The other map will show the archdiocese today, which comprises Staten Island, the Bronx, Manhattan and seven counties north of New York City -- Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, Putnam, Ulster and Sullivan.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has agreed to distribute the cases to other district attorneys who hold sway over other parts of the archdiocese's territory, which comprises Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven northern counties.
Even the Archdiocese of New York, which comprises Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven other counties, has struggled with a shortage of priests, although it has not declared a crisis or considered cutting back on Masses, said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese.
The 450 lawsuits against the archdiocese would be suspended.
The archdiocese has 293 schools; it comprises seven upstate counties and the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island.
Comprising 36percentt of the archdiocese's 2.4 million Catholics, Hispanics represent the single largest ethnic block of the archdiocese, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven counties north of the city.
"These under-enrolled schools require significant financial support from the archdiocese, which cannot be sustained indefinitely," said Timothy J. McNiff, the archdiocese's superintendent of schools.
They comprise nearly 40percentt of the archdiocese's 2.4 million Catholics.
(The league comprises 1,696 players).
