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	Judge Rejects Parishioners' Lawsuit against Archdiocese Sit-In Is Continuing at Closing Church By Bruce Nolan The Times-Picayune October 29, 2008 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1225257708194470.xml&coll=1 A state court judge on Tuesday threw out a civil lawsuit by parishioners of Our Lady of Good Counsel aimed at keeping their parish open. Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese said four parishioners who brought the suit were not members of the legal corporation that constitutes the church parish, and thus had no standing to sue. The suit was filed in response to an Archdiocese of New Orleans consolidation plan. The corporation members include the archbishop, his vicar general, the pastor of Good Counsel and two lay members of the parish. The lay seats apparently have been vacant for years. The lawsuit was one of several actions parishioners are taking in an attempt to keep Good Counsel and a nearby parish, St. Henry, open. Meanwhile, parishioners continued to spend 24-hour shifts sitting behind locked doors in the churches. Reese told parishioners he was formerly a member of St. Frances Cabrini parish, a storm-damaged parish that earlier this year was merged with another. He sympathized with plaintiffs in their post-Katrina turmoil, but said his court offered no remedy. Civil Sheriff Paul Valteau, a Good Counsel parishioner, sat through the hearing as an interested spectator. He said the effect of Reese's ruling is "that we are not members of the organization that owns and operates the parish. "That seems to put us in a strange and precarious position," he said. "What are we?" . . . . . . . Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.
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