Church files for bankruptcy, but why?

A Catholic diocese based in Wilmington, in the state of Delaware has filed for bankruptcy protection [Chapter 11] just before a civil trial involving high-profile sex abuse.

The diocese covered up, for decades, despicable crimes of sexual abuse of hundreds of Catholic children. The Church fought hard to maintain secrecy surrounding its responsibility and complicity in the sexual abuse.

The bankruptcy action is the latest desperate attempt to hide the truth from the public. However, the Wilmington diocese is not the first to adopt this tactic to save their ass: it is is the seventh diocese to seek bankruptcy protection since the abuse scandal in Boston archdiocese in 2002. It has so far paid out $6.2 million to settle sexual abuse cases and has settled with other victims who did not go to court. (This is peanuts compared with the Los Angeles archdiocese, which settled 508 cases with $660 million in July 2007.)

Source: BBC news.