California Court Orders Wisconisn Diocese To Release Records

In Los Angeles, California, Tuesday a Superior Court judge ordered the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to make public 3,000 pages of insurance records and hundreds of pages from files on a priest who had been convicted of molestation before he was transferred to California. Yesterday's Washington Post reported that the court rejected claims by the Archdiocese that release of the records would violate third-party privacy rights, the First Amendment and the Archdiocese's confidential business rights. The court's holding only applies to priests, like Siegfried Widera, who have died and in whose cases no protective order has been issued.