Court rules it must open files

The court said the church must follow the same rules as secular organizations and hand over personnel files, transfer records for church assignments and the results of internal church investigations to a trial judge to decide whether any of the information falls under legal privilege and can be kept out of court.

The Rockford Diocese refused to hand over those documents to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office in the case of former Geneva priest Mark Campobello, who is scheduled to head to prison Friday. Diocesan attorneys contended that church law required information generated by the church’s misconduct investigations remain confidential in order to encourage others to come forward.

The court concluded that church law did not supersede criminal investigations.

“Merely because Canon 489 is controlling the internal operation of the affairs of the church does not mean that it permits evidence pertaining to sexual molestation of children by priests to be secreted and shielded from discovery that is otherwise proper,” Justice Jack O’Malley wrote in the opinion.