Sex-abuse Survivors Press for Repeal of R.i.’s 7-year Limit on Suits

By Katherine Gregg
Providence Journal
May 3, 2018

http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180503/sex-abuse-survivors-press-for-repeal-of-ris-7-year-limit-on-suits

“Nowhere in the teachings of Jesus Christ did he ever say that it’s okay for men in collars to rape kids,? said Dr. Herbert “Hub” Brennan, 60, the internal medical doctor who once chaired the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission who, on Thursday night, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a victim-survivor.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Victims of sexual abuse by priests and other trusted elders returned to the State House — for the second time this year — to plead with lawmakers to repeal Rhode Island’s seven-year statute of limitations on the pursuit of legal claims against perpetrators of sex crimes against minors.

“Nowhere in the teachings of Jesus Christ did he ever say that it’s okay for men in collars to rape kids,? said Dr. Herbert “Hub” Brennan, 60, the internal medical doctor who once chaired the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission who, on Thursday night, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a victim-survivor.

“The only way to stop these people is to have them have the fear that sooner or later they are going to get named,? echoed another victim-survivor, Dr. Ann Hagan Webb, the sister of the lead legislative sponsor of the bill, Rep. Carol McEntee, D-South Kingstown.

“Please,? chimed Senate sponsor Donna Nesselbush. “In the face of this epidemic, inaction is simply not an option.”

While he did not testify, the Rev. Bernard A. Healey, the priest-lobbyist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, sent The Providence Journal a statement that said, in part: “The Diocese of Providence has in place one of the strongest sexual abuse prevention and protection programs in the United States.

“Over 25 years ago, the diocese created its Office of Education and Compliance to investigate claims and oversee safe environment policies in all its many parishes, schools and agencies. This office is currently headed by a retired 20-year veteran of the Rhode Island State Police.”

“While we have a deep compassion for innocent and suffering victims and a continued commitment to the prevention of sexual abuse, the Rhode Island Catholic Conference must express its serious reservations regarding this legislation,? he said, citing legal ambiguities in the wording and the potential dangers in removing the statute of limitations entirely.

Among his arguments: Statutes of limitations “guard against false or misrepresented claims? by “preventing old claims in which evidence is lost, memories change and witnesses disappear ...The only acts which do not carry a statute of limitations are criminal acts which carry life imprisonment.”

Brennan, 60, of East Greenwich, described how the abuse worked in his case between the ages of 8 and 11 years old.

He said the priest at Our Lady of Mercy Church who abused him “would call from his rectory across the street and have the nuns pull me out of my second- or third-grade classroom.”

Then, “I would wait in the principal’s office until he entered and took me across the hall to the nurse’s office, where he would close the door and do what such monsters do to innocent children. Once done, they would return me to the classroom sworn to silence with the literal fear of God and eternal damnation held over my head.”

He named his abuser: the Rev. Brendan Smyth, now deceased, who served as visiting priest, counselor and teacher at Our Lady of Mercy School and Church in East Greenwich for three years, between 1965 to 1968. Smyth later returned to Ireland and pleaded guilty there to 141 counts of sexual abuse. He died in prison.

“I fully expect that you will hear from the Diocese of Providence. In fact, I know many of you already have,? Brennan said.

“In their cowardice, they’ve been all about hiding the truth, obscuring the facts and protecting their assets, behaving all along as would some organized criminal enterprise,? said Brennan. “We know the pressure they are exerting to kill this bill.”

Others who spoke at the hearing — and an earlier press conference — included Jim Scanlan, a Rhode Island man whose account of sex abuse by a Boston College High School priest in the late 1970s figured in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight.”

“We grew up like many of you did in Catholic families, where you went to church every Sunday, and our parents put us into Catholic schools,? Representative McEntee told a press conference, ahead of the hearing.

“They thought they were doing the right thing because they believed that this church, this school, this priest, these nuns were going to protect us mind, body and soul. Well, as you can see that didn’t happen,? she said, her voice breaking.

Other lawyers who testified said it might take a Supreme Court decision to determine if passage of the legislation would open doors to civil suits by past victims shut out now by the statute of limitations.