For the Catholic Church in Winona, it may not be over – but perhaps it is changing.

At 2:22 p.m. Tuesday, hours after the personnel files of 14 priests “credibly accused” of sexual misconduct were made public, the Diocese of Winona issued an official statement: “Pacelli Catholic Schools today, terminated the employment of Ms. Mary Gilles, who served as a high school math teacher at Pacelli High School (Austin, Minn.). Ms. Gilles has been arrested for suspicion of criminal sexual conduct involving a minor child.”

The case of Gilles, who faces charges of sexually assaulting a minor child, has just begun. But the diocese’s involvement so far mirrors other recent behavior by the diocese in response to claims of abuse, as the diocese prepares to fight a high-profile suit headed to trial in November and readies itself for other claims that Quinn has suggested may raise the possibility of the diocese considering bankruptcy.

Sixteen months earlier, Bishop John Quinn put one of the 14 priests, Rev. Leo Charles Koppala, on administrative leave and barred him from public ministry and all church property the same day charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor child were filed against him in Faribault County. Koppala pleaded guilty in March and was deported to India in May with the assent and cooperation of local church officials, including a recommendation that he be removed from the priesthood.

Church officials’ reaction to the charges against Koppala are detailed in the internal diocesan documents and correspondence released Tuesday by Anderson & Associates, which is pursuing a wide-ranging suit against both the diocese and Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, and evidences a dramatically changed approach to sexual misconduct by church employees.

For more than a quarter-century the Winona Diocese has grappled with accusations of abuse concealed and covered up, accusations of the welfare of children sacrificed for to preserve the image and wealth of the institutional church. In recent years, the diocese has insisted that new policies and procedures had made such attitudes and practices a thing of the past.

Evidence contained in the newly opened files offers support for both contentions. Documents and correspondence dating back decades show some of the 14 accused clergy removed or reassigned multiple times without explanation or acknowledgement of wrongdoing. The files contain numerous cases where what, if proved in a court of law, would constitute criminal behavior was brought to the attention of responsible persons in the church--at which point none of whom brought those accusations to law enforcement for investigation and possible prosecution.

Recent evidence indicates that such an approach has been abandoned and replaced with a practice of report-and-cooperate with law enforcement when abuse is suspected or accused.

However, active concern for the public image of the institutional church has not been so readily abandoned.

As legal pressures on the diocese increased as the case against the diocese brought by John Doe 1 against former diocese priest Thomas Adamson moves closer to the November trial, emails and memos that circulated through the Pastoral Center and among church associates evidence a conscious and directed effort to publicly portray the diocese in the most positive possible light.

In one case, immediately following the court’s order that the diocese release the names of priests accused of abuse, emails and other correspondence among the bishop, vicar general, judicial vicar and others detail with increasing urgency a desire to officially initiate laicization proceedings for Rev. Leland Smith before the names were made public on Dec. 16, in order for the bishop to truthfully announce that of the 14 priests listed all were dead, laicized or in the process of laicization.

Correspondence with the public relations firm hired by the diocese to assist in dealing with the media and an information hungry public reviewed talking points, strategies and possible scenarios to minimize negative fallout as additional information became public.

In all, the released documents, numbering 4,000 pages or more, evidence a growing awareness of a deepening crisis and recognition that the stakes involved – spiritual and temporal – are increasingly high.

In a draft letter dated March 25, 2014, addressed to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, in support of the laicization of Leland Smith, Bishop Quinn writes, “People of the Diocese of Winona have experienced pain, anger, and mistrust as a result of several clerics abusing minors.”

The letter further claims that “Both attorneys and elements within the public media have exhibited unwavering resolve in their efforts to further defame alleged offenders, foster discredit in church officials, and instill common anger and mistrust toward the Universal Church.”

It goes on to point out that the diocese faces several legal claims, “anticipates several more, and anticipates eventually bankruptcy as a result of these lawsuits;” and solicits the “aid of the Congregation ... so that the goods and reputation of the Church may be protected.”