Lawsuit accuses Providence Diocese of 'victim blaming' in clergy sex-abuse complaints
PROVIDENCE — A newly filed lawsuit by one of the alleged child molestation victims of recently suspended Smithfield priest Francis C. Santilli accuses the leaders of the Rhode Island Catholic Church of "victim blaming" while disregarding multiple accounts of sexual misconduct by "Father Frank."
The lawsuit was filed Thursday against current and former Bishops Thomas Tobin and Louis Gelineau of the Catholic Diocese of Providence, and the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes on Atwells Avenue in Providence.
What began as the tickling of a 10-year-old sitting on the priest's lap allegedly turned into sexually explicit actions by the priest — and a previously unnamed church organist.
In his painfully graphic lawsuit, Scott Ross, who turned 53 on Saturday, says he lived for decades with "anguish, guilt, shame, denial [and] confusion."
Asked what prompted him to tell his story at this point in his life, Ross — who now lives in Oregon and works for the U.S. Department of Energy as a contract specialist — told The Journal: "This week marks the 25th anniversary of my brother David’s suicide."
Ross said his sister, Michelle Ross, "felt a powerful need to honor David’s memory on this significant anniversary year."
He said his brother, too, had also been an altar server at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Providence, and "we know that David’s [own] history of sexual abuse'' by the same perpetrator "among others" affiliated with the church "was a contributing factor in choosing to end his life."
Ross said his sister "brought to my attention that in the past, there were other victims of Santilli who had come forward to report their abuse, yet somehow, he remained in active ministry and with access to children."
Only then did he learn that Santilli had been accused of sexually abusing at least two and possibly three other children, and that the diocese had chosen to dismiss the accounts as "not credible" while moving Santilli.
Having spent much of his childhood "traumatized" and "petrified" that his parents would disown him if they found out, and his adulthood thinking nothing he could do would make any difference, Ross said, "I am doing it now because I want some measure of accountability.
"The fact that this diocese had credible [evidence] of prior sexual abuse at the hands of this one priest — at least two, if not three, prior instances going back 10 years — and they took no action ... and kept him in ministry with access to children, I find that morally bankrupt, morally reprehensible, and someone needs to be held accountable."
With the statute of limitations on criminal prosecution expired, "this is the only mechanism I have to hold anyone accountable," he said.
"This is not a last minute attempt at a money grab. I'm aware that this lawsuit may never make it to trial," Ross said.
"but if the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Providence speak one language and that language is money, then I am going to go ahead and hit them where it hurts ... [in] the slim hope that I might help others."
He told his story to the Rhode Island State Police on Feb. 1.
On Feb. 3, the Diocese of Providence confirmed that it had placed Santilli, the pastor of St. Philip Parish in Greenville, on administrative leave following an allegation he sexually abused a minor sometime around 1979 or 1980.
On Friday, diocesan spokesman Michael F. Kieloch said Santilli's status "has not changed." He said the "diocese has not yet seen the complaint or received notice of the lawsuit you mention, so it has no comment on it at this time."
At the heart of the lawsuit is this argument:
"Despite actual notice that Santilli was a pedophile who made sexual advances against children and engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior toward minor boys under the pretext of his duties as a priest, the [church hierarchy] continued to reassign and/or promote him to positions with access to minor boys."
The suit argues that those in positions of authority within the diocese "acted recklessly and/or willfully to protect the reputation of the Roman Catholic Church rather than the safety of the children entrusted to their care ... [and] ignored, concealed and/or pretended to be unaware of the existence of priest sexual abuse of children in order to avoid public exposure."
In October 2020, Superior Court Judge Netti Vogel dismissed three priest-abuse lawsuits against the leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence. Her ruling is now on appeal to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
The central question in that case, as in Scott Ross's case is whether the diocese and its leadership could be sued as “perpetrators.”
The three men, who said they were sexually abused by Rhode Island priests when they were boys, said that the conduct of diocesan leaders was so egregious — actively thwarting criminal investigations — that it rose to a criminal level.
They argued that the institutions themselves could be sued retroactively even if the deadline had already run out under the old law. Vogel disagreed.
She ruled: the “perpetrators” were the people who actually committed the abuse. They could be sued retroactively. The non-perpetrators may have caused or contributed to the abuse, but they could not be sued retroactively."
In his appeal of Vogel's ruling to the Supreme Court, lawyer Timothy Conlon argued, "The conduct alleged is not mere negligence, it is criminal."
A 2019 law extended from seven to 35 years the length of time a victim of childhood sexual abuse has to sue after reaching adulthood. That gave a victim until age 53 - the age Ross was approaching when he filed his suit - - to sue an abuser or institution.
Against institutions, however, the new 35-year rule was prospective only, except in cases where the victims did not "discover" an injury or condition caused by sexual abuse they suffered as children. In those cases, they would have seven years from the time they discovered the connection to sue.
Rep. Carol McEntee has pushed hard every year since - including this year - to remove the barriers to victims seeking civil damages from institutions that shielded child molesters, as she believes happened in the case of suspended priest Santilli, removed now as pastor at St. Philip Parish in Smithfield.
After his suspension, it came to light that at least two other men had told church officials as early as 2012 that the priest had molested them when they were boys.
Among the arguments Ross' lawyer, Conlon, raises in the newly filed lawsuit: that the the "misrepresentation," "fraud" and "conspiracy" by R.I.'s Catholic Church leaders to "conceal their own conduct and that of the offending priests...preclude them from claiming" a time bar on lawsuits seeking to hold them responsible for shielding child molesters.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Clergy abuse lawsuit accuses RI Catholic Diocese of 'victim-blaming'
