Retiring Nuns Bring Catholic Church Financial Crisis

It comes as no surprise to me that there are lots of retiring Catholic nuns, and not many young recruits. But it did surprise me to read that supporting these nuns in their retirement will cause a financial hardship that dwarfs the financial pain brought on by the sexual abuse scandal:

With tens of thousands of U.S. nuns over age 70, the Roman Catholic Church is facing a massive financial shortfall for the care of retirees in religious orders -- a gap that over the long term dwarfs costs from the clergy abuse crisis.

Though billions of dollars have been salted away, there still remains an unfunded future liability of $8.7 billion for current nuns, priests and brothers in religious orders. The financial hole is projected by a consulting firm to exceed $20 billion by 2023.

It makes me wonder about the financial health of Catholic Church. They seem like they have unending amounts of riches, but given the stories of dioceses having to sell off property to cover liability costs associated with the sexual abuse scandal, who knows.