Diocese of Rockville Centre clergy sex abuse files still not public, 2 years after settlement with survivors

Two years after a $323 million settlement with hundreds of Catholic clergy sex abuse victims on Long Island that mandated the release of secret church files, the documents still have not been made public.

Thousands of pages of confidential files dating back decades in the Diocese of Rockville Centre were supposed to be released under a bankruptcy settlement with about 600 victims, according to church officials and lawyers for victims. The papers are believed to contain details on hundreds of cases and how, advocates contend, church leaders covered them up.

The diocese told Newsday it has done its part and that nearly two years ago it handed over thousands of pages to a trust set up for the abuse victims. The documents were then supposed to be transferred to a college or university archive and made accessible to the public. That has not happened.

The head of the trust, Alan Halperin, a Manhattan-based attorney, did not respond to multiple emails and phone messages from Newsday seeking comment. Halperin was selected as trustee by attorneys for the survivors.

Advocates say the documents need to be released now, something the Archdiocese of New York and other dioceses around the country are doing.

"Transparency delayed with no explanation is transparency denied," said Terry McKiernan, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, an online database of Catholic clergy sex abuse. "Survivors have already waited years for the bankruptcies to be settled, and some have died in the meantime. Now they're waiting for the files of their perpetrators to be released."

The documents may provide extensive new information about the sex abuse scandal that shook one of the 10 largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the nation, with 1.2 million baptized Catholics, advocates said. The release also would be significant because in the past Rockville Centre served as a model for other dioceses seeking to cover up the abuse, McKiernan said, something the church on Long Island has denied.

"It would be fabulous to have" the documents, McKiernan said. "It is kind of shocking" that some dioceses around the country are releasing the information.

2024 settlement

The December 2024 settlement came after four years of negotiations. Rockville Centre had declared bankruptcy in October 2020 as it faced hundreds of lawsuits from people who say they were sexually abused by priests when they were minors.

"Part of the Rockville Centre settlement agreement is the release of its documents," the Rev. Eric Fasano, a spokesman for the diocese, wrote in an email to Newsday. "The Diocese complied with its obligation to provide those documents to the Trust established for survivors almost two years ago."

He said the number of pages in the files could total "in the thousands, if not tens of thousands of pages."

The files could provide far more information than a landmark 2003 Suffolk County grand jury report on abuse in the diocese, McKiernan said. At a minimum, the internal papers also would include cases in Nassau County.

Many survivors have been waiting for years or decades for the confidential documents to be released, said Richard Tollner, who says he has waited for his allegations to be verified since he was abused by a priest as a high school student in the 1970s.

"Now the truth can be seen and heard," he said.

The settlement calls for the diocese and the trust to agree on the institution of higher learning at which the papers would be archived. The archive must "be made available upon request in accordance with the protocols of that institution," the settlement states.

Fasano said the diocese had not been contacted about which institution might serve as an archive, adding that he did not know why the process had been delayed.

Archiving the documents

James Stang, a Los Angeles-based attorney who represented the victims in the bankruptcy proceedings, said the settlement appeared to call for the papers to be archived at a college or university within two years of the settlement. That would mean by December.

The settlement also states "the Trust shall provide such documents relating to any perpetrator for which any claim is sustained by the Trust or a cleric that is on the Credibly Accused List, in redacted form to protect survivors and personal health information."

The prospective release on Long Island would be similar to part of an agreement reached Oct. 23 by the Archdiocese of New York in an $800 million settlement with 1,300 clergy sex abuse victims, said Jeff Anderson, one of the lead attorneys for victims in both the Long Island and New York settlements.

In the Archdiocese of New York case, the files will be archived at Iona University in New Rochelle, according to The New York Times. A spokesperson for Iona, a Catholic institution, denied that, saying, "Iona is not a party to the settlement and is not taking any documents." A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New York said the location was still being finalized, though it could be "possibly Iona University, or a similar institution." 

McKiernan said he is not sure what is causing the delay in Rockville Centre, though it could be because of difficulties finding a university library willing to take on the task. He said his group had offered to do so and already houses the nation’s largest online and brick-and-mortar collections of Catholic Church abuse scandal documents. Scholars, journalists, attorneys general and others use it, he said. The BishopAccountability.org archive is in Waltham, Massachusetts.

But the organization never heard back regarding its offer, McKiernan said.

Advocates prefer that the archives be established at neutral, non-Catholic institutions, he said, but housing the documents at a Catholic college is still better than not releasing them at all.

Long-sought documents

If made public, Rockville Centre’s files would be part of a growing trend to release long-sought internal church documents that shed light on the extent of the abuse and how the church handled it, McKiernan said.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe in New Mexico, for instance, gave its archive of clergy sex abuse files to the University of New Mexico, where it is publicly available, McKiernan said. The Archdiocese of New Orleans, as part of its bankruptcy settlement with clergy sex abuse victims, has agreed to provide its archive to Louisiana State University.

The archive in New Mexico contains previously sealed clergy personnel files, victim files, investigative files along with transcripts, depositions, clergy risk assessments and other internal church documents. It contains about 100,000 pages concerning an archdiocese that has about one-quarter the number of baptized Catholics as Rockville Centre does, McKiernan said.

The Rockville Centre files could "broaden a new transparency movement," he said.

Anderson, the victims’ attorney, said he wanted to see what files Rockville Centre provided before declaring it sufficient.

"What they are supposed to do and what they do oftentimes are two different things," Anderson told Newsday. While Rockville Centre should release large amounts of files, "I won’t believe it until I see it."

"That is part of what needed to happen," he added. "That is part of the deal that did get made."

The diocese "has complied with its obligations and has been fully transparent, having already turned over its files to the trust that represents the survivors," said Fasano, the diocese spokesman.

Using bankruptcy, "Rockville Centre was the first diocese in New York State to have resolved its abuse claims on behalf of survivors nearly two years ago and emerged from the process to continue the ministry of the Church on Long Island," Fasano said

Tollner, who was a leader of the victims during the Rockville Centre bankruptcy proceedings, said he and others may finally feel some vindication after years of fighting the church — if all the information comes out.

The documents "will allow victims to feel that the complaints and claims are verifiable and that their voices can now be heard," he said. "And the proof can now be seen."