SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News
Dec. 11, 2019
By John Woolfolk
The California Attorney General has subpoenaed half of California’s Roman Catholic dioceses including San Jose and San Francisco, signaling what victims of sex abuse by priests say is an important step toward what they hope will be a comprehensive expose of child molestation and coverups in the church.
The archdioceses of San Francisco and Los Angeles and the dioceses of San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno and Orange all have received subpoenas to produce documents, said Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for the California Catholic Conference. Those dioceses already had been providing documents and, along with the other six dioceses, retaining records since the attorney general requested that they do so in May.
Eckery said the subpoenas make it easier for the dioceses to produce records for which privacy concerns pose a barrier to voluntary disclosure.
“In some ways, it can speed the process because sometimes files contain things like medical records or private information that without a subpoena you couldn’t legitimately give up,” Eckery said.
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