The Portland Catholic Archdiocese Priest Abuse Document Archive

Portland Archdiocese Sex Abuse Case

Posted April 16, 2008

April 16, 2008
KOIN 6 News
www.Koin.com

Portland archdiocese suddenly releases personnel files on abusive priests

Posted April 16, 2008

Portland, Apr. 16, 2008 (CWNews.com) – The Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, has released thousands of documents related to sex-abuse accusations against Catholic priests, in an unscheduled step that caught victims’ lawyers by surprise.

Archbishop John Vlazny, who had previously resisted the release of personnel files, said that the sudden move to make public more than 20,000 documents was "part of the healing process."

The Portland archdiocese was the first Catholic see in the US to seek bankruptcy protection. In a 2007 settlement with sex-abuse victims, ending the bankruptcy process, the archdiocese agreed to release the files of priests who had molested children. But Archbishop Vlazny had argued for a restrictive interpretation of the agreement, saying that it was essential to maintain confidentiality in documents in order to protect both innocent priests and the victims of abusive clerics. Lawyers for the archdiocese had been sparring with victims’ lawyers over the number of documents to be made public until the eve of the massive disclosure.

Archdiocese of Portland releases priest files

Posted April 16, 2008

The News Review
Wednesday, April 16, 2008

PORTLAND (AP) — A year after the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Portland settled its bankruptcy case for about $50 million, it has released more of its files on priests accused of sex abuse — including some confidential personnel records.

The documents were expected to be released shortly after the settlement. But negotiations over the release stalled, sending the church and lawyers for the victims back to federal bankruptcy court.

An attorney for some of the alleged abuse victims criticized the latest release as piecemeal and said the archdiocese failed to provide any explanation or tie the documents together in a meaningful way for victims or the public.

“This is not the way to do it,” said Kelly Clark. “This is how you do it if you want to frustrate that purpose.”

Clark also said that releasing the documents out of context makes it look like the church did not find out about the alleged abuse in many cases until much later than it actually received complaints.

Mediation sessions on the release have been continuing before both sides were scheduled to head to U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan to ask for a decision. Hogan was one of two judges who mediated the settlement.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris sealed most of the documents after the archdiocese became the first Catholic diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection in July 2004.

She has scheduled hearings for arguments on lifting her order but is not expected to rule until October.

Archbishop John Vlazny says he authorized the release of about 2,000 pages of additional documents on Tuesday as “part of the healing process and in the interest of transparency.”

Judge will consider release of Oregon archdiocese documents

Posted March 14, 2008

The News Review
March 14, 2008

PORTLAND (AP) — It may take until October to find out what kind of files the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland keeps on priests accused of sexual abuse.

A federal bankruptcy judge said Thursday she is inclined to agree with an attorney for abuse victims, who argued against sending church documents to another judge to act as a “special master” to resolve a dispute over their public release.

But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris said she will give both sides until the end of August to argue the case. She scheduled a hearing Sept. 30 to decide whether to lift her protective order sealing the documents.

“This process is not going to take another year, I can assure you of that,” Perris warned, noting the case began in July 2004.

The archdiocese promised to release various documents and files last April when it announced a $50 million settlement to end the first bankruptcy ever declared by a Catholic diocese.

The mediator in the case, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, said at the time that he expected the documents to be released within a month or two.

But negotiations over the release fell apart, and an attorney for the victims, Kelly Clark, said the dispute was unlikely to be resolved.

The church has said it will follow the procedure set out in the settlement to have the other mediator in the case, retired Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure, try to reach an agreement. If the dispute still cannot be resolved, it will submit to binding arbitration by Hogan.

Complicating matters is a separate request by Erin Olson, another attorney for victims, to release about 2,000 pages of files on priests she has collected for her clients.

Olson never agreed to the procedure on the release and has asked Perris — who originally sealed the documents — to lift her order without resorting to appointment of Hogan as a special master to settle the dispute over what is released.

“I think Ms. Olson is right,” Perris said Thursday. “I don’t think this court can appoint a special master.”

Olson has declined to characterize the contents of the files.

