe Environments Coordinator, Maj. Buonaiuto ensures all diocesan parishes, schools and ministries receive training, education, and support regarding safe environment policies.
Maj. Buonaiuto, 63, a parishioner at Holy Apostles Parish, Cranston, served for 27-and-a-half years in the Rhode Island State Police, as well as 3 years in the West Warwick Police Department prior to that.
He is pleased to use his decades of professional experience in law enforcement to fulfill a vital role for the diocese.
“I am grateful to Bishop Lewandowski and Monsignor Kenney who have provided me this honorable opportunity to serve the Diocese of Providence in the Office of Compliance. I am confident that my years of serving the citizens of Rhode Island as a member of the Rhode Island State Police will assist me in transitioning into this new role,” said Major Kenneth Buonaiuto.
“With humble gratitude, I look forward to serving the Diocese of Providence community.”
As Commanding Officer of the Department of Public Safety, Maj. Buonaiuto oversaw operations, recruitment and administrative functions of the more than 200 sworn law enforcement officers of the Rhode Island Sheriffs and Rhode Island Capitol Police, as well as overseeing Rhode Island Emergency 911, Rhode Island State Police Training Academy, and the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy.
Prior to that, Maj. Buonaiuto served as Captain of the Professional Standards Unit, Captain and Executive Administrative Officer, Lieutenant of the Major Crimes Unit, as well as in supervisory and detective roles in the Financial Crimes Unit and as a Defensive Tactics Instructor.
Maj. Buonaiuto succeeds the current Safe Environments Coordinator, Dr. Michael Hansen, who will remain the diocese’s Victim Assistance Coordinator and Director of Human Formation at Our Lady of Providence Seminary.
Part of the diocese’s decades-long commitment to protecting children, the Office of Compliance was one of the first in the country to be established in 1993.
Maj. Buonaiuto earned a master’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in the administration of justice both from Roger Williams University. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a former member of the Homeland Security Task Force on National Domestic Preparedness.
The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts recognized him with a Victim Assistance Award and an Investigative Achievement Award among other career commendations.
His early education included several years of formation in the faith at local Catholic schools.
“I attended kindergarten in the last co-ed class at St. Mary Academy Bay-View,” he said, while his brother and two sisters were also enrolled in the East Providence school, which educated only girls after his first year.
From there, Maj. Buonaiuto attended grades 1-5 at what was then St. Mark’s School in the Garden City area of Cranston, before it became Cranston-Johnston Catholic Regional School. He attended middle school at Providence Country Day and then Johnston High School before going on to college.
He and his wife Tracy, a nurse at The Mirriam Hospital, have two children: daughter Katelyn, 31, and son Ryan, 27, who along with wife McKenzie, are parents to Hallie, 20 months, the Buonaiutos’ first grandchild.
Katelyn, an accountant living in Rhode Island, attended St. Philip School for her elementary years, while her younger brother did so through second grade, when the family moved to Scituate and the children entered the school system there.
Ryan is currently completing his sixth year in the U.S. Air Force. He lives with his family in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and earned his bachelor’s degree from a Catholic institution of higher learning—St. Joseph’s College in Maine.
Given his and his family’s extensive involvement with Catholic education and parish life through the years, his new position brings together in service his knowledge and experience with two significant pillars of daily life for hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders, often billed as the most densely Catholic state in the nation.
“I am very familiar with the Catholic diocese. They have a great commitment to ensuring the safety of not only all the children who are in the diocese community, whether they be in the schools or churches or some of its organizations, but everybody, adults included. From everything I’ve seen of the diocese’s operations, there is no question as to whether they are committed to the safety of their entire community.”
He is very much looking forward to working with the other members of the Office of Compliance, which is headed by co-directors Maj. Kevin O’Brien, a 23-year veteran and former Detective Commander of the Rhode Island State Police, who came to the diocese as director in 2015, after retiring from the force himself, and Lt. Col. Robert A. Creamer, MBA, CFE, who recently retired from the Rhode Island State Police after serving more than 29 years.
Maj. Buonaiuto has known both from the State Police since 1997 and has great respect for their professionalism and commitment to public safety.
“I know what type of people they are and the strong commitment they have to justice in their jobs. I know the abilities that they have to ensure the safety of the community,” he said. “I have always had that same commitment in my work; it is also very important to me.”
