SAN DIEGO -- A protest is planned for Monday morning outside a downtown church following the release of 10,000 documents that include the personnel files of dozens of priests associated with the San Diego Diocese. The priests were either convicted of sex abuse, had credible threats made against them, or were named in civil suits.

In 2007, 144 local victims of church abuse received $198.1 million in a settlement. Since then, attorneys have fought with the diocese to release the information.

Friday, retired Superior Court Judge William Pate signed an order releasing the records. Victims called it a victory, but said it should not have taken this long.

“Justice is starting to come forward,” said Paul Livingston, who was abused when he was a child in Orange County and who now serves as director of the San Diego chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. “These documents should have been released before the money was handed out and not let three years of the possibility of catching another abuser slip by.”

Attorney Irwin Zalkin said, “This is an historic moment for the victims that were associated with the diocese in that finally some of the information which has been kept secret will be disclosed.”

Attorneys are still fighting the diocese to release roughly 2,000 more documents.

Monday morning at 10:15, victims’ advocates plan to protest outside St. Joseph’s Cathedral, located at 1535 Third Avenue. Organizers said they plan to blast San Diego Bishop Robert Brom for delaying the disclosure of the remaining records.

When the settlement was announced, San Diego Diocese Bishop Robert Brom issued a statement again apologizing to abuse victims.

"I am very, very sorry for the suffering we have caused them, and I pray that they will walk with God for a renewed life," he said.

He also asked parishioners to donate more to the church to help cover the payout.

Members of SNAP said they’ll push the bishop to personally visit each parish where pedophile priests worked to encourage more victims and witnesses to come forward. The group said at least one priest, Father Gustavo Benson is still active at a parish in Ensenada, roughly 80 miles south of San Diego, despite having pleaded no contest to molesting two boys in San Bernardino.

The organization plans to challenge the bishop to write Pope Benedict and Benson’s Mexican bishop to get the cleric defrocked.

The document dump includes multiple files on 48 priests.

According to the Zalkin Law Firm, the previously sealed personnel documents of accused priests show that church leaders knew about clergy sex abuse long before they previously said they did, and even with the information, continued to assign accused priests to local churches.

"These documents show how it happened," attorney Anthony De Marco, who represented victims, told the Los Angeles Times. "They help give insight into how such travesty can occur on such a large scale ... placing the institution above protecting children ... I think to ever remedy a problem, you have to understand it."

One document shows that the Rev. Anthony Rodrigue was appointed associate pastor of St. George Church in Ontario by Bishop Leo T. Maher in 1977, a year after he fell under suspicion.

Thirty complaints of sexual abuse were lodged against Rodrigue.

The documents include letters between church officials, photographs and official documents regarding sexual abuse policy.

The San Diego Diocese covers San Diego and Imperial counties. It has 99 parishes, 274 priests and about 1 million congregants.

The documents can be viewed at Bishop-Accountability.org