Los Angeles, USA - The state Supreme Court has upheld an appeals court ruling that forces the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese to turn over the personnel files of two former priests accused of molestation.
The ruling issued Wednesday is the latest development in a battle between the Los Angeles County district attorney, who subpoenaed the private files three years ago, and the archdiocese.
Archbishop Roger Mahony has argued that opening the files would violate the church's constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. Donald Steier, an attorney for the former priests, said he was considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ruling means prosecutors could scour personnel files for evidence that could result in criminal charges against additional clergy and possibly even Mahony himself.
One former priest, Michael Wempe, is expected to go on trial within weeks on charges of committing a lewd act on a child and oral copulation of a person under 16.
The district attorney's office has said it is also investigating several other cases that could fall within the statute of limitations for prosecution of sex abuse.
"This is an important milestone in addressing the issue of clerical sexual abuse," District Attorney Steve Cooley said. "I look forward to immediate access to files we subpoenaed from the Los Angeles Archdiocese."
In a separate civil case, a judge ruled Wednesday that a monsignor must answer questions in a deposition and cannot assert "clergy privilege" to avoid revealing whether he heard confessions of a deacon accused of sexual abuse.
"The penitential privilege protects 'a communication made in confidence,'" wrote Judge Haley Fromholz, who has been supervising a global settlement of more than 550 civil lawsuits against the archdiocese. "It does not prohibit the disclosure of the fact that the communication occurred."
The church argued that all communications between a priest and a bishop are privileged. Some priests might continue to refuse to answer questions despite the ruling, said Donald Woods, an archdiocese attorney.
Monsignor Michael Lenihan was deposed last summer in cases involving three priests, including Michael Baker, a deacon he supervised who later admitted abusing two brothers and has been accused in other cases.