Legislators, sex abuse victims push for new laws

Posted on August 21, 2018
FILE – In this Sept. 23, 2015, file photo, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, left, looks toward the crowd with Pope Francis following a Mass outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Wuerl wrote to priests to defend himself on the eve of the scheduled Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018, release of a grand jury report investigating child sexual abuse in six of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses. (AP Photo/David Goldman, FILE)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A group of abuse victims joined a group of 20 lawmakers in calling for Rhode Island’s legislative leaders to extend the time limit for filing child abuse lawsuits.

The news conference in Providence on Monday demanded a vote on legislation that would extend the time limit for filing suits to 35 years from seven years. The demonstrators also called on Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to open a grand jury investigation of the Catholic Church’s Providence Diocese.

The Rhode Island Catholic Conference said in a statement it would only support expanding the statute of limitations as long as the legislation doesn’t apply retroactively.

The news conference was sparked by a Pennsylvania grand jury report concluding state church leaders covered up abuse allegations against hundreds of priests for decades.

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