FRANKFORT — The Lexington Roman Catholic Diocese was in court to prevent disclosure of what it claims to be scandalous and irrelevant material in a lawsuit alleging it — and the Diocese of Covington — knew about sexual misconduct by priests.

        The hearing Tuesday turned into a forum for discussing judicial authority, the right of the press to publish and what constitutes news.

        The state supreme court justices made no decision on the request by the church to keep the materials secret or by the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Courier-Journal of Louisville to release the materials for public review. There is no schedule for a ruling and decisions often take weeks or months.

        The lawsuit was filed in Lexington on behalf of five people who claim they were sexually abused as children by priests in the Lexington Diocese or its predecessor, the Covington diocese.

        The suit alleges that church officials engaged in a pattern of covering up or failing to deal with the allegations of sexual misconduct. To support that claim, the suit includes allegations of other sexual activity by priests, including several Lexington clergy and one former priest from Northern Kentucky.

        Fayette County Circuit Judge Mary Noble ruled in July that those allegations were not relevant to the case but ordered the entire case unsealed and open to the public.

        “We were getting relief on one hand and jammed on the next,” diocese attorney John Famularo told the Supreme Court.

        Mr. Famularo said disclosure of the allegations would make it difficult to get a fair trial in the case and invaded the privacy of the people involved.

        Justice William Cooper wondered why the diocese had legal standing to assert the privacy interests of priests, who are not parties to the suit. Mr. Famularo said the priests were “agents” of the diocese.

        Justices saved their most pointed questions and comments for lawyers representing the newspapers, especially the Courier-Journal, which published some of the allegations it said were contained in the filings.

        “Did you have an obligation to the court to abide by the rules?” Justice Donald Wintersheimer asked attorney Jon Fleischaker.

        Mr. Fleischaker said the order to seal the materials did not extend to a prohibition on publication.

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