Judge rejects effort by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson to get records from Catholic church

SEATTLE — A Washington state judge said Friday that Attorney General Bob Ferguson does not have jurisdiction to enforce a summons he is requesting decades of documents from the Archdiocese of Seattle, despite his claim that the documents are needed to investigate whether the Catholic Church used charitable funds to cover up sexual abuse by priests.

Judge Michael Scott sided with the archdiocese, which argued that Ferguson lacked the authority to enforce the subpoena under the state’s Charitable Trusts Act, which includes an exception that prevents the state from interfering with religious practices.

Nevertheless, Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said in a written statement after Friday’s decision that the church is prepared to provide the state with relevant documents and to cooperate with Ferguson in the investigation “in a lawful manner.”

“Sexual abuse in the Church is a heartbreaking part of our history, and I am deeply sorry for the pain inflicted on victims, their families, and all Catholics,” Etienne said. “We remain focused on the need for healing and good governance in these cases. … Because we are committed to preventing abuse, promoting transparency, and continually improving our processes, my offer to work with the Attorney General still stands.”

Ferguson, himself a Catholic, said his office would appeal. The state argued that the exemption in the law protects religious practices, but that using charitable money to cover up or facilitate sexual abuse is not a religious practice.

“Our fight for survivors of clergy abuse is not over,” Ferguson said in a press release. “Washingtonians deserve a full public accounting of the church’s involvement in and responsibility for the child sexual abuse crisis.”

Ferguson filed the lawsuit in May, alleging that the church was blocking the investigation by refusing to comply with the subpoena.

At the time, the archdiocese called his allegations a surprise, saying it welcomed the investigation and supported the state’s goals of “preventing abuse and helping victims on their path to healing and peace.”

Church officials said the documents requested by the state were excessive and irrelevant, including all receipts dating back to 1940, in an archdiocese with more than 170 pastoral sites and 72 schools.

Some 23 states have investigated the Catholic Church, and so far at least nine have released reports detailing their findings. In some cases, those findings went far beyond what church officials had voluntarily disclosed.

For example, the six Catholic dioceses in Illinois had publicly reported that 103 clergy and religious brothers had been credibly accused of child sexual abuse. But in a damning report last yearThe Illinois attorney general’s office said it had discovered detailed information about 451 individuals who sexually abused at least 1,997 children.

Likewise, Maryland was last year reported astonishing evidence of how widespread the abuse was: More than 150 Catholic priests and others affiliated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused more than 600 children, often escaping accountability. In 2018, a grand jury in Pennsylvania found that more than 300 Catholic clergy had abused more than 1,000 children in that state over the past 70 years.

The Archdiocese of Seattle has released a list of 83 clergy it says have been credibly accused, and it says it was among the first in the country to implement policies beginning in the 1980s to address and prevent sexual abuse by priests. Sexual abuse by church employees peaked in 1975 and there have been no reports since 2007, the archdiocese said.