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	Diocese Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Block Release of Abuse Records By Daniel Tepfer Connecticut Post July 18, 2009 http://www.connpost.com/ci_12859721?source=most_viewed BRIDGEPORT — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its plea to keep sealed thousands of documents detailing alleged sexual abuse of children by its priests. "There are constitutional rights and privacy issues of great concern for all citizens that the diocese wishes the U.S. Supreme Court to review and decide," said diocesan spokesman Joseph McAleer. A recent state Supreme Court ruling unsealing the records will be stayed until the nation's highest court decides whether to hear the case. "It's what we sadly predicted," said David Clohessy, director of the Chicago-based SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It is certainly not what Connecticut Catholics should be paying for. Virtually everyone loses except for top church officials." In May, the state Supreme Court appeared to remove the last hurdle to releasing sealed documents produced by the diocese as part of more than a dozen lawsuits it faced from people who claimed they were abused as children by priests since the 1970s. The documents are currently being stored in the Waterbury Superior Court. Some of the documents, reviewed by the Connecticut Post, detail accusations of abuse by priests and alleged efforts by then-Bishop Edward Egan to hide the abuse. The diocese last month asked the state's highest court to reconsider its decision but recently that court refused. The diocese had contended that the Superior Court judge who initially ordered the release of the documents was biased because he was on a special state Judicial Branch committee exploring how to make the state courts more transparent along with a reporter, whose newspaper was seeking release of the documents.
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