PHILADELPHIA — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will auction off a beachfront villa in New Jersey to help close a $17 million deficit and pay off millions in legal bills.

The 11-bedroom vacation house near Atlantic City is set for auction on Sept. 15.

Villa St. Joseph takes up an entire block and is assessed at about $6.3 million. It’s been a retreat for priests for half a century, but the taxes alone are now almost $115,000 a year.

The Philadelphia archdiocese also is selling the archbishop’s private residence, a downtown office building, a former seminary and other assets to address the deficit. And Archbishop Charles Chaput has cut 45 jobs at archdiocesan headquarters.

Legal fees alone have cost the archdiocese more than $10 million in the past two fiscal years, amid a lengthy criminal trial and related civil litigation over clergy-abuse cases.

“We just can’t afford to maintain and hold assets like Villa Saint Joseph by the Sea and my residence,” Chaput said Monday.