SALEM (AP) - Confronted with sexual-abuse lawsuits totaling several million dollars, Mount Angel Abbey is selling long-held Willamette Valley farmland and cutting into priests' salaries and retirement benefits, said Abbot Nathan Zodrow.

Zodrow is the spiritual leader of the abbey, a hilltop community of Benedictine monks 20 miles east of Salem. Insurance is expected to cover the bulk of the projected settlement costs, Zodrow said. But the century-old abbey also is making financial sacrifices.

Zodrow said that the abbey is selling a rural property purchased in 1886 and bankrolled by the Swiss religious order that founded the abbey. Zodrow said that the land formerly was leased to agricultural interests. He declined to identify the buyer or specify a sales price.