Abuse Cost for Catholic Dioceses Tops $1B

The current figures are in, and it appears as if the Catholic Church has paid out over 1 billion dollars in "settlements" so far. That word "settlements" is important. Because it tends to suggest that the Catholic Church, knows the real scope of "the scandal", otherwise who in their right mind would agree to settlements that huge? And its not near over.
Several Diocese have already filed for bankruptcy, with more, perhaps many more expected to file suit. This is patently unfair. To treat each Diocese as a separate entity, when in fact they are part and parcel of a HUGE conglomerate, who may also have known about the abuse and subsequent cover up. If that is proven true in any case then the Vatican itself, and the Church as a whole should be made accountable, both criminally and civilly. They should NOT be allowed to file for bankruptcy. Its wrong, immoral and shows the church again is putting itself before the victims.
One Rev. Thomas Doyle even warned the church as far back as 1985 that payouts could eventually exceed a billion dollars. This shows that the church could have done something to curtail this looong ago. The arrogance of the stance of the church that "we'll never be sued" is about what I expect of them.. Rev. Thomas Doyle, thought enough of the victims to leave a career with the church, in order to help the victims. Now THERE is a saint! But bet the house that he's one despised priest by the majority of the Catholic Churches movers and shakers.
Lets just hope the church is forced to do the right thing. They have swept this under the rug for so long, that what they have now is a very lumpy rug! Time to look under it, and in all the closets while we're at it too