The Portland Catholic Archdiocese Priest Abuse Document Archive

Judge sets schedule in deciding church documents’ fate

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.

The church released some files last year, but no agreement has been reached on thousands of other pages. Mediation is scheduled to begin in April.

Erin Olson, a Portland plaintiffs’ attorney who did not agree to take part in mediation, recently announced that she intended to release about 2,000 pages of documents in her possession. A previous ruling by Perris gave Olson authority to make such a move.

Lawyers for the Archdiocese objected. Perris’ order on Thursday sets up a process for church lawyers to raise privacy concerns about certain documents.