Warwick (RI)
Providence Journal
November 23, 2018
By Amanda Milkovits
David Silipigni says his life was ruined by what happened to him as a child at the St. Aloysius Home, an orphanage run by the Diocese of Providence. Now he’s fighing to give other victims the legal remedy that he’ll never have.
For nearly his entire life, David S. Silipigni has lived in a jail cell or a room the size of one.
He paces a room the way memories pace his mind, turning to what he says happened nearly 50 years ago, when he was a little boy in the care of a Catholic orphanage in Smithfield.
Silipigni says that he was sexually assaulted by a priest while living at St. Aloysius Home.
He says he remembers the weight of the man’s chin on his head while he was being raped in the basement.
He says he remembers when the same man shoved his hands down his pants in a room off the chapel.
For a long time, Silipigni didn’t tell anyone. Silence tortured him.
The 57-year-old man has been incarcerated. He’s been homeless. He’s been a thief. He’s been addicted to drugs. He was saved from suicide. It didn’t stop him from trying to kill himself slowly.
He’s been in and out of most mental-health treatment programs in Rhode Island and remains in the care of a psychologist and psychiatrist. He’s trapped by thoughts of shame and rage.
What Silipigni wants now is what the Rhode Island Supreme Court and state law won’t give him — the ability to sue the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.
So, he’ll take his case to the State House. State Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee pre-filed legislation last week to extend Rhode Island’s statute of limitations from seven years to 35 to allow lawsuits against those who sexually abuse children and those who employ the perpetrators.
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