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	Ex-parish Members Seek Help from Court to Oust Toledo Bishop As Trustee By David Yonke Toledo Blade October 8, 2008 http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/NEWS02/810080434 LIMA, Ohio - A group of ex-parishioners from a closed Catholic church in rural Kansas, Ohio, yesterday asked an appeals court to remove Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair as trustee of the former church's property and finances. The ex-members argued that the bishop failed to act in their best interests. Nicholas Pittner, representing the St. James Parish ex-members, and an outside expert both said the Ohio 3rd District Court of Appeals case could set precedent if it restricts Catholic bishops' ability to sell property and transfer funds of parishes - closed or otherwise - in Ohio and possibly nationwide. "If the parishioners win, the bishops will be trembling in their pants," said Stephen Brady, president of Roman Catholic Faithful, an activist lay group based in Petersburg, Ill. "But I think the parishioners have a tough row to hoe." Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, and Sally Oberski, communications director for the Toledo diocese, both said that to their knowledge, it is the only lawsuit of its kind. Mr. Pittner, of the Columbus firm of Bricker & Eckler, told the appellate court during oral arguments yesterday that the St. James situation was not the typical court case of a disaffected faction seeking ownership of church property after a schism. "In this case, the church left the plaintiffs; the plaintiffs did not leave the church," he said. About 15 ex-parishioners of St. James attended the hearing. Thomas Pletz, of Toledo's Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick law firm, represented the diocese, which has 301,000 members in 19 northwest Ohio counties. Arguments on both sides centered on Bishop Blair's role as the trustee of parish property. "It has nothing to do with the restoration of Kansas St. James as a parish in the Roman Catholic Church. That issue is over and done with," Mr. Pittner said. He acknowledged the Vatican upheld Bishop Blair's decision to close the parish. "We don't ask the court to tread into religious matters of that nature." At issue are the rights of ex-parishioners as beneficiaries of a trust under Ohio civil law, Mr. Pittner said. "Property made to a bishop of the Catholic Church is made in trust for the benefit of the parish or congregation." Presiding Judge Stephen Shaw and Judge John Willamowski tossed numerous questions at Mr. Pittner and Mr. Pletz. The third judge was Judge Richard Rogers. The ex-members appealed after losing in Allen County Common Pleas Court earlier this year. Mr. Pletz argued that civil and church law "are not mutually exclusive" and that their combination gives the bishop the right to make administrative decisions for the good of the diocese. "[The] rural fashion of living, and traveling with horse and buggy has changed and you may not be able to maintain small, family, rural, greatly beloved churches in many highways and byways," he said. "I do not believe there is any vested perpetual right to be entitled to have your church - and really what they want to keep is their church - forever in their place and bind the hands of the trustee inexorably forever to maintain that church," Mr. Pletz said. Mr. Pittner argued that trusteeship of church property is a matter of civil law alone, and Canon Law does not apply because it is not an internal religious issue. Mr. Pittner said the plaintiffs hope to have the bishop replaced with "a trustee who will abide by the interests of the congregation and allow them to worship in their building." The court would name the trustee, he said, but the preference would be for someone linked with the former parish or a nonprofit corporation formed by ex-members, called the Kansas St. James Parish of Ohio Inc. One of them, Ginny Hull, said afterward the ex-parishioners have spent "well over $100,000" on legal fees, but have not decided what they would do if they win. "We'll deal with that when we come to it." St. James, the only Catholic church in Kansas, about 40 miles southeast of Toledo, was founded in 1889 and had about 215 members when Bishop Blair closed it as part of a diocesewide realignment 2005. The ex-parishioners meet every Sunday for prayer at a Methodist church in Kansas - the village's only other church - and celebrate Mass once a month with a priest from the Polish National Catholic Church in Detroit. Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.
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