New Mexico's largest Catholic diocese has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent months on lawyers to fight claims of clergy sex abuse and to prepare for a potentially lengthy battle in bankruptcy court, the Associated Press reported. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe's petition for reorganization provides a rare look into the finances of a religious organization that for decades has been wrestling with the financial and social consequences of a scandal that rocked churches across the country. National watchdog groups and attorneys for victims point to the money spent by the archdiocese on lawyers over the last three months and the tens of millions of dollars in real estate that has been transferred to parishes in recent years, effectively reducing the amount of assets held by the archdiocese. About 20 dioceses and other religious orders around the U.S. have filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of clergy sex abuse claims, and victims' advocates say that there are trends, including the shifting of assets to other funds or parishes, a tactic that has been used in dioceses in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Southern California.
