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	More Light in Dark Corners The Orange County Register [California] May 19, 2005 As expected, many of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange's once- secret personnel files were released on Tuesday, and the facts inside the files prove what church critics have long argued: Church leaders knew about priests who had molested and raped children, yet they continued to let them serve as priests where they could continue to prey on the youngest, most vulnerable members of the community. Orange Bishop Tod Brown at a Tuesday news conference called the documents "painful testimony" and earlier responses by the diocese "inadequate and failed." Even when the diocese had to face up to its actions and inaction, officials there downplayed what they knew. "The files show that diocesan officials knew that at least three priests they accepted to work in Orange County had previously been in trouble for sexual abuse of children in other dioceses," reported the Register. For instance, officials had said they knew the Rev. Siegfried Widera, who came to Orange County in 1976, had a "moral problem with a boy," "[b]ut the records released on Tuesday show, for the first time, that church leaders knew much more than that." The Rev. Widera was accused of abusing boys in Milwaukee and was even convicted of child molestation, yet the diocese misled the public. The scandal isn't just something from the distant past, the records also show. The files revealed quite a few troubling sexual allegations from the 1990s against the Rev. Michael Pecharich, founding pastor of San Francisco Solano Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, yet Bishop Tod Brown still appointed Pecharich to an important committee in 2000. The Rev. Pecharich was removed from the ministry three years ago. The bishop agreed to release documents as part of the $100 million settlement with 87 abuse victims, yet even as he has been touting this new era of openness, the diocese in recent days raised legal objections to releasing many of the documents. The bishop and the diocese cannot have it both ways - claiming to promote a new open era even as policies are undertaken to contain the release of information. Fortunately, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman would not allow the diocese to renege on its promises, and even called for the release of psychological reports, letters and other documents that had previously been confidential. Attorneys, however, will have to go to appeals court to gain release of documents whose release is challenged by five priests and three lay people. What's obvious here is that victims were right all along. Diocese of Orange officials knew that some of their priests were molesters and rapists, yet they rebuffed complaints by parents and continued to put these people in positions of authority. Church leaders time and again placed their own careers and their institution above the safety of parishioners. As a result, many children and teens were victimized. The goal of opening these documents to public view is to trace how the abuse and cover-up happened so that they never happen again. Had it not been for the persistence of some abuse victims, and a California law temporarily suspending the statute of limitations for civil actions regarding abuse, the settlement and release of documents would never have taken place. The cover-up would have continued, and other children would be in danger. Now, let's hope the appeals court releases the remaining eight files.
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