After a decade of fighting it, Judge orders Roman Catholic Diocese to release child sex abuse docs

[moobu2]

Judge sets Dec. 1 for release of diocesan sex-abuse records

WATERBURY -- A Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport to release thousands of pages documenting allegations of sexual abuse by priests on Dec. 1.
Judge Barry Stevens ordered the diocese to copy the documents, minus those that are allowed to remain sealed, such as priests' medical records, on a compact disc to be given to lawyers for four newspapers -- the Hartford Courant, New York Times, Boston Globe and Washington Post -- that had filed a lawsuit seeking to force the diocese to open the records to public inspection.
The newspapers had battled the diocese all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to win the release of the documentation of priest sex-abuse cases dating back several decades.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ended nearly a decade of appeals by the diocese in its efforts to block public access to more than 12,000 pages from 23 lawsuits against six priests.
While the nation's highest court ordered the diocese to turn over the documents, it let stand a lower court ruling that a small segment of the records dealing with priests' medical records and seven priests not named in the lawsuits could remain sealed.
Under Stevens' ruling, the diocese must first provide the judge with an index identifying the documents that its officials believe should remain sealed. The judge said he would then review that list.
In March 2001, the diocese agreed to pay about $15 million to two dozen people who claimed they were abused by priests in the 1970s and early '80s


LiNk

[tuvor]

1. K&R

[ThomCat]

2. It amazes me that the church keeps fighting this crap.

If they had just taken any responsibility at all for doing the right thing, ever, when these priests were fondling and abusing kids then they would not be in these constant lawsuits now.

All they had to do was call the police and cooperate with police investigations. Stay neutral and support the law.

Instead the CHOSE to be a law unto themselves, moving and hiding priests, denying any problem existed or refusing to care about it, never allowing legal investigations. What did they EXPECT the results of that would be? Did they really think they could stonewall everyone forever?

That wall has been coming down for over a decade now publicly, brick by brick, and it has been so public and so brutal for everyone involved because the church made the wrong, arrogant decisions so many years ago and stuck to those decisions.

It would be nice to see the churches become open and honest about all of this shit. :(

[ZombieHorde]

3. The Catholic Church is a hate group. nt

[Angry Dragon]

4. It is way past time

It seems the church is more important than the people it is suppose to serve. It is just another indication of how this country is right now. You can look at your government and see that they are more interested in protecting themselves than trying to protect the people of this country.