Los Angeles settlement increases pressure on San Diego priests

[Ian David]

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - SAN DIEGO, Los Angeles Times

Supporters of people who have been sexually abused by San Diego priests said Monday that they hoped the Los Angeles settlement would prompt Bishop Robert Brom to settle 150 lawsuits here and release decades of documents about pedophile priests in this diocese.

Release of the documents, they said in a news conference on the steps of St. Joseph's Cathedral, is key to preventing future molestations.
"I don't think we'll see an end to this until we see a bishop behind bars," said Paul Livingston, who lives in San Diego but is one of 508 victims in the US$660 million Los Angeles settlement.

Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk who has written extensively about sexual aberrations in the church, said the Los Angeles and San Diego documents detailing how church officials shielded pedophile priests would be "the most explosive documents to come to light in the Catholic Church in the last 500 years."

The San Diego diocese filed for bankruptcy in late February, on of the eve of what would have been the first of many trials involving allegations of sexual abuse by priests and other church officials. The bankruptcy filing put the trials in limbo. Sipe, who lives in San Diego, said he believes the church filed for bankruptcy so that Brom would not have to testify.

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