Reuters: First came the sex scandal. Then the lawsuits. Now the bankruptcies.
And some economic analysts believe this could be just the beginning of the financial fallout from widespread charges of clerical sexual abuse within the U.S. Catholic Church.
Nearly 11,000 people have accused priests of child sexual abuse from 1950 through 2002, according to a church-commissioned study released this year.
The question is how to pay for it.
"Even without the sex abuse scandal, the Catholic Church was in deep financial difficulty," said Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University who monitors church finances.
Zech said the church's money troubles include the costs of deferred maintenance on church properties, the aging of its low-cost work force of priests and nuns, and its disproportionate holdings in real estate -- often run-down urban buildings that are hard to sell.
Frank Butler, president of a group of major donors to Catholic institutions, said the problems may go deeper.
"Many of the archdioceses are very marginal operations, and the reason for that is they have a very aging infrastructure that includes the parishes and schools," Butler said
