Across the U.S., 40 dioceses and religious orders have declared bankruptcy. The first was the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, in 2004. The most recent was the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, in late September 2024. The cases vary, but they have one thing in common: The day the diocese filed its petition for bankruptcy is a new benchmark — no one is allowed to file claims against the church for abuses that happened before that date, even if a given state retroactively extends the statute of limitations.
“It divides the universe, the world of time, into the pre-petition period and the post-petition period,” said Marie Reilly, a law professor at Penn State who specializes in bankruptcy law and has published extensive research on the Catholic church’s bankruptcy cases. “The petition date marks the last day on which a person could have had a claim and be subject to the bankruptcy proceeding. For people who are being injured now, the bankruptcy case is irrelevant.”