Victims of child sexual abuse at the hands Baltimore Archdiocese staff have until the end of this week to file for restitution in the Church’s bankruptcy proceedings.

After the deadline, also known as a “bar date,” victims will face a much more complicated process to receive compensation from the bankruptcy payouts.

It’s estimated that more than a thousand children, if not more, could have been abused by staff since the 1940s, according to child abuse advocacy groups. The Maryland Attorney General identified more than 600 in its report on the subject, which came out last year.

The Church filed for bankruptcy last October, virtually on the eve of the Child Victims Act going into effect. That law abolished the statute of limitations for sexual abuse in Maryland and allowed alleged victims to sue the Church for up to $1.5 million.

The bankruptcy made that law moot for victims of the Church, forcing them to follow bankruptcy court rules instead of filing their own cases.

“Chapter 11 reorganization is the best path forward to compensate equitably all victim-survivors, given the Archdiocese’s limited financial resources, which would have otherwise been exhausted on litigation,” Baltimore Archbishop William Lori said in an open letter to his congregation. “Staggering legal fees and large settlements or jury awards for a few victim-survivors would have depleted our financial resources, leaving the vast majority of victim-survivors without compensation, while ending ministries that families across Maryland rely on for material and spiritual support.”

Filings show that the Archdiocese was retaining lawyers and consultants that probably advised the Church on how it should move forward with the abuse cases. The filings show the Church paid more than a quarter of a million dollars for legal advice on bankruptcy.

The filings also show the organization has more than $200 million in assets, which include a Tiffany tea set, a diamond-encrusted crucifix, a sapphire-studded locket and dozens of solid gold rings.

Victims called the bankruptcy filing another blow to survivors who have already experienced so much.

“[The bankruptcy] was a gut punch,” Theresa Lancaster, an abuse survivor and a lawyer who worked on the Child Victims Act said. “I had survivors calling me into the night, hysterical, asking what went wrong? What happened? The bankruptcy puts a halt to all the filings and that broke everybody's heart, really.”

The bankruptcy court will soon go over the Church’s finances and decide how payouts should be meted to victims.