Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese has filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of more costly lawsuits alleging priest misconduct as far back as 1950….The church, ultimately spending more than $30 million, thought it was done with such payoffs with the arrival of a 2012 state deadline for filing any related actions. But the Vermont Legislature adopted laws in 2019 and 2021 repealing the statute of limitations for submitting civil claims, leading to a new wave of cases that now number at least 16, according to lawyers.