BOSTON -- As it struggles to cope with the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the Boston Archdiocese is facing another battle: lack of funds. A drop in Sunday collections has led the church to cut its budget by 40 percent during the fiscal year beginning July 1, according to the Boston Globe.

Regular contributions dropped following months of disclosures that Cardinal Bernard F. Law kept priests accused of sexual misconduct in active ministry, the Globe reported. Pledges to the Cardinal's Appeal, the church's largest annual fund raiser, also lag far behind last year's fund drive.

"We don't have the revenue we had last year at this time," Chancellor David W. Smith told the Globe. "But we are committed to living with the resources we have, so we will have to proceed to make further cuts."

Smith didn't specify what would be cut, but noted that several small programs, including those that benefit the urban poor, won't receive funding. Inner-city Catholic schools have been asked to cut their budgets by 15 percent, according to the Globe.

The Cardinal's Appeal has raised $4.8 million since the first weekend in May, when it was announced. More than $7.5 million was pledged at this time last year, said Ken Hokenson, the archdiocese's chief development officer.

Nearly a third of the archdiocese's 369 parishes have postponed participation in the Cardinal's Appeal until later this year as they ask parishioners to contribute to a new capital drive. Hokenson said the drop-off in pledges is due in part to that delay.

Fund-raising will continue to founder as long as it's tied to Law and his leadership, said James E. Post, a Boston University School of Management professor.

"The cardinal has honed the message that if you turn over your five bucks or your 500,000 bucks you're doing it for Cardinal Bernard Law, and for a long time that played very well," Post told the paper. "But in the current circumstances, that's a deadly fund-raising message."