PORTLAND - The two Roman Catholic dioceses in Oregon are supplying details of sex-abuse accusations against priests for a national study, but say they will not be making all the information available to the public.

Bishop Robert Vasa, of the Diocese of Baker in Eastern Oregon, said he hopes the study will prove helpful.

But he voiced concern it may reopen slowly healing wounds in the church if it isn't used to fine-tune education programs for pastors and parents.

"If this helps protect children in the future then it will be valuable," he said.

"But if it is an exercise in revelation of difficult material to look at I don't necessarily think there is value in that."

The nationwide study, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, will analyze the number of accusations made across the country, the character of the cases, the court costs and settlements.

The Diocese of Baker reported that four of its priests were accused of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002 and that during the years studied, the diocese spent $23,000 on counseling and compensation.

But Vasa won't discuss the details, even though much of the information is public record.

"We recognize the harm to victims. People certainly have been hurt and that is tragic, but we also don't want to presume that every priest is guilty," Vasa said.

Many of the priests are dead and the names have been made public in lawsuits.

"But they won't come from me," Vasa said.

Vasa said there are nearly two dozen different lawsuits pending against the diocese, and it is close to settling one of those.

The Archdiocese of Portland, which has settled with about 85 plaintiffs since 2000 and currently has 30 pending lawsuits, plans to soon make public the information that it shared for the study, according to spokesman Bud Bunce.

But the diocese also will be withholding details, Bunce said.

"We are working on releasing our local data, but keep in mind that the information that we are sharing with the public won't be everything that we gave to John Jay," Bunce said.

Vasa said he hoped information from the study will help prevent abuse.

The church has worked hard to educate parents, and improve seminary training and background checks, the bishop said.

"We have to view everyone with a kind of suspicion, and that is a terrible position to be in, but hopefully we have learned from our mistakes and are much more wise and prudent," Vasa said.