LOS ANGELES (CA)
CNN

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

updated 7:12 AM EST, Fri February 1, 2013

(CNN) — A California judge has forced the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to release some 12,000 pages of church documents revealing how it handled allegations of priest sexual abuse.

There were many — 192 priests and bishops were named in litigation, the archdiocese said.

“The cases span decades,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a statement Thursday. Some go back to the 1930s.

“But that does not make them less serious. I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” he said.