But representatives of SNAP, a victim support group, said they believe the documents will show church leaders failed to take action against priests accused of sexual abuse and even helped cover up the abuse.

“These people knowingly aided and abetted serial child rapists and should be held accountable,” said Bill Crane, Oregon spokesman for SNAP.

John Schuster, a former priest who is on the national board of directors for SNAP, said the release of the Portland archdiocese documents “is critical” and will set a precedent for other dioceses.

He said Portland Archbishop John Vlazny “should be made to live up to what he agreed to” last April and release the documents.

Thomas Dulcich, an attorney for the archdiocese, said the church is simply trying to follow the settlement agreement procedure.

Judge sets schedule in deciding church documents’ fate

Posted March 13, 2008

Posted by The Oregonian
March 13, 2008

A federal bankruptcy judge today set a schedule for deciding whether to release about 2,000 pages of documents related to priest abuse in Oregon.

A final decision is not likely until the fall.

The Portland Archdiocese emerged from bankruptcy last year after agreeing to pay priest accusers more than $50 million. Church officials and attorneys for most of the plaintiffs also agreed on a process for releasing secret church personal files.

Read the Entire Entry Here

Archdiocese Deal Breaking Down In Dispute Over Documents

Posted February 25, 2008

OPB
By Pete Springer
February 25, 2008

Negotiations to release documents related to the Portland Archdiocese clergy sex abuse cases have broken down and will likely end up in mediation next month. Pete Springer reports.

Attorney Kelly Clark is representing more than a hundred abuse victims. He says nearly a year after reaching a legal settlement with the Archdiocese of Portland, very few documents have actually been released.

Clark says the release of the documents was key to settling the sex abuse lawsuits.

Kelly Clark: “We want the public to be able to learn what the archdiocese of Portland knew about sex abuse and when they knew it.  That’s all we’re saying, release the documents you said you’d release.”

Read the Entire Entry Here

Documents released on priest abuses

Posted June 7, 2007

By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER

Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Archdiocese of Portland released 30 previously secret documents Wednesday detailing sexual abuse of boys by priests.

They included psychological evaluations, allegations by victims and some candid detail of what went on between some priests and their young parishioners over several years. The documents make clear that church officials had been aware of abuse problems for years and refused to acknowledge them.

The archdiocese released the papers as part of a settlement agreed to in April. Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, who represented more than 40 abuse victims, said he was blindsided by the release of the documents on Wednesday.

He said the agreement with the archdiocese "included a joint presentation to the public, not only about what the documents are but what they mean."

"I had absolutely no idea that it was coming today," he said.

He suggested he had been "sandbagged" and on Wednesday afternoon still didn’t know for sure what was released or the extent to which it may have been redacted beyond the agreement between the church and the lawyers.

He said the church office said they redacted or withheld documents if any living individual or his attorney objected to the disclosure.

"That’s not what we agreed to," Clark said.

A statement by Archbishop John Vlazny said the records were released "as part of the process of healing and reconciliation."

He said most of the information in the documents was decades old, "when people did not have the benefit of today’s knowledge and standards." He said church officials did not always respond then as they might now and that a "modern and effective child protection program" is in place with updated policies to ensure children’s safety.

Archdiocese spokesman Bud Bunce said Vlazny was out of town and would have no further comment about the documents.

Most or all of the priests named in the documents have retired and some have died.

Some of the documents released Wednesday are rather candid.

One dated 1989 quoted a victim whose name was redacted as saying Father Rocky Perone, who was at St. Philip Neri parish in Portland in the 1950s, initiated the abuse in a confessional, where the boy had admitted "something like impure thoughts."

"The next day Father Perone asked him to come into a room and take down his pants and show him exactly what had happened and that he fondled him briefly," said a memorandum from The Rev. Charles Lienert, director of clergy personnel, to then-Archbishop William Leveda. It said the relationship progressed and lasted about six years. Perone also was the subject of other complaints.

After months in treatment, Perone was placed in a parish in Texas, where the bishop was notified of his history. He was barred from contact with young people.

A 1995 document from Lienert to Leveda told of Father Aldo Orso-Manzonetta, who had parishes in Newberg and Tillamook and about whom parishioners often talked of sexual improprieties.

