"It wasn’t easy to face the whole machine of church administration," Father said in an interview last week. "I don’t like making people hate me but some people did after that. I didn’t take it lightly that I was going to make some enemies doing that." Few have paid as high a price as Father for exposing the diocese's secrets. Technically, he remains a priest, but has been suspended since the bishop imposed sanctions on him the day before the bishop resigned in 2019. The interim bishop proposed that he leave the diocese and serve as a priest elsewhere. “I felt that was a move to just push me outside so people forget and move on," Father said. "But this is my home.”

The Holy See, also commonly referred to as the Vatican, was one of several Catholic Church defendants in the lawsuit, which alleged that it was aware of numerous sexual abuse acts, but the Chief Judge granted the Holy See's motion to dismiss citing among other things, lack of subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The order with prejudice means the Vatican can't be sued again for damages by the plaintiff.

The archive agreement states the archive will include documents "including but not limited to" clergy personnel files, other perpetrator personnel files, victim files, investigative files, investigative transcripts, depositions, clergy risk assessments, minutes of Personnel Board and Permanent Review Board meetings, assignment records, seminary records, statements given to investigators or law enforcement, and under oath proof of claim forms from the Chapter 11 case. Abuse claimants can choose to opt in on including their own "victim file" documents, proof of claim forms, interrogatory answers, or depositions in the archive.

A Democrat from Montgomery County, told lawmakers she wanted to strip out the lookback window. “I am concerned about setting our civil justice system on its head,” she said on the House floor. “When I’m 60 and I’m suing an institution for something that occurred when I was 8, do you think that institution can defend itself?”

"I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the great patience you and Father have shown in what must appear to be a very unfair set of circumstances," the archbishop wrote. "Yet, as Father has always acknowledged, he is convinced of the need for us as a Church to keep our word that the safety of children remains our priority. At the same time, we must keep our word and do everything possible to restore Father's good name."

“I have been asked over the years why our diocese does not publish a list of accused priests as do some other dioceses in the country,” the bishop said. “I am convinced a single list will not accurately reflect the various concerns and outcomes. There is no other precedent for the publishing of lists of the accused in society - even of those accused in other positions of trust such as medicine, education or law enforcement."

“Such lists can be a cause for deep division among many members of our Church who see this as publicly branding as guilty those who never have been charged by law enforcement or had a chance to defend themselves in a court of law, given the fact that many decades have passed between the alleged abuse and the reporting of that abuse, or because they were already deceased when the allegation was first received,” the bishop said.