$600 Million ... Is that just water off a duck's back for the Roman Catholic Church?

They've been collecting property and funds for how many centuries? Do you think a more proper punishment would have been in the billions?
600 million is never just water off of anyone's back. I'm a Christian and I was hearing about a common practice of moving pedophile priest around to cover their tracks more than 15 years ago. If you don't clean house sooner or later people are going to find out where you're sweeping it under the rug. A bigger hit for the Catholic Church is the tremendous black eye it's received from this fiasco. If they had removed and exposed these problem priest right off there would have been no repercussions from this.
Yes - but you forget that the Catholic Church is ALL about money and hates to lose it.

Hmmm - I get thumbs down, but yet the diocese closes churches that they see aren't 'profitable'. This happened in Detroit in the 80's and many elderly couldn't make it to what was their neighborhood church and were not able to go to church anymore. They tried 'consolidating' their congregation to save money vs doing what's right for the worshipers. Church is NOT about profit.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1...

See below for a similar article about NY

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/nyregi...
You BET YA! when my grandsons were ALter boys--- WE TOLD them to TELL US IF any thing were to happen! NEVER DID! and we feel LUCKY! Jodiblon- In ALABAMA
the church is not all about money
It is a myth that the Roman Catholic church is super wealthy. Most of the various Churches are self supporting. Certainly, some are better off than others, but the idea of super wealth is just false. I suspect that to raise the funds to pay this huge settlement, the local church will sell off several chunks of property and borrow the rest.
It is sad that such a travesty should ever happen in the first place. It has and will continue to undermine the effectivness of the Catholic Church. If people lose faith in the church, their faith in the word of the church shall also suffer. If so, is not God the real loser?
They have been taking money since the beginning of religion, infintismal amount of money to them. I'll tell you what ruined the Catholic religion for me other than their cheesy pagan rituals and making others jump through hoops to partake in their communion, was when a Hurricane destroyed our community and our church in 1969, we had to borrow money from the Diocese to rebuild our church, and every week there was an extra collection to pay the 'building fund'. Screw them and the Pope, what makes him any better than any other human? Nothing, They ought to get a parish awarded to them and keep all of the money for the rest of time for all I care, the molesting bastards.
Chump change!

They should all be in jail!


Answer:
They could eat losses in the billions. The church is rich beyond measure. the LA diocese will cover most of the settlement by selling FIFTY-ONE unused properties in the city. And that's not all they've got in LA.

The Hitler youth pope could empty one wing of the Vatican and cover the settlement and then some.

EDIT:

He WAS a member of the Hitler Youth. Suck it up.
Money doesn't do justice. They should get all those who are guilty and lock them up in prison for the remainder of their natural lives and let God judge them.

Go after the individuals; not the organization.

Atavacron:
'Hitler youth pope'? You must be really stupid, or too lazy to research truth.

Old man:
What the hell is wrong with you people? 'cheesy pagan rituals'...you must have been the dumbest Catholic. You don't even know the teachings of the church. As for borrowing money, the church has to borrow money as well. Do you think they pull it out of thin air? To speak badly about the Pope because you are ignorant, or stupid, is absurd.
Add $6 million more so its like contribution to the Devil.
no they doing for a good cause ...
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is an independent financial intety from the Church in Rome. Think of it as a franchise.
Lest you forget, every dollar that the 'Catholic Church' receives is from donations given by the members and other supporters of the Catholic church.

So your gloating is a little shortsighted. The punishments should be against those who participated in the crimes and the cover ups, not against the whole church.

BTW I am not a Catholic.
Be serious. 600 million is never 'water off a duck's back.' Regardless of overall wealth.
Actually, it was $660 million (40% to the lawyers).

It was a huge hit on the church. Anyone who thinks the church is rich doesn't pay attention.