Old Documents, Raw Wounds

Victims React To Records Unsealed By Archdiocese Of Los Angeles

(CBS/AP)  As the Archdiocese of Los Angeles scrambles to defend itself against sex abuse claims, the Barragan family remains unconvinced.

The Barragans say their family was nearly torn apart by a transferred priest who appears in secret files released Wednesday, reports CBS News correspondent Vince Gonzales.

Father Carlos Rodriguez, the family says, gained their trust from the time they first met him at a church picnic in 1987. Instead, the family says Rodriguez sexually abused Eric, Edgar and Manuel Barragan, who all served as altar boys for Rodriguez.

"Father Carlos was a very integral part of our family, so much so that he came and went as pleased. He had a key to the front door," recalls Eric Barragan, 30.

Newly released records of sex abuse claims against 126 priests (video) that are at the core of hundreds of lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles show that church officials for decades moved accused priests between counseling and new assignments.

Attorneys for 500 alleged victims and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles had previously agreed to release the information, but lawyers for accused clergy succeeded in blocking publication, arguing it would violate priests' privacy rights. An appellate court last month ordered the documents to be released after nearly three years of legal wrangling.

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Read the archdiocese report (.pdf)

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The records conform with the pattern of the abuse crisis that erupted in the American church nearly four years ago. In many cases, the church provided years of therapy to accused clergy, believing the men could be rehabilitated, then assigned them to new parishes, which often resulted in new claims against them.

Eric, Edgar and Manuel Barragan told CBS News they were all abused by Rodriguez over a four-year period. "He even took turns because we all slept in the same room," Edgar Barragan, 31, says. "He usually started off with me and moved on to my brothers."

The Los Angeles Archdiocese transferred Rodriguez to the Barragans' community after a boy from a different Los Angeles church complained to police about sexual abuse. After the Barrigan's reported Rodriguez to the police, the priest pleaded guilty in 2004 and is now in prison.

In a report released last year, Cardinal Roger Mahony said Rodriguez was "removed from ministry and sent for...psychotherapy." His new duties did "not involve minors."

Rosa Barragan, the mother of the abused boys, says otherwise. "That's a lie. That's a blatant lie," she says. "And for the Church, for Cardinal Mahony to write something as such, it is a disgrace to the community, it's a disgrace to the Catholic Church."

When her youngest son, Manuel, now 29, finally told her what had happened, Rosa Barragan went to the Church, which she says did nothing.

"I can't trust priests," she says. "They say something, but I learned it's something else."