PROVIDENCE (RI)
Rhode Island Current [Rhode Island]
June 3, 2026
By Christopher Shea
Two days after Senate leaders pledged their support, the chamber approved legislation that would open the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and other institutions to sex-abuse lawsuits.
Senators voted 37-0 Wednesday to approve an amended bill sponsored by Sen. Mark McKenney, a Warwick Democrat, that would create a two-year “revival window” allowing previously time-barred claims against institutions and supervisors accused of enabling or covering up sexual abuse.
The window would open on July 1, 2026, and close on June 30, 2028.
McKenney’s proposal was introduced after Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha released a 282-page report in March detailing decades of abuse by clergy and covered up by the Diocese of Providence.
“We made sure last week that every senator had a hard copy of the Attorney General’s report,” McKenney said on the Senate floor. “It’s particularly difficult to read that online at over 280 pages, but if you read that report, you know why the conduct of some authorities…particularly the authorities in the church, has been appalling.”
“Their actions often show greater concern for protecting the institution’s reputation, for protecting the corporation, than for protecting the children who are in their care,” McKenney continued.
Dr. Ann Hagan Webb, a survivor who was abused by a priest from 1957 to 1965 while she attended Sacred Heart School in West Warwick, told Rhode Island Current after the vote she was ecstatic that other victims now have a chance for justice.
“It opens the door for sure,” she said. “It doesn’t mean it’s not a hard road ahead — but at least there’s an avenue now when there wasn’t before.”
McKenney’s bill now heads to the House for consideration, where a slightly different version of the bill, sponsored by Hagan Webb’s sister, Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, cleared the chamber on April 7. McEntee, a South Kingstown Democrat, said she is agreeable to the Senate’s changes.
Legislators in both chambers have tried to pass similar bills in previous sessions, but the Senate has been a sticking point. This year was the same until two days ago, when Senate leaders unveiled amended legislation that addresses existing constitutional concerns.
Before Monday, senators were considering a resolution asking the Rhode Island Supreme Court to weigh in before they took action.
Facing strong opposition from Neronha and former U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith at the resolution’s May 14 hearing, Senate leaders revised McKenney’s legislation to better withstand potential constitutional challenges.
One of those changes preserves prior court judgments.
The original bill would have allowed people whose child sexual abuse lawsuits were dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired to refile those cases, a provision Senate leaders believed would violate the separation of powers provision of the state Constitution.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Neronha said he believed the Senate’s changes actually made the bill stronger “without giving up anything as it pertains to the heartland of victim opportunity to seek justice.”
A spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence did not immediately respond to request for comment Wednesday.
The Most Rev. Bernard A. Healey, chairman of the Rhode Island Catholic Conference, opposed the original bill during its initial committee hearing on April 30.
“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,” he wrote.
Healey noted that New Hampshire, Maine, Colorado, Kentucky, and Utah courts have struck down similar laws over the past five years. But Sen. Matthew LaMountain, a Warwick Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Judiciary, said Monday that legislation was only overturned in those states because nearly all their constitutions prohibit retroactive laws.
House spokesperson Larry Berman said the amended bills will likely be voted on next week, the final of the 2026 legislative session. He told Rhode Island Current House leaders still need to determine whether both bills will need to go through committee or straight to the floor
“Either way it will get done,” Berman said. “This will be a done deal.”
Sen. Ryan Pearson, a Cumberland Democrat, was not present for Wednesday’s vote.