As part of a court-ordered sexual abuse settlement, the Franciscans have released online all the depositions and personnel files relating to the molestation scandal that came to light at St. Anthony’s Seminary in the early 1990s. The documents make clear, among other things, that some of the more recent perpetrators had themselves been molested while seminary students at St. Anthony’s.
The release of these documents was insisted upon by attorney Tim Hale, who represented many of the victims in the lawsuit that eventually settled for $28 million. The Santa Barbara Independent will be reporting more fully on those documents in the future.