Boston ? All civil cases against the Boston Archdiocese alleging sexual abuse by priests were assigned to a single judge Thursday, a move sought by lawyers on both sides.

The attorneys believe having one judge hear the cases which involve hundreds of plaintiffs will lead to more consistent rulings.

“I think it’s superb,” said Jeffrey Newman, an attorney with 48 pending lawsuits, and who was one of three lawyers who filed a motion seeking the assignment of a single judge. “To me, it’s the beginning of the end.”

Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney will hear the cases. She has been overseeing 86 lawsuits against defrocked priest John Geoghan, who is serving a 9- to 10-year sentence on a molestation conviction.

Sweeney’s ruling in the Geoghan case in November, ordering the Catholic archdiocese to release once-confidential church records, set the stage for a flurry of allegations of abuse against other priests and accusations church officials did little or nothing to prevent abuse.

Meanwhile, another judge denied a request to reduce the $300,000 bail of a retired priest charged with child rape.

A lawyer for the Rev. Paul Shanley claimed the priest was not a flight risk and was nearly broke. But a prosecutor said Shanley had lived outside Massachusetts for most of the previous decade and had few local ties. The prosecutor also cited letters by Shanley suggesting he might leave the country.

Shanley became one of the central figures in the ongoing scandal when church documents showed he had publicly advocated sexual relationships between men and boys. He is accused of raping a boy over a six-year period in the 1980s. He has pleaded innocent.

In other developments Thursday:

In Texas, a priest was charged with sexually assaulting a girl in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The priest was removed from active ministry about two months ago after the alleged victim, now in her mid-20s, told the bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo about several incidents.

In Fontana, Calif., a 72-year-old priest pleaded innocent to charges that he repeatedly fondled two sisters, now ages 13 and 17, between 1997 and 2001 in Fontana, Calif.

In Minneapolis, two men who say they were sexually abused by priests when they were students at St. John’s Preparatory School in the 1980s filed a lawsuit alleging the abbey and order that run the school should have stopped the abuse.