PROVIDENCE (RI)
Boston Globe
May 13, 2026
By Amanda Milkovits
“The Legislature is poised to kick the can down the road. They want an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court … at the last minute, when they could have done this months ago,” attorney Mitchell Garabedian said
Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and a Boston attorney who represents victimssay the Rhode Island Senate is poised to thwart a landmark bill that would allow abuse victims to bring previously expired civil claims against institutions including the Roman Catholic Church.
Instead of voting on the bill amending the statute of limitations, the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up a resolution on Thursday to ask the state Supreme Court for a written opinion about whether the legislation is constitutional.
Robert Houllahan and Dr. Herbert “Hub” Brennan, who’ve testified about the abuse they suffered as children, and attorney Mitchell Garabedian decried that decision as a “curveball” to again kill the legislation.
“It appears as though the Legislature is poised to kick the can down the road. They want an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court of the state of Rhode Island at the last minute, when they could have done this months ago,” Garabedian said during a press conference Wednesday. “It’s just revictimizing sexual abuse victims, childhood sexual abuse victims, and clergy sexual abuse victims.”
A 2019 state law extended the deadline for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits from seven to 35 years after their 18th birthdays. But in 2023, the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled the law does not retroactively apply to people or institutions who may have enabled the abuse.
So, this year, House Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Carol Hagan McEntee — whose sister, Dr. Ann Hagan Webb, was sexually abused by a priest —sponsored legislation to open a “revival window” for victims. The legislation would allow previously expired civil claims to be filed against institutions and supervisors responsible for enabling or covering up sexual abuse. That window would open on July 1, 2026, and close on June 30, 2028.
The legislation has the full-throated support of Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, whose office unveiled a scathing report in March about how the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence handled decades of complaints of sexual abuse of children.
McEntee’s bill sailed through the House with overwhelming support. Senator Mark P. McKenney sponsored the same legislation, which was teed up in the Judiciary Committee.
But the Senate has balked. And, as momentum built this session, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Matthew L. LaMountain introduced the resolution to ask the state Supreme Court to weigh in first, claiming it was the quickest way to test the bill’s constitutionality. While similar laws have been upheld in some states, such laws have been overturned in five states, he said.
Retired US District Court Judge William E. Smith pushed back. He wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee that lawmakers should not wait for a Supreme Court opinion.
“To hide behind that inevitable debate, does an injustice not only to the victims but to this body,” Smith wrote. “I urge you to stand up for victims and stand up for the role of the legislature as the voice of those victims.”
The introduction of the resolution caught Brennan off-guard.
“I thought it was a surprising legal tactic. It came out of left field,” said Brennan, who has testified about being sexually abused by the Rev. Brendan Smyth, starting when he was 7 years old. “But I hearken back to Judge Smith’s observations that each branch of government has its role, and this oversteps that. It does raise suspicions that there’s more to this than simply the issue of constitutionality.”
Houllahan wasn’t surprised. “They care about protecting their institutional daddy, and it’s a Catholic caliphate here,“ said Houllahan, who has testified about being sexually abused when he was 9 by the Rev. Normand J. Demers. “There are some people in the Legislature that will ignore any kind of legal precedent in order to protect their way of life and their way of making a living.”
Garabedian said that the church’s lobbying arm is powerful and difficult for legislators to ignore.
The Rev. Bernard A. Healey, chairman of the Rhode Island Catholic Conference, wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee, strongly opposing the bill.
“The sober reality is that Senate bill No. 2616 does nothing to protect children and the vulnerable from exploitation and abuse despite what the sponsors of this unconstitutional legislation claim,” Healey wrote. “In other states where similar legislation has been passed hasonly resulted in bankruptcy for church and other nonprofit organizations, huge financial payouts by state and local governments, rising insurance costs, and of course large profits for law firms.”
Although Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski offered an apology to survivors after the attorney general’s report was released in March, Garabedian said he doesn’t believe much has changed.
“They have no credibility when it comes to taking care of children, protecting children, and keeping children safe. What is changing is society’s view that children should be protected when they’re with priests or other authority figures,” Garabedian said. “If the Church has changed, why hasn’t Bishop Lewandowski publicly said, ‘Let’s support this law. Let’s pass this law.’ … It’s because they haven’t changed.”
If the legislation fails this year, Brennan saidhe and other victims will return for as long as it takes, until they succeed in getting a law that holds the church and other powerful institutions accountable for abuse of children.
“Ultimately, accountability and justice will be served, because society will tolerate nothing else,” Brennan said. “This is a much bigger issue than the current members of a committee, or the current Senate president, or the speaker, and this issue is of such magnitude that I’m confident, ultimately, justice will prevail.”