BOSTON (MA)
Reuters
By Jim Finkle
BOSTON (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal has cost the Boston Archdiocese at least $151 million since it erupted in 2002, the Church said on Wednesday in a financial report.
Struggling to restore public confidence after it was exposed for moving abusive priests to new parishes instead of reporting them to authorities, the archdiocese had to close move than 60 churches to raise money and was pressured to reveal its finances.
Church leaders called the latest report the most comprehensive public financial account in the history of the Boston church and said a growing budget deficit had put its programs and ministries at risk.
The archdiocese lost $8.3 million in its fiscal year to end-June 2005 as spending rose and donations shrank. That compared with a year-earlier loss of $2.5 million.