Charting a substantially new course on church abuse cases that have dragged on for a decade, a Rhode Island judge yesterday rejected arguments of secrecy and ordered the Diocese of Providence to turn over documents and answer questions about 11 priests and a nun accused of sexually molesting 38 people.
At least in part, the judge wrote, his decision was based on the new openness pledged by American bishops at their historic meeting last month in Dallas.
Using strong language, Providence Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause said there is no legal shield to protect the church from turning over information about ''a pedophile priest who has engaged in sexual assaults upon children.''
The judge also quoted from policy adopted by American bishops at last month's conference, noting that the bishops insisted on more disclosure and an end to church secrecy on the issue.
Krause wrote in his 9-page opinion that the charter adopted by the bishops ''openly condemned in its preamble the historically secret nature that had previously enshrouded sexual assaults upon young parishioners by members of the clergy.''
The first of the sex abuse cases in Rhode Island was filed in 1992. After more victims came forward, the cases were combined in 1994 to make it easier to handle pre-trial motions.
Attorneys for the alleged victims have complained that foot-dragging by the church has unnecessarily delayed the cases. However, after the first judge stepped aside last fall and was replaced by Krause, attorneys said the pace has quickened.
The church has turned over some documents, but has held back the vast majority, arguing that they were irrelevant to the case or that laws guaranteeing separation of church and state entitled the church to withhold them.
Krause's opinion represented a change from the tack taken by the judge he replaced, who had ruled that the religion's rights took precedence over secular concerns on the issue of church production of documents.
Though he noted that judges in his position are expected to follow previous rulings, Krause wrote that a ''second look was now appropriate.''
Krause said the church must turn over information if it is tied to an alleged child abuser.
''By no elastic stretch of the most fertile imagination can one rationally conclude that such information ... deserves or merits confidentiality as expressions of religious freedom,'' he wrote.
The release of the remaining documents could be a turning point, said Jeffrey R. Anderson, an attorney in Minnesota who has represented hundreds of plaintiffs around the country in clergy molestation cases.
''It's a huge breakthrough,'' Anderson said. Getting documents in these cases means that plaintiffs' attorneys ''can get into the deep dark secrets of the bishops.''
Anderson and Sylvia Demarest of Dallas, another prominent attorney for sex abuse victims, said the documents also give the plaintiffs tremendous leverage in any negotiations for settlements. There are no negotiations going on now, said plaintiff attorneys.
In Boston, the public release in January of church documents showed that church leaders, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law, knowingly shuffled former priest John J. Geoghan from parish to parish, despite a history of pedophilia, and helped ignite a firestorm of protest.
The allegations in Providence bear some of the same earmarks as Boston, including charges by alleged victims that the church hierarchy failed to respond to complaints about problem priests and that priests were moved from parish to parish.
However, in Providence only a portion of the documents has been turned over. For instance, the church has said it has 1,000 pages of documents on one priest, but the alleged victims have received only about 200 pages.
The ruling also means that church leaders, including former Bishop Louis E. Gelineau, a defendant in the case, must answer written questions, which they have refused to do. Gelineau was replaced by Bishop Robert E. Mulvee in 1997.
William T. Murphy, the attorney for the church, said he had not yet read the judge's order. However, the church was concerned that information about people unrelated to the cases would be released, so the documents should be examined paper by paper, Murphy said.
''I'm ecstatic,'' said Lee White, an alleged victim. ''I'm hopeful this case will pick up steam now.''
''We're pleased to be able to expect complete disclosure of information regarding these priests over the course of the coming weeks,'' said plaintiff attorney Timothy J. Conlon. Conlon said a recent ruling by the Rhode Island Supreme Court helped strengthen plaintiffs' claims that the statute of limitations has not expired in these cases.