San Francisco – The cases of two men who claim that they were sexually abused when children in northern California by a now deceased priest can proceed to trial, a federal judge ruled.
The decision on Thursday by the American bankruptcy judge Dennis Montali occurs almost two years after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco presented by bankruptcy Manage more than 500 demands that allege child sexual abuse by priests and church employees.
Montali said his decision will enter into force on June 30 to allow more time for ongoing mediation.
The two cases were days from going to trial when the Archdiocese of San Francisco requested the protections of Chapter 11 in August 2023. The Archdiocese did not immediately respond to an email on Friday of The Associated Press seeking comments.
The two men who have remained anonymous claim that the priest Joseph Pritchard abused them sexually in the 1970s when he was a shepherd in the parish of St. Martin of Tours in San José, who at that time was part of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Men are among dozens of people who say he was abused by Pritchard, a popular priest who worked in several parishes in the Bay area since the end of the 1940s until the mid -80s. He died of cancer in 1988.
“The archdiocese and the archbishop have suffocated the voices of the survivors for too long. This is a victory. These essays are very late: it is time for the voices of the survivors to be heard,” said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer who represents more than 125 survivors in the archdiocese of San Francisco, in a statement.
