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	Cleveland Catholic Diocese's Authority to Close Churches Challenged in Lawsuit By Michael O'malley The Plain Dealer November 21, 2009 http://www.cleveland.com/religion/index.ssf/2009/11/cleveland_catholic_dioceses_au.html An Akron woman legally blocked by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese from holding a protest vigil in a closed church has sued the diocese, claiming it has no authority under Ohio law to close churches without parishioners' consent. The case, filed this week in Summit County Common Pleas Court by Nancy McGrath, who leads a newly formed Catholic protest group called Code Purple, sets up a battle between church law and civil law. It could decide whether parishioners have property rights in their parishes or whether Bishop Richard Lennon, whose name appears on parish property deeds, has sole control over all assets. "It's very well established under Ohio law that a Catholic bishop holds the property of a parish in trust for the parish," said McGrath's lawyer Robert Gippin. "We're saying he can't dispose of the trust or terminate the assets without the consent of the beneficiaries." The beneficiaries, said Gippin, are the parishioners and the parish itself. But the diocese disagrees. "Ohio courts have consistently held that members of a parish are not themselves beneficiaries of the trust and, as such, have no standing to enforce it," the diocese said in a prepared statement. "Further," the statement said, "civil courts are required to respect the decisions of the church hierarchy in religious matters, such as the closing of a parish, and are constrained from interfering with the inner workings of the church by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution." But Gippin said, "The First Amendment does not extend to these sorts of property issues." A hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 16. The battle comes as Lennon is in the process of shutting down 50 churches in the eight-county diocese by June. The bishop has said the downsizing is necessary to save money and to better utilize the limited number of priests. So far, he has closed more than a dozen churches, triggering a growing protest movement. Gippin is asking the court to declare the suit a class action. However, the diocese sees McGrath's case as "one person's attempt to hinder the required closings." McGrath responded, "I am far from alone in objecting to the bishop's plan." She was named in a restraining order obtained by the diocese last month to keep her and about a dozen protestors from taking over and occupying St. John the Baptist Church in Akron. The protestors had planned an around-the-clock sit-in after the final Mass on Oct. 31. But the protestors left after two hours when police, acting on the diocese's restraining order, threatened to arrest them. Earlier this week, lawyers for McGrath and the diocese worked out a compromise that allows protestors to remain in a church on the day of its final Mass until midnight. "We can now demonstrate and hold prayer vigils on the property," said McGrath, a parishioner at downtown Cleveland's St. Peter Catholic Church, which is scheduled to close in April. As churches close, the diocese removes artifacts, boards up doors and windows and puts the properties up for sale. Some might be torn down. McGrath and protestors believe Lennon's sweeping order last March to close so many churches is unfair because many of them, they argue, are active, financially solvent parishes, deeply rooted in their communities. "The bishop has the responsibility to act according to the will of the parishioners," said McGrath. "But he never took into account the will of the parishioners. It's his personal mandates that rule." The diocese, in its statement, countered, "Ms. McGrath is, of course, free to disagree with church law or how the church conducts its affairs, but she is not entitled to impose upon the church her own views regarding the authority of its bishops." To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: momalley@plaind.com, 216-999-4893
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