Because the civil suits were settled, juries never answered the question of what responsibility the diocese had for the abuse suffered by children at the hands of priests it transferred.

But church officials maintain that the "internal affairs doctrine" applied then and applies now.

If Catholic values of forgiveness and redemption are among the considerations employed in deciding whether priests accused of sexual abuse work again -- even priests known for a certainty to have committed abuse -- juries "are not to be allowed, in retrospect, to conclude that the diocese's weighing of these factors resulted in a misguided or negligent decision," the diocese argued in its petition.

To do so would constitute government interference in "ecclesiastical policy decisions," the diocese petition maintained. To release church documents concerning such decisions to the public, it added, would undermine the diocese's "right to function as a religious institution."