MONTEREY (CA)
KSBW
October 2, 2018
By Amy Larson
A former Monterey Catholic bishop is among several bishops named in a newly-filed lawsuit alleging that a sex abuse cover up was carried out in California to keep “predator priests” unrevealed.
The lawsuit filed by Thomas Emens names former Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia, who died three months ago, as well as every other bishop in California.
Emens says he was abused by a priest for two years when he was 10 and 11 years old in the 1970s.
The suit states that bishops and archbishops allowed more than 35 sex abuse perpetrators to flee the jurisdiction after reports of abuse arose. It demands that “all California bishops immediately release the names and documented histories on all clerical offenders in each diocese secretly kept in their possession.”
On Tuesday attorney Jeff Anderson called for all California bishops to “come clean with the secrets they know” about “predator priests.”
“The Catholic bishops have engaged in dangerous practices. There is, and has been, a grave peril to children in communities across the state,” Anderson said. “The problem is everywhere.”
The nuisance lawsuit names the archdioceses of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose, Monterey, and Santa Rosa.
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