The document quotes a person whose name is redacted as saying "Fr. Aldo’s typical pattern in developing these emotional relationships is to heap gifts on a person and then only go as far as a person will allow him when he makes an advance."

A 1994 memo from Lienert told of a boy just out of juvenile detention who met a man claiming to be a church janitor and offered the boy money to spend the night with him.

He learned the following Sunday that the "janitor" was Orso-Manzonetta, whom he said always gave him some pills he later found to be barbiturates that made him vague about what was going on.

He said the sex-for-money arrangement lasted for some time.

The priest later denied any sexual involvement with minors. A memo from Lienert quoted another priest as saying it was well-known among parishioners of Italian descent in Tillamook "that Father Aldo was attracted to boys."

A psychologist’s report on the Rev. Thomas B. Laughlin, who pleaded guilty to two counts of sex abuse in 1983, described him as a "compulsive pedophile who has not been able to exercise any form of control over his deviant acts in 20 years." The report said Laughlin was without remorse and likely to reoffend.

Laughlin was sentenced to a year in jail.

In a 1989 letter to Lienert from a man whose name also is redacted asked the archbishop "to reconsider his decision to refuse to directly acknowledge my victimization. The story will come out. It is right and just that it do so."

In 2004, the Portland Archdiocese became the first in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection because of the wave of abuse lawsuits.

About 175 people who claimed they were molested by priests or other church officials have agreed to settle their cases for about $52 million.

Another $20 million has been set aside for those who come forward after an agreed deadline. Another sum, capped at $3.8 million, has been set aside to pay for claims that haven’t been settled in the bankruptcy negotiations.

The agreement won court approval for the archdiocese to emerge from bankruptcy.

Portland settles with abuse victims, bankruptcy deal approved

Posted April 27, 2007

National Catholic Reporter,  
April 27, 2007 

A federal judge has approved a $75 million settlement plan for the Portland, Ore., archdiocese that will provide financial relief for about 175 people who say they were sexually abused by priests.

As part of the settlement, the archdiocese has agreed to make public documents, mostly personnel files, on priests accused of sex abuse. The documents are expected to be released in mid-May. Details of the settlement were announced April 17.

Lawyers for victims called the agreement to release the documents "historic" and said it would mark the end of "the era of secrecy" when silence prevailed over abuse complaints.

"This policy of openness and transparency will go far in preventing future tragedies," David Slader, lawyer for a number of victims, told The Associated Press.

Read the Entire Entry Here

Portland’s archdiocese settles 175 abuse cases

Posted April 18, 2007

PORTLAND, Ore. – Secret files on Roman Catholic priests accused of sex abuse will be released as part of a $75 million settlement signed yesterday by the Archdiocese of Portland, which will be allowed to reorganize from the first bankruptcy in the nation filed by a Catholic diocese.

The documents, mostly personnel files, are not expected to be released until mid-May. But lawyers for victims called the agreement to release the documents “historic” and said it would mark the end of “the era of secrecy” when silence prevailed over abuse complaints.

“This policy of openness and transparency will go far in preventing future tragedies,” said David Slader, who represents a number of victims, including one whose case prompted the diocese to declare bankruptcy in July 2004 on the eve of trial.

Read the Entire Entry Here

Diocese to release documents as part of abuse settlement

Posted April 18, 2007

PORTLAND – Previously private personnel files of pedophile priests will be made public under a bankruptcy reorganization plan for the Archdiocese of Portland that was approved Tuesday.

The papers, to be released as early as next month, will include documents showing knowledge and cover-up of the priests’ activities by Catholic Church leaders.

"There is plenty there to cause frustration and anger," said Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, who represented more than 100 people abused by priests over the years and who obtained confidential copies of church records in the course of preparing for trials.

The cover-ups that Clark learned of happened more than 15 years ago, he said. The documents show no efforts by church leaders in the past decade to move priests to a different parish after they had been accused of abuse – a practice that deepened the Catholic clergy abuse scandal when it surfaced in Boston five years ago, Clark said.

Read the Entire Entry Here