Free Republic

Underlying reasons uncertainROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (ChurchMilitant.com) - Half of the dioceses in New York now have declared bankruptcy in the wake of clergy sex abuse, as Rockville Centre joins the mix. Encompassing much of Long Island and home to 1.4 million Catholics, the Rockville Centre diocese on Thursday filed for bankruptcy, becoming the fourth to do so in the state. The other three that have filed are the dioceses of Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse — leaving the New York archdiocese and the dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn and Ogdensburg. The Rockville Centre diocese intends to ask a bankruptcy court to halt...

Diocese of Rochester first to file after Child Victims ActROCHESTER, N.Y. (ChurchMilitant.com) - The diocese of Rochester, New York, where the famous preacher and writer Bp. Fulton Sheen once served as the local ordinary, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday. The Child Victims Act, which went into effect in New York Aug. 14, allowed for dozens of alleged clergy sex abuse victims to sue the diocese of Rochester, worsening the diocese's debt/asset ratio. The 32-page Chapter 11 filing shows that the diocese estimated that its liabilities outweigh its assets: * Estimated assets: between $50 million and $100 million. * Estimated liabilities:...