"I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility," Gomez said.

Clohessy called the resignation "less noteworthy."

"Eight to 12 bishops around the world have resigned because of these cases," Clohessy said.

On Friday, SNAP leaders and supporters who said they were victimized as children by priests called upon federal and local prosecutors to investigate the sexual abuse allegations in the church files.

The activists also called upon silent victims to come forward and disclose additional sexual offenses. At a press conference outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angeles, the activists called Thursday's release of church files "incomplete."

Manuel Vega of Oxnard, California, said a priest abused him from age 10 to 15. On Friday, he called for a congressional hearing. He accused the church of withholding documents, especially with the priest who abused him and priests who abused his friends.

"We've had congressional hearings for doping," Vega told reporters. "But where's our congressional hearing? This has not only impacted L.A. but it's impacted the entire United States and throughout the world."

Jim Robertson of Los Angeles said he found no files relating to the priest who abused him. He described the church hierarchy as "corporate officers of a corporation."

"So far this is nonsense. These people have spent millions and millions of the faithful's dollars to protect themselves," Robertson told reporters. "These people behaved horrifically, absolutely horrifically."

The released files include letters by underage male victims accusing priests of sexually abusing them.

In one letter, a clergyman is described as "a very charismatic and much loved priest in the Hispanic community and people would never suspect of any wrongdoing," a victim wrote.

But when the victim was 17 years old in 1983, the priest took the youngster to a mountain retreat near Big Bear Lake in California, and when they took a break by a stream, the priest "gave me a hug and kissed me as if I were a woman," the victim wrote.

Later, at the cabin, "as I stood looking at the pictures on the walls, he reached out and fondled me," the victim wrote in a letter to a church official.

The priest also "forced me to have sex" in a church rectory, a hotel and in a mobile home near Tijuana, Mexico, that someone loaned the priest, the victim wrote.

"While I felt forgiven by God, I still feel dirty," the victim wrote.

In the file of another priest -- the one whom Vega identified as his abuser -- the contents were largely newspaper clippings about the priest being accused of child molestation. The priest was in charge of the altar boy program at an Oxnard church.

At the end of the last page of the priest's file is a handwritten note stating: "Ventura DA (district attorney) *3/27/03 -- Charged w/ felony 25 counts of child molestation of 8 youths in late 70's-early 80's."

The archdiocese published the names of accused clergy in a 2004 report, but the release of Thursday's documents will allow the public to trace how the church handled the allegations. It may bring to light some cases in which accusations were kept under wraps and the accused were kept out of the sight of the law or accusers.

The documents were evidence in 508 civil cases by sex abuse victims that were settled in one stroke in 2007. Victims received $660 million in the landmark judgment.

Most of the documents were inner-church correspondences about accused clergy. The archdiocese fought to purge the names of the accused from the papers until Thursday, when Judge Emilie Elias ruled that they be made public by February 22.

The church published them shortly after the ruling. There are 124 personnel files in total, 82 of which reveal sex abuse allegations against minors.

The release "concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our Local Church," the archdiocese said.

It warned that although the names of the abused have been deleted, some may recognize their cases.

"We understand this experience may be a difficult one," it said.