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Roman Catholic Church Shifts Legal Strategy (washingtonpost.com) I'm not going to lay down and die just because I represent the church," said Joseph Sweeney of Halloran & Sage, a law firm in Hartford that defends the Catholic Church in Connecticut. "I attempt to be decent, but I'm not giving away the store."
The 194 Catholic dioceses in the United States, Sweeney noted, do not possess limitless resources -- some estimates put their net worth at about $15 billion. The church and its insurers have already paid out an estimated $1 billion in settlements -- obtained from the sale of assets and from special church "abuse or molestation" liability insurance coverage. And officials expect insurance premiums and settlement costs to mushroom.