BATON ROUGE - In a letter read in all Baton Rouge Catholic parish masses today, Bishop Michael Duca said the church has hired a legal firm to fully investigate all personnel files that could shed more light on diocesan abuses in recent decades.

"This week an independent review was begun of all the personnel files of the priests and deacons who have served in our diocese since we were created out of the Archdiocese of New Orleans over a half century ago. The outside law firm of Hebert, Spencer & Fry, L.L.P. has been engaged to do the work, and it has hired the highly-respected accounting and consulting firm of Postlethwaite & Netterville, APLC to assist in performing this independent review," the letter said in part.

In September, Duca vowed transparency in a phone conversation with WBRZ related to allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge and a plan to make records public. Recently, it was revealed that several priests named in a list of New Orleans clergy with "credible" claims of abuse against them had previous assignments in the Baton Rouge area.

To read the full letter, click here.