New York's Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, the largest in the U.S., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because of financial pressure from lawsuits over past sexual abuse by clergy members.
(AP Photo/Michael R. Sisak)ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. – A Roman Catholic diocese in New York City's suburbs has become the largest in the U.S. to declare bankruptcy to protect itself from a wave of lawsuits filed over past sexual abuse by clergy members.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday.
Jeff Anderson, a lawyer representing people who say they were abused by clergy in the Rockville Centre diocese, slammed the bankruptcy filing as “strategic, cowardly and wholly self-serving."
In all, about two dozen dioceses or archdioceses in the U.S. have sought such protection in the face of lawsuits over sexual abuse since the early 2000s.