In a wide-ranging complaint that calls out the sexual misconduct of more than two dozen priests who at one time worked in the Bay Area, a Southern California man who says he was sexually abused by his parish priest decades ago has sued all Catholic bishops in California, seeking to compel church officials to release records on clergy abuse.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Thomas Emens and also naming the Archdiocese of Chicago, claims a civil conspiracy among church officials to cover up clergy assault and move offending priests to other parishes. His lawyer, Jeff Anderson, also issued a report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles detailing how dozens of accused clergy had moved to different dioceses, including in the Bay Area.

Emens said he was abused for two years starting in 1978 when he was 10 by a Monsignor Thomas Joseph Mohan, who was ordained a priest in Chicago and transferred in 1972 to St. Anthony Claret Parish in Anaheim, then in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Anderson said the goal of the so-called “nuisance” lawsuit is to force the church to reveal the names of all priests accused of child molestation — a declaration that the diocese in San Jose and San Diego recently announced they were doing on their own.

A call seeking comment Tuesday from officials at the California Catholic Conference of Bishops was not immediately returned.

Abuse victims have called for California authorities to undertake an investigation like the one in Pennsylvania, where an August report documented decades of abuse and coverup at multiple dioceses involving hundreds of victims and clergy.

Melanie Sakoda, a board member of the abuse victim advocate group SNAP, said the Emens lawsuit is part of a sustained effort that is pulling back the curtain to reveal the hidden extent of sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic church.

“We haven’t seen the full extent what’s gone on in Northern California,” Sakoda said. “Many of these names are only now being linked to both Northern California and to abuse. Victims and family members and practicing Catholics should all be interested in learning who is on this list.”

After 2003, when the California legislature opened a one-year window for victims of past child sexual abuse years earlier to file civil claims, a number of dioceses acknowledged numbers and sometimes names of accused clergy. Some 500 claims were brought against 220 priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, leading to $660 million dollars in settlements.

The lawsuit said the Los Angeles Archdiocese publicly admitted that it knew of 244 priests who worked there and were accused of sexually molesting children, and released a list of 211 named clerics. But it said the archdiocese later trimmed its posted list to 122 clerics named as abusers in a prior lawsuit, and accused the archdiocese of concealing information about names and information of accused priests not on the lists.

The suit said the Oakland Diocese, while admitting in 2004 that it knew of 29 priests who worked in the diocese since 1950 were accused of sexual misconduct, “has never publicly released those names.”

The Oakland Diocese had no immediate comment Tuesday.

The lawsuit said the San Jose diocese in 2004 admitted that it knew of six priests who

worked in the diocese since 1981 who were accused of sexually abusing children, but “has never publicly released those names.” It acknowledged that last month, the San Jose Diocese publicly stated that it would release names of priests accused of abusing minors and hired a former FBI official to examine its response to reports of abuse.

In response Tuesday, the San Jose diocese repeated that pledge in a statement that it plans to release a detailed list of the names and the status “of every priest who has already been found to be credibly accused of abusing minors within the Diocese of San Jose by mid-October.” The diocese added that its internal investigation on how the diocese handled abuse complaints will begin next month and that the bishop will release the results publicly when it is completed.

Among the accused clergy identified in the law firm’s report, which was based on published reports from dioceses and lawsuits, and linked to the Bay Area:

The Rev. Christopher Berbena, who was accused in a lawsuit of molesting a child in Santa Barbara in 1980, then moved between parishes in Oakland, Pinole and Walnut Creek from 1992 to 2007. The report said his current status is unknown.

The Rev. Michael D. Buckley, whose priestly faculties were revoked in 1994 after multiple reports of child sexual abuse in Los Angeles and who a year later was believed to be residing in San Jose at a Carmelite Monastery. The report said his current status is unknown.

The Rev. Bernard Connelly, who was accused of child sexual abuse in Santa Barbara in the late 1980s. He worked in Oakland in 1978 and San Juan Bautista in 1993, and died in 1999.

The Rev. Bernard Dabbene, who was removed from ministry in 2000 after being accused in San Francisco of child sexual abuse. He had worked at a Salesian Community in Berkeley in 1985 and died in 2010.

The Rev. Arthur A. Falvey, who was accused in a lawsuit of abusing a boy in 1954 and worked at the University of Santa Clara in the early 1960s. He died in 1966.

The Rev. Jerold W. Lindner, who was sent to live at Jesuit retreat centers in the Diocese of San Jose from about 1998 until at least 2012 following multiple accusations of sexual abuse in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 2010, one of his alleged victims assaulted him. The report said his current status is unknown.

The Rev. Mark O’Leary, who was accused of multiple child sexual abuse in Los Angeles in the late 1970s and who has worked in the Oakland area since the early 1990s. The report said his current status is unknown.

The Rev. Thomas E. O’Rourke, who was accused of abusing a child in Los Angeles in 1968 and spent the next two years at Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos. He died in 1993.

The Rev. Joseph Prochnow, who was accused in a 2008 lawsuit of child sex abuse in Santa Barbara in the 1970s and 1980s. He worked in Oakland in 1990 and 1991, and held retreats in Danville from 2008 to 2016, the report said, adding his status is unknown.

The Rev. Stephen Speciale, who was accused of child sexual abuse in Santa Barbara in the mid-1980s before moving to San Jose where he was associated with Bellarmine College Preparatory school. The report said his status since the 1990s is unknown.

The Rev. Thomas J. Sullivan, who was accused of child sexual abuse in Los Angeles in the late 1950s and was associated with the University of Santa Clara in the early 1960s. He died in 1992.

The Rev. Pedro Vasquez, who was accused of child sexual abuse in Santa Barbara in a 2008 lawsuit and worked in Oakland and San Jose in the 1990s, and was last linked to a Franciscan order in Oakland. The report said his status is unknown.

The Rev. Gerald Wertz, who was accused in a 2011 lawsuit of child sexual abuse in southern California in the early 1990s and later worked at Salesian organizations in Berkeley and Richmond. The report said his present status is unknown.

The Rev. Carleton Whitten, who was accused in 2007 of molesting a boy in Washington. The report said he was moved from his residence at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose to the Jesuit Center in Los Gatos while the allegation was investigated. The report said his current status is unknown.